strange policy from the recordshops

I discovered some strange facts about recordshops since i'm having my own label.

Regardless how good a record sells,
they all just order one time.
And if some recordshops have a backstock,
they send it back to the distributor...

Meaning; people have less chance to check out new tunes.

There's also a little politics going on.
If you're a new label, the shops won't buy that much from you.
Say an avarage of 3, 4 till 5 records for each shop...
If you're good friends with some shop, they would
buy 10 pieces if they want to.
But there would be no such thing as a re-order.
Motivation: There are many releases coming out each week...
Regardless a chence that many people still want to check out the tunes.


My opinion about this is a little bit neutral.
On the one hand i find this somewhat disturbing, especially for the small labels.
On the other hand people will realise that it's a one time chance to buy the tune because of it's exclusivity.

What you guys think about this?

that sound like a bad policy.

if they get a new tune in and they sell 5 copys in a day, why wouldnt they order more straight away, sell em , get more, until they stop sellin, then return the unsold back to the distributer/label........

yep... preatty damn nasty if u ask me... then I wounder why the on-line sales keep rising!! Back-stock-a-rama ;)

Z

at the detroit-area techno, house and hip-hop store i was once a part of (now sadly departed) we just couldn't afford to keep restocking records. i somehow managed to take the store from losing $300 a week to making a scant $50 in profit each week. and that was no mean feat...it came from tailoring each vinyl order to the specific needs of the individual customers, NOT ordering more than 2 copies of something unknown, and the restocking the next week if things looked promising. we had no other choice, and even that, eventually, was not enough.

when i was in london last month i was struck by how almost all the stores i went into had that same look of desperation we had...small orders, lots of 2nd rate records passed off as "new" in order to generate some cash to use in new orders, etc.

the structure of this biz is not conducive to shopkeeing, i think. it would be really sad if most of the shops went under and were replaced by the mail order system...but i have a hard time thinking that this isn't already in the process of happening...

I see were U'r comin m8, but what happen 2 the shop that scouted 4 new and fresh stuff, that bought stuff that wasn't foder!?

I luved shops cause they really tryed 2 have "undiscoverd" stuff, shop owners were all music nutters and were eager 4 quality stuff, if it was an a unknow label or producer that the better and sweeter... now it's all .. keep away from anything that doesn't sound like something u've heard b4 or that has the fingers of the usual suspects...


I do 80% online shopping the rest is stuff I already know I want and order from friends abroad!

Z

i think policies can be different in each shop, and i've worked both behind the counter (of birminghams only real underground shop) and selling to the people behind the counter.

it just depends on the individual and their customer base. eg if i had a new techno release a normal shop might take 1 or 2 and never restock, wheras people like paul from inner city would take 25. clear difference!!!

Yeah, but some of this is also down to the distributor and whether or not they offer the same release the following week(s) as a restock, this is not always common practice with some distributors.. also, some people I've spoken to in distribution companies have quite frankly, not had a clue what was in stock or whose records they were selling i.e. they have no idea what they are selling, who the artists are etc. It takes savvy on both sides like:

a) the shop buyer knowing what he is looking for and stocking up again off his own bat.
b) the distributor looking after their labels beyond the first week or two of the release.

There is of course the problem of lots of releases coming out each week, many of them standard fodder, unless a record is v.good or an outstanding seller the buyer can generally just pick the new week's titles in place of stuff they could restock on.. it's much of a muchness with average records and the newest of the new is the way record shops tend to go for if given the chance. This again raises the question of distributors having too many labels, not enough quality control and artists who are flooding the market with the same loop week in week out.

That's a weird policy. I don't know how many shops out there work like that, but over at Vital Vinyl we don't operate like that at all. Even before I took over the ordering they were often ordering a decent amount of records from smaller labels. The only time we restock records is when they're quite big (ie DK8), or when they sell really well for some reason. Sometimes the ordering doesn't work out in our favor but we don't send it back to the distributor, we get stuck with the stock.

I missed a week of ordering and the owner did it instead, he ordered the new Leo Laker on Tresor (like 12 copies) and I think we have sold one. It's just one of those times you have to bite the bullet and move on. I think if you're at a record shop using those policies you really need better people to do your ordering. I think what is even worse for smaller record labels is the fact that distributors do such a shitty job. I try to order a lot of stuff from smaller or emerging labels but it never comes through on the sheets.

Speaking of which, I've started a special at the shop. Just a quick plug...Anyone who heads over to www.vitalvinyl.com and orders some stuff, if you put in "Abiotic" without the quotes in the promotional code box I'll see to it that you get a 15% discount. This is good through the end of May. (end plug ;) )

i didn't know you work there...i go every time i'm in MN, which admittedly hasn't been for a couple years...i love that store.

...and ain't that the reason why you grab them while they are hot!

One of my friends who works in a recordshop explained me the system.

Quote:

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We only do re-orders if there is need for the record. If there are any records left they go back to the distributor. Better give it back in 2 months than keeping it 6 months... Or else the distribution doesn't have a chance to sell it to others because the record is dated.

You see when the shop has a right to send back records, you will encourage us to order more records, because the risk is lower till none. If all the records are sold, the distribution can only be glad that it did so.

The backstock in the shop is all stuff that we cannot send back. Or that we just buyed from known labels like Drumcode or Green Velvet for example.

---

Well this explanation sounded plausible to me.

Yeah, I think that`s not a fair representation of how record shops work.
It varies from shop to shop.
If record shops didn`t re-order, then we wouldn`t keep needing to repress BB records.
And as for quantities bought. some shops will take a risk, others won`t, but essentially these places have rent to pay, and will obviously buy more of a record that they think is going to sell.

...and you wouldn't hear:
"We keep on asking for it but it just doesn't come through in our order"
"We've finally got this back in stock"

From what I can gather all the tunes I want and can not get are purely down to distributors not sorting their shit out and labels not re-pressing. When a shop asks week in week out for a track and it doesn't comes in whose else fault would it be?

I'd be a bit on the outside here, not having my own shop and such. I always thought a record shop was a licence to print vinyl flavoured money.

Seems I was very wrong, well done to you all! There also seems a trend that tailoring to individual customers is the way to go about it in techno, nice to know we're being looked after!

Keep up the good work!

Can only speak for our shop, but we always try to re-order if there's demand for a release, and always try to support small labels as well as big. At the end of the day tho its increasingly difficult to get stock on sale-or-return basis from a lot of distributors, which means its impossible to always carry a big stock of everything 'just incase'. Wish I could! As it is tho I'd rather offer my customers 10 different titles (of which I only have a few of each, but can back order if theres demand) rather than loads of stock on 2 or 3 tunes. However we do try to keep stocked up on the stuff that still has sales potential, as well as a good selection of back cat where I can.

Cheers, Graeme