I just strolled over to the newly opened Pure Groove shop in Farringdon and they have taken a very brave and bold step.
There are exactly 100 items on display, be it either a 7", or a vinyl album or a CD, each one hand-picked and deemed by the people who run Pure Groove as worthy of buying. No popular acts, no back catalogue, no sales rack, nothing. The result is a shop that looks fabulous, with a very ingenious display system on one wall, a till desk on the opposite wall and not much else.
There's a small raised platform at the back, assumingly to be used for performances and this place could well develop into a very cosy live venue. The line-up for the coming month looks promising.
But the market for signed Emmy The Great singles and the new Errors CD can't be that big, and I expect if they stick to their concept they will struggle to sell enough records during the day to financially justify keeping it open as a shop. Let's hope I'm wrong.
While you were there...
did you happen to notice what the deal is with the Mystery Jets/Jeremy Warmsley instore shindig later? Do you need wristbands or anything? ta!
No idea
Sorry.
Not to worry!
Thing is, you can buy anyone's back catalogue online and it'll probably be much cheaper than any independant record shop can offer.
By doing this, at least they are offering an interesting shopping experience... something you can't really get online.
Still utterly doomed, though.
hmmm
brave, but i predict this lasting a week at best...
That doesn't sound brave
it sounds bloody stupid.
I'm assuming they will actually be selling 'everything' in future, and this is just the start? Otherwise, that kind of faux-pretentiousness can quite simply piss off.
There are
no racks to store or display stock in.
Hmmm.
I have nothing more to add. I shall just sit here 'hmmm'ing for now.
Do you know...
...whether this is a permanent layout or just while they're getting the new place set up and stocked? It sounds like a nice idea in theory, but as you say, it's a hell of a gamble. If you're thinking "it's Monday, the new album by whoever is out today, I must go to Pure Groove at lunchtime and get it" (as I used to when it was up at Archway), only to find repeatedly that they've only got, say, signed Emmy the Great singles, then eventually you're going to stop bothering and go to Fopp instead...
Mind you, it's not as though the old shop had the most comprehensive stock...
As I said
the shop looks fantastic, a bit like an exclusive designer shop where they sell t-shirts at 70 quid a pop*. So I guess they are not going to change it and clutter it with proper racks.
I was thinking the same thing about the new releases. They have to be very well on the ball to be able to predict what I want to buy on a Monday morning in order for me to come here instead of say Rough Trade East.
*) actual prices are decent, like 3.50 for a 7" and a tenner for a CD album.
I don't want to buy my records from an exclusive boutique!
I want to waste hours inanely flicking through albums and singles until my fingers hurt. And then actually pick up the single I came into buy and leave happy.
Hmmm.
why why why
I finally give up my job in farringdon and then this opens. Years of moaning about no record shops down there and then we get one.
ergh.
also..
i just looked up it's location. That's a really funny place for a shop, I figured it would be up by leather lane market. Or Exmouth market. Very odd.
They are
not gonna get much casual walk-in trade, that's for sure. Unless there is an untapt source of indie fans amongst the local meat traders.
*untapped
I'm guessing
that they do most of their money making online for mail order stuff and so the shop is basically a pretty front? And / or they were making most of their cash from the same 100 things up in Archway?
Either way, will be checking it out soon. East London was like a wilderness for decent records shops for years and now two come along at once...