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Re: “Record Store Day: The holiday edition”
Firstly, I'm confused because I was under the impression that Mr. Grooms worked for Creative Loafing, but I guess he is freelance now even though he still writes for them regularly. I do not pay for any promotion from Creative Loafing and wasn't even aware of this particular post until today. I think it's very clear that Mr. Grooms knows we do not pay for these short blurbs on CL's music blog and is just trying to be a smartass.
I cannot recall the last time Mr. Grooms set foot in Lunchbox and I am pretty sure when he did it was to sell promo CDs he got for free while being the music writer at CL. Perhaps he is mad that we did not buy something that even he did not want, and as is usually the case with writer-sourced promos - did not even open to listen to. I cannot buy something unless I'm pretty sure it will sell. Perhaps he wanted a CD we did not stock. I will gladly order anything anyone wants, but we can only stock so many releases in a 1000 sq. ft. store. If something is only going to sell one copy a year or even less, then I would rather use that space for things I think or know will sell better. And in considering what we stock, I have to look to my regular customers - the ones that come in weekly - and stock what they tell me they want. I cannot stock titles based on the needs of people who come in once a year or say, 3 times in seven years. By the way, we do have the new Dave Matthews Band on vinyl. We had the CD as well but it did not sell well or at all so it was returned.
As for Record Store Day, it is a promotion created by independently owned record stores to help promote independent record stores. It was created in cooperation with many record labels who also gladly provide support for it and everyone is happy. There is no "secret handshake", there is an application to become a participating store right on their site, which is 1000% times more transparent than trying to open accounts with major labels. The promotions are not that different than those created by big box stores like FYE, Target, Best Buy, or even Papa John's (need a Taylor Swift CD with your pizza?) such as the recent Avett Brothers album where Target had an exclusive version with extra songs. The main difference is that these promotions help hundreds of small stores vs. one giant corporation. The reason why the other big music store in Charlotte cannot participate is because they are owned by Transworld, the parent company of FYE and a publicly traded company.
I am sorry that John had a bad experience in my store. Without details other than the accusation of being "hipper than thou" I really don't know how to remedy his problem. We try our best to make people happy but also realize that you cannot make everyone happy no matter how hard you try. I stock tons of stuff I do not care for but my customers do. We try our best to get in things that other stores don't and support smaller bands and labels. I'd much rather push something I believe in than an overpriced major label title I only make $2 on anyway. I worked for the first 6 years almost every single day with less than 10-20 days off a year to support what I believe in and try to keep my prices low and support the Charlotte music scene. I don't judge what people buy because I would rather people be happy listening to music of any kind than live a life without it. Some of my favorite bands I cannot even give away their records. However, if someone asks me my personal opinion about something or why I don't stock it I give them an honest answer because that's what I would want. If these things are "hipper than thou" then so be it.
