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...