New releases and how things are

I had hoped to have more of a feel for things since our move but to be honest things are still very slow. New releases sell very little indeed and therefore do little to bring people in during the week. Saturdays are busy and the Sunday opening has been a big success. PJ Harvey was the only big seller from the recent releases (and that included Bright Eyes) with Mogwai doing OK. When I see the total sales for independent shops in general it is obvious that is the pattern everywhere.

On the Scottish band front Conquering Animal Sound has sold well as has the Come On Gang album while bands that have relentlessly targeted their fans to buy directly have as a consequence sold very little indeed in the shop. Sucioperro always supported by Avalanche has sold one copy and the FOUND album admittedly only just out has sold to those customers who preordered it but there have been no other sales at all caused one can only assume by the album launch over a week ago. The Son(s) album only came out last week but is already shaping up to be a good constant seller.

There are very few tourists about but already we have had some big sales when they are in the shop. I’m constantly reassured by others that everything will be fine once the weather improves and we have more visitors but just now on a rainy Tuesday it feels like it can’t come soon enough. I must say support from our regular customers has been fantastic and there are an awful lot of them but with few casual buyers these days we need those visitors with their stories of when their hometown shop closed down and how lucky Edinburgh is to still have record shops to add to the takings.