One of the (many) conundrums facing any record shop owner or manager is the thorny subject of where to file records in the racks that makes them easy to find for the average customer...
On the face of it it should be very simple and straight-forward. A-Z makes sense you’d think – Abba to Frank Zappa and all artists and bands between and that, by and large, is how we do our new vinyl and CDs
But there have been several instances recently when I’ve been aware of customers hunting out the new one from Jake Bugg in the J section and Kylie’s in the K section when we actually keep their records under B for Bugg and M for Minogue. Seems obvious until you’re faced with a new release by Madonna. If you’re going to put Kylie in with the Ms then why isn’t Madonna in the C’s? After all, like Kylie, Madonna has a surname (which as we all know is Ciccone) but no one ever asks for Madonna Ciccone records. And to compound the issue Kylie’s latest releases have all dispensed with any reference to Minogue, so for consistency’s sake perhaps we ought to move Kylie into the K’s? Then where are you putting MF Doom? Thank God we have a separate Hip Hop section for Mr Doom’s records, may he rest in peace.
But then having separate genre categories opens up a whole new kettle of misplaced records, not to mention heated debate between members of the Tallbird team. For example: Simon will file Bon Jovi in the “Rock and Pop” section but I will fish them out of there and put them under “Heavy Rock / Metal”, my rationale being if you can imagine a denim jacket with a Bon Jovi patch on it next to other patches by AC/DC, Black Sabbath and Guns n’ Roses then "Heavy Rock/Metal" is where they all belong – who is right here (apart from me obviously)? Are Simon & Garfunkel more comfortable in the Folk section or Rock & Pop? The Cure & Siouxsie - Punk, New Wave, Indie or Goth? Or none of the above? The Strawbs, Manfred Mann & Barclay James Harvest - Prog or Rock? Or perhaps the £2.99 section as most of their releases seem to have fallen out of favour with the great record buying public of Chesterfield? And now I come to think of it, why on earth have I separated Indie Rock by decade - 80s / 90s / 2000s, but have not done likewise with any other genre? That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, what on earth was I thinking??
As you can see it's the stuff of nightmares....
And then there are the actual dividers themselves – do they actually help customers find what they are looking for or cause more confusion? The other day I watched as someone pulled out the Kate Bush divider (basically a white piece of plastic with the words “Kate Bush” stuck to the top) which she then examined carefully for so long I thought I might have a sale, but no, she decided to stick it back in with the Abba records and left empty handed.
But it got me to thinking – if you could only ever have records from one of the A-Z sections in the shop, which letter of the alphabet would you choose? For me, it’s a very easy decision – B wins hands down. B for Blondie, Bowie, Beatles, Beach Boys, Bush (Kate), Blue Nile, B-52s, Bee Gees, Bauhaus,Bay City Rollers (yes really!), Bolan...Bolan? Now should Marc be filed under B for Bolan or T for T. Rex? Ugh, decisions, decisions.....
How do you file your records at home? A-Z, by bands and artists surnames or first names? By year of release? I know someone who does this - too weird. In order of when you bought them? Even weirder. Any helpful suggestions on how to make finding records in the shop a bit easier, let us know!
*Divide and Conquer is a song by Idles on their Brutalism album, which you can find at the front of the I-J section of our New Vinyl racks, just before Joy Division...
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