Fopped Off

Once upon a time, Bristol, like many other towns, had a number of small, independent record shops. The good folk who worked in those shops knew their stuff, probably knew your stuff too, would comment on your purchases and recommend their top new releases that you really should be listening to, stock extra supplies of locally gigging artists and stick hand-written reviews on CD covers, that sort of thing. They had carpet stuck together with gaffer tape and wrote lists on boards with dry markers. They sometimes even sold our second hand CDs. Familiar old friends were these little shops.

One sunny day, New, Handsome Record Shop came strolling into town and, wearing the badge of independence and putting turntables on its downstairs counter, seduced the local crowd. With its lollipop motif ('suck it and see') and super-bargain stocks, the smaller shops found they couldn't compete and without a warehouse of cheap tat to pimp in customers they all went out of business.

Handsome record shop loved being flavour of the month, though flavour got the better of it as its eyes turned out to be bigger than its tummy. Somehow it thought that buying an extra helping of record store pudding it would get the wings it needed to topple the Big Guys off their perch. Instead, it ate so much record store pudding it couldn't get off the ground and went extinct.

Now all we have are the Big Guys.


How to avoid this happening again:

1. Shop local and actually discover the name of the person behind the counter, who has been there for years and is training up their son/daughter to take over the business. They know where you live. Mr Tesco doesn't (unless you have a loyalty card).

2. Don't use loyalty cards - insist that shops sell things at the price they can afford in the first place rather than making false reimbursement at the checkout. And anyway, credit you get on a loyalty card should really be going to the farmers growing things organically (for example) so if you do use a loyalty card don't complain organic produce costs so much.

3. Don't be seduced into thinking that just because something's cheap it's worth having. Quantity never did equal quality.

4. Seek out the shops where carpet is held together with gaffer tape, because surely they've seen some local action and that counts for a lot. What they have to offer is integrity, and they don't need polished marble flooring to convince you.

and finally,

5. Remember that when New Handsome can't be bothered no more you're the only one that loses.


As you can tell, I'm quite annoyed about bloody Fopp being so stupid and greedy and putting themselves and everyone else in the area out of business. I no longer have a cute local to browse for today's soundtrack. This is just wrong.

And yes, I did doctor that picture. Grrr.


{Today's soundtrack: Nina Simone - Little Girl Blue}