The Independent Retailer

Hear Now are a record store in the Melbourne city centre. You didn't know this, but that's ok, they are closing so obviously you weren't the only one unaware of their existence. 

In their letter to the adoring public they say “We are saddened seeing the demise of a once prosperous industry & culture” and “The growing dominance of the internet is probably the most to blame”.

I buy quite a few CDs every year, I shop at independent stores, JB HiFI and of course online; do you know what the best part of CD shopping is? Leaving the store, going home and listening to the CD! The idea that just because your store is down a laneway, has been the venue for an in-store performance, or stocks more vinyl than Polyester, you somehow transcend the earthly shopping experience, well it is simply ridiculous. Record stores have had a diminshing role in music retailing for 10 years now, perhaps, rather than shaking their fist at the sky, Hear Now may have realised that a growing number prefer their music without narcissistic record stores.

What stuns me the most about this self important concept of the 'independent retailer' is that (except for Polyester on Brunswick street) I'm yet to be spoken to at a record store. They change the CD in the store hifi, they chat to other staff and they ask if I need a bag. I can't remember a single time I've had a conversation with either the staff or another customer at one. So exactly what culture will I be losing when Hear Now closes? 

"people become more and more reliant on their online personas rather than interacting with people face to face, which is such a shame"

Book stores have been playing the internet card since Amazon first started serving up pages in the late 90s. And yet despite all their cries of financial woe I can walk up Burke Street and pass at least 3 independent retailers in 2 blocks. I wonder how this was sustainable before Amazon let alone after we learned that books could be purchased online for half the price. Combine the price with the fact that online buying meant dramatically less navigating of the Saturday-morning-father-with-3-year-old-in-pram-crowd and I'm surprised anyone still shops in town.

That is a lie, whenever given the opportunity I will find a book store, wander around for fifteen minutes and then inevitably buy something. But as with CDs in record stores, ultimately I enjoy the reading. That's why we shop at bookstores: so we can read something when we leave. All they offer is one (of many possible) places to purchase a book. It is relaxing indeed, but 'a place to wander in silence, to browse in solitude, maybe buy' is certainly not a business plan I would be investing in. 

Compare all of this to Abbotsford Cycles. An independent cycle store that whenever I've visited have been amazingly friendly, very knowledgeable and made me feel entirely at ease despite my status as a neophyte. They don't have the best alleyway location, I can't remember any famous cyclist in-stores and yet they are the perfect example of what an independent retailer can be.

Too often independent stores appear to believe their value lies in their existence, a 'we have built it, they will come' attitude. They are obviously wrong.