Record store pet peeves?

I hate that the Country section tends to be a catch all of stuff the employees didn't know how to file. "Peggy Lee? I don't know. Put it in the country section."

 

I'll raise you Lesley Gore in the Jazz section.

 

Mine are simple:

* Stores that don't put prices on the albums--you have to take them to the front to find out how much they are going to charge
* Stores without bargain bins, or who think $3-4 is a bargain bin.

 

As others have said excessively loud music that makes it hard to focus on the music you want to buy and record bins that are on the floor. My knees can’t take it for long so I don’t even bother.

 

Yep. Drives me mad.
Price is often so high your jaw hits the ground and you shuffle back to replace the album.

 

Yeah, music playing too loud, and generally grumpy ungrateful staff used to boil my piss. Also, shops being so cold in winter you could see your breath in them.

 

The only thing worse than issues with record stores are record shows. There are far too many dealers with overpriced common LPs, often not separated by genre or alphabetized, usually unpriced as well. I quit going as it wasn’t worth my time.

 

I am working in Oxford today.
Planning to visit a fairly new shop that I have never been to before.
The reviews talk about a very grumpy owner with a great selection of records.
Sounds like a good trade off to me!
He will have to go some to beat the now closed one in Exeter for misery.
My peeve is albums jammed in so you cannot flick through them properly and new and secondhand mixed.
Looking forward to checking it out.

 

It’s 2023! $3-$5 LPs is definitely the bargain bin when the going rate for nearly anything decent new or used is $30 and up…

 

We have have a guy that we call "Mr. Stinky"! He doesn't really smell bad anymore but the name has stuck. Like most customers, he doesn't know his backroom nickname.

 

Well I certainly hate the first one. I don't mind a bargain bin that's higher than a 'dollar bin.' While I would personally prefer to NOT have two bargain bins, we've been trying out a $5 bin that's basically stuff that has been in the store for a long time, titles that are pretty great but not perfect (not trashed), or titles that aren't that well known but are in decent shape. It does help with taking the time out to clean up an album, sleeving, etc. I wanted to call it the 'clean it yourself' bin as a joke. The owner changes his mind every two weeks about what he wants to do so it probably won't be around forever anyways.

There is a store I like a lot in St. Louis that has a bargain bin with various prices. I sort of like it to be honest. It's always going to be subjective along with a changing market, but I think something that was a dollar bargain from a couple decades ago can certainly go up in value to a few bucks.

 

They're probably confused with Brenda Lee. Some younger people just have no clue. I hate finding stuff that I didn't sort out in very wrong places. Geez... just ask where something goes. Or go look it up on Discogs or Google.

 

It's them Quincy Jones arrangements!