Re: [ARSCLIST] Is The Record Shop Dead?

[Dismuke <dismukemail@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- phillip holmes <insuranceman@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


> 
> Read Lisa's blogs about Collectors (but not out
> loud--not for the 
> squeamish or the easily offended):
> http://cathead9.blogspot.com/2007/02/my-old-job.html
>
http://cathead9.blogspot.com/2007/05/more-record-store-ies.html
>
http://cathead9.blogspot.com/2007/05/son-of-record-store-ies.html
> By the way, that's not a picture of her on the page.
>  I don't know who 
> that guy is.


Yikes!  I am scandalized.  At least she did not say
anything about a certain collector from Fort Worth who
only has but one name and who used to carry large
stacks of 78 rpms in multiple trips from the back room
to the front counter.

Having to deal with the general public in any job is
going to result in some amusing stores - and a few
horror stories as well.  I can only imagine that it
would be all that much more so at a used/rare/vintage
record store.  Record collectors are anything but
average people.   And when a person is not average,
they are either going to be BETTER than the average or
they are WORSE than the average.   I have no doubt at
all that plenty of both kinds walked through their
doors. 

Of course, the very worst sort of customer is the
person who thinks that just because he has made a $25
purchase, that gives him license to be boorish, rude
and make demands that his whims, however outrageous,
be instantly satisfied and that everyone essentially
grovel to him.  You can always spot such a person as
they are always quick to proclaim "the customer is
always right."  Well, that sure isn't the case if the
employee's time is more productivly spent helping
other, more profitable customers or if givng into the
demands would cost more than any profits one is likely
to ever make from him in the future IF he even does
repeat business in the future.

I had a strange co-worker once who, first thing every
day, would buy a 60 cent pack of Pop Tarts from the
break room vending machine.  One day one of the Pop
Tarts in his package was only half covered in
frosting.  Apparently either the production line
stopped or the frosting ran out right as that Pop Tart
passed under the frosting dispenser.  So he called the
800 number on the package and spent about 45 minutes
on the phone raising absolute HELL with the person on
the other end.  He ended up being transferred to
supervisors and was still unhappy because all they
would give him was a coupon for a replacement pack of
Pop Tarts.  That simply was not good enough and he
stated that he would  "not go away" until he "got
satisfaction." 

What somebody OUGHT to have done is tell him exactly
where he can take his empty Pop Tart package and shove
it - though, of course, the front line employees he
was dealing with would most likely not have the
authority to do so.  My guess is that, after all of
the various hands such a product passes through before
it reaches the final consumer, the profit that the
manufacturer of Pop Tarts makes on a single vending
machine purchase has to be in the pennies.  Even if
the call center was outsourced to a place such as
India, the company undoubtedly spent more money on
wages to handle his call that would make in year of
his daily vending macine purchases. 

Bottom line, "the customer is always right" is valid
ONLY to the degree that the customer actually
continues to be a potential VALUE to one's business. 
My guess is that, at a record store, the threshold of
where that point is for any random person who walks in
the door off the street probably is not all that high
- so my guess is such antics probably don't go very
far in places like that.