Record store gofundmes

[Chrundle The Great]

1 hour ago, rooks said:

100%. I was and still am totally onboard with supporting local anything - especially when I can tell those companies are grinding as best they can.

 

My local sit-in pizza place created a website and now takes orders online and via the phone for pickup/contact-less delivery. Nice.

The local craft brewery in my old neighborhood can't open their taproom/bar. They're still brewing new beers every week and offering pickup/delivery on everything. Nice.

 

A record store with 300 employees (what the fuck) and a well established online order system can't pay rent on the building they just sold for $34million. Fuck off.

It's not just Amoeba, either. 

Shit like this: https://www.gofundme.com/f/landlocked-employee-tip-jar They aren't paying their hourly employees, but want me to? For... free?

Same thing from Bowery Ballroom: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-bowery-ballroom-and-mercury-lounge-staff

Turntable Lab: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-the-turntable-lab-storefront-crew

 

I understand people like to be charitable, but man there's something super gross about an employer laying off their staff and then putting that on their customers by guilting them with shit like "Have you ever bought a record from that nice single mother at the checkout counter? Have you ever seen a show here and been pointed to the bathroom by one of our staff? Have you ever enjoyed the smile of the nice bouncer outside keeping you safe at one of our events? Well those employees are STARVING now because we FIRED THEM! PLEASE consider donating ANYTHING you CAN!!!! SHOW YOUR LOVE!!!"

 

I guess no harm in asking for it since it sure seems like people are more than willing to give out money for free - in this economy - lol. But, I know I'll be remembering what companies did everything they could to adapt and survive - and the ones that begged me for free money because I once gave them money for goods/services in the past.

Perfectly said, and thanks for pointing out Landlocked, Bowery and TTL for doing the same thing. The saddest part is that this attitude is symptomatic of a bigger issue. But if things were spelled out on this forum, the majority might not be in such agreement.

[Hierophant1991]

On 4/27/2020 at 8:23 PM, shenanigans said:

 

 

 

$400,000 is insane. They say they have 400 employees. They have 3(!!!) stores. How can they have 400 employees? Also, in case anyone doesn't remember they sold their building for $34 million last year. They're closing the doors on the current location because they were moving anyway.

Right something just doesn't add up. 400 employees seems far way too much, ive been to their LA location & SF location. SF deff seemed less staffed. They can easily do what alot of businesses have already sadly done and just lay off the employees. or better yet UPDATE the online store to a more accurate inventory, because when i was in SF and seen 5 copies of Marilyn Manson Holywood LP i didnt see them on the webstore. or when I saw an AFI Blood Album variant behind the counter in LA it wasn't on the webstore thats one way they can probably see more online sales having proper inventory. 

[ex lion tamer]

9 minutes ago, Hierophant1991 said:

Right something just doesn't add up. 400 employees seems far way too much, ive been to their LA location & SF location. SF deff seemed less staffed. They can easily do what alot of businesses have already sadly done and just lay off the employees. or better yet UPDATE the online store to a more accurate inventory, because when i was in SF and seen 5 copies of Marilyn Manson Holywood LP i didnt see them on the webstore. or when I saw an AFI Blood Album variant behind the counter in LA it wasn't on the webstore thats one way they can probably see more online sales having proper inventory. 

Apparently the online store is mostly run out of a distribution warehouse in Kentucky, it's not indicative of the in-store stock. I saw an update recently that indicated they were working on putting up records from the LA store prior to their move.

[ex lion tamer]

9 hours ago, shenanigans said:

300 people to run a record store. who would have thought? So either they have a bunch of people working 5 hours a week or they have a bunch of people who they don't want to give health insurance to. Either way. Take that $400,000 out of the $34M you sold your building for.

From the article...

"We get haunted by that number because it gives such a wrong impression. Basically, we owed almost that much when we sold it. Honestly, we netted something like $7-8 million altogether when we sold the building, and most of that went to operating costs over the years. It wasn’t money that we were able to pocket. When that happened, we were just trying to stay alive. We’d kept going further and further in the hole ever since the last recession, and we lost all of our equity and all of our backup, which culminated in that sale. I don’t want to sound defensive about it, but it creates a terrible, wrong impression for us that is so not the case. (The three other partners) and I ended up with not much. … We’re not a cooperative, but we spread the money around every which way. All the managers at the stores are part-owners. And we have done everything we could to stay alive."

[museummouth]

36 minutes ago, ex lion tamer said:

From the article...

"We get haunted by that number because it gives such a wrong impression. Basically, we owed almost that much when we sold it. Honestly, we netted something like $7-8 million altogether when we sold the building, and most of that went to operating costs over the years. It wasn’t money that we were able to pocket. When that happened, we were just trying to stay alive. We’d kept going further and further in the hole ever since the last recession, and we lost all of our equity and all of our backup, which culminated in that sale. I don’t want to sound defensive about it, but it creates a terrible, wrong impression for us that is so not the case. (The three other partners) and I ended up with not much. … We’re not a cooperative, but we spread the money around every which way. All the managers at the stores are part-owners. And we have done everything we could to stay alive."

So it sounds like they were on a downtrend for years. Also sounds like bad management. 

[unknown pleasures]

I mean, it's funny how quickly people's conception of things change.

 

Not to defend Amoeba, but it wasn't that long ago that record stores were disappearing left and right. Truth be told, it's a minor miracle a place as large as Amoeba managed to stay open through the early 2000s when everything was going digital. As others have noted, it's not like they have small shops in low cost areas.

 

Then the vinyl boom happened, turntables are featured in every trendy Netflix series, a new VYNL vinyl subscription service pops up every other month, Urban Outfitters has a whole section of their megastores dedicated to records and everyone thinks these venerable indie shops just rake it in but the places like Amoeba and Reckless and Bullmoose didn't just pop up overnight in the middle of the vinyl boom, I'm sure they had many lean years leading up to the 2010s and the age of Record Store Days.

[Monastic_mike]

Amoeba on Sunset is great. My daughter asked me a question and I told her to go ask the counter people. A woman came out and took her to the exact artist she asked about and even suggested more stuff. It was really cool. I did not expect that. I hope they make it.

 

I bought a shirt from Graveface as I have chatted with Ryan a few times and I genuinely like what he puts out. I paid almost double the asking minimum for the shirt. My own employment is in the air at this point but I believe in Karma.

 

I have to laugh at the affection I have for these shops and yet I never bother with my local shops.