Indie record stores: “Supermarkets welcome in the vinyl market” – or are they???

From Music Week

Independent record stores have dismissed concerns over supermarkets muscling in on the vinyl scene, as they prepare for their annual Record Store Day sales boost.

Supermarkets’ share of the vinyl market is now up to 6.9% according to the ERA, compared with 0% as recently as 2014, chipping away at the indies’ share, which has dropped from 31.6% to 24.7%.

However, most indies remain unperturbed, with 40 new record shops opening for business last year.

Banquet Records manager Jon Tolley said: “[Supermarkets] are not the enemy. We need these things to exist. We need HMV to be a High Street chain, which allows people to go and pick up records from the High Street, and if in Sainsbury’s you have a kid with their parents doing the shopping and their dad picks up a record and it serves as a stepping stone that’s great. The more exposure to the love of playing records the better.

“Sainsbury’s and Tesco do what they do; we have something cool about us that maybe a greengrocer doesn’t. It is an art form and sometimes people want something other than a race to the bottom for price and they want that different service and experience when buying a record.”

Alan Jordan, founder of Newcastle’s Reflex, added: “[Supermarkets selling vinyl] is an indication of where the market is more than anything. If a supermarket is selling records it’s a good advert for selling records.

“We carry around 2,000 titles in our shop, Sainsbury’s have probably got about 20 most of the time. They cherry-pick a few titles and they sell record players as well. I don’t see them as a threat. If someone buys a record in Sainsbury’s they might then want to visit a record store. I see them as expanding the market and I don’t think they’ll compete with the indie shops in terms of service.”

Read more here

What do you think? Supermarkets leave our ‘vinyl’ alone, or, who cares, more places to buy records innit??

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