Opening hours from the 27th December onwards

We will be open from 10.30am to 6pm (or when everybody leaves) from the 27th to the 30th. We will probably close around 5pm on the 31st but we will be open on the 1st in the afternoon given the Grassmarket is an important part of the Edinburgh street games

  http://local.stv.tv/edinburgh/news/289732-take-to-the-streets-for-edinburghs-first-new-year-games/

As for January I am seriously considering closing for at least some of the time. There is very little new out until the end of the month and I can simply make more money staying at home and selling online. No matter how quiet we are in the shop there will always be sufficient interruptions to not make this viable while working from the shop. We have a great selection of vinyl in particular and while customers will be few and far between during the week in the shop (going by how the last few months have been) customers in the US, Canada, Australia and Europe are desperate for me to list more of what we have. I get international enquiries every day and while Avalanche’s profile has never been higher worldwide (more about that to follow) at home customers seem to prefer to buy CDs for £3 from FOPP while many of our regular customers for local bands now seem to buy directly from the bands and labels who often leave them with no option by not supplying shops with stock.

A second reason for closing would be for a refit and there are two options there for me to consider. Again I’ll say more in a few days time. Certainly as they say “the customer is always right” and more and more people, even those in Edinburgh, seem to prefer to buy online. This is of course generally a problem now with city centres and while visitors marvel at what is on offer in Edinburgh it seems that even such a beautiful city struggles to compete with shopping centres and websites for local custom. I’m sure we will be busy with visitors over the next few days but if that is all we get then it has to be an indicator for the future. We have many wonderful customers and fantastic support from some bands and labels. I just have to work out how best to supplement that.