heard.

its funny to me, the whole record store employee attitude. For instance at my local indie vinyl shop there are usually three guys who work there and for fun I will give them celebrity names (because they seriuosly resemble these people. Frank Zappa, the owner, the bastard, and the one who will probably give you the least amount of attention and good service. Jack Black, very knowledgeable and a humble taste in music, you have to draw him out aq little, BUT once you do he will always help you out and recognize you. Justin Bartha (posted a pic because I didn;t theink you folks knew the kid) well, anyways picture that guy with blonde hair and glasses. He's quite,shy and generall the same as the Dick character fromt he novel High Fidelity, very nice but usually just sits at the register readin a zine. Part 2 will ensue with my hip hop record store.....

It has to be said that it works both ways too.When i worked in a record shop sometimes you used to get such arseholes walking through the doors you couldnt help yourself but being sarcastic(i dont belive that you have to be only downright rude to put someone in their place).I was playing the Boredoms once and this silly prick started having a go at me for that.I turned the volume up even more for him to storm off the premises.

well everyone is allowed to be stressed and pissed off every now and again, as annoying as it is. i would go back and see if they treat you any different. if not then fuck em, dont shop there again.

If the clerk behind the counter is arrogant and unfriendly... then he/she has the wrong person when I walk in. :cool:

Yeah, porkmarras is right, as usual... You'd better make sure you don't come in and expect to be treated like the king of rock and roll. If it was on my watch you did that; well, let's just say you wouldn't think about coming back... ;) Hehe...

Yeah, but I don't really have much choice, since they're one of only two decent music stores in town. Plus, they're right around the corner from where I work. I think that's part of the problem--w/ so little competition around, they don't have to be nice.

i work in a shop, i do find it hard to be nice to customers sometimes. its not the customers fault and your dead right - the owner should have been nicer to you, but on the other hand you dont know the situation. sometimes i come to work with my dark rain cloud following me and love to do nothing but start arguments with my "silly" work collegues.. "silly" in referance to my rain cloud thats still following me, now combine this with a busy work envoirment and sometimes things can get a little heated - the unfortunate upshot of this is the workers tend to take their shit out on the customers...

and somedays i'm in brilliant humour and am uber-nice to people.

yeah, I used to work in a retail store and I know it's not easy...

Odd thought struck me. Maybe they're tired of seeing my ugly face. Like, hey, you come in here every few days and scoop up the good stuff before any of the kids can get to it. Let the other customers buy something...

Not that I buy all THAT much really. But maybe it seems like it to the clerks...

Somehow it's impossible for me to imagine you in a bad mood fishy!you always seem so relaxed and thoughtful in your posts that it's hard to believe that you are posting from a busy shop.

They should love you for it... Not be rude...

Yeah, one would think....

& I'm the most polite, unobtrusive customer you'd ever want. I rarely return anything, complain, ask for help, etc.

Who knows, maybe they don't like your haircut?

That's very likely! It's a very utilitarian buzz cut. And I have no tats or piercings.

I'm a psychic heart...

if the customer is being an arrogant prick i will most certainly act like a smartass.

i don't think that people OWE me to be friendly. for example, i don't care for waiters who introduce themselves "hi im such and such and i'll be your waiter tonight"-- what the fuck do i care? just bring me my food quickly and keep the beers coming and i'll consider you friend enough to leave you a fat tip. store employees need to be helpful but they don't need to be my buddies-- i mean i had a lot of friends working in a video store and the friendship went beyond the commercial transaction so of course we talked & stuff, but a stranger?

where i have problems with is BAD customer service, people who sigh when you ask them questions, refuse to help when they are required to, and act like they rather be somewhere else. in that case i often start talking VERY LOUD, ask them point blank if they think i'm some kind of asshole and i'm going to let them get away with that shit (i tend to look quite threatening while i'm doing that), and finally add that if they hate their crummy job they should look for something else instead of getting it out on their customers. oh yes i've done that. got apologies and meek responses usually. never tried it at the butcher shop. that could be dangerous.

a caveat, however: i was a waiter for 2 months. don't piss of your waiters or they'll spit on your food. or feed you pubes. or worse...

You wouldn't survive 5 minutes in a busy gay pub.

ha ha-- probably true.

Bad service in a record shop I can cope with, after all I'm perfectly capable of looking through the racks on my own. Being ignored by bar staff, though, that's a different matter altogether.

that's easy to handle: bartenders don't give a shit about your person, but your money. when you lean over the bar to order, simply stretch your wad of money over the bar into the bartender area and you'll get good attention right away. then tip generously to make sure the drinks keep coming.

i mean you don't need a wad. in most places, a crisp $20 unfurled like a flag will do. but the bigger the bill the faster the service.

oh trust me, we (the collective employees of record stores across the globe) don't care. you're giving us your money.

Even us weird ones who come back like every other day?

That does not apply to England i'm afraid.

I've been to a few record stores in the US, but one of them I remember - The Sound Garden in Baltimore, MD.

Great selection of new&used stuff (lots of good indie), absolutely friendly staff willing to help but not bothering you when you just feel like hanging there, plus armchairs where you can just chill and listen to the music you choose on the headphones.

a fucking awesome place. spent a lot of money there.

Speaking of good customer service, here's something to warm the heart of Gmku.

So I was at Barnes & Noble looking at some fiction, the wife was reading something so I wandered into the music section. I browsed through the cd's just to get a feel for what they carry, suprisingly they had a decent (eclectic) selection, I found some old indie hip hop and a lot of great jazz.
I was trying to find the Yoshimi and Yuka album, so I asked the guy what section it would be in....rock,world,electronic etc. The guy was insanely nice and looked it up to make sure they even had it, which they didn't, but he was asking all these questions like what they sounded like, who they were affiliated with, record label etc. We ended up on the topic of John Zorn and Japanese underground music. I turned him on to the Tzadik catalogue of our subterranean Asian jams and at the end of it all he thanked me for the knowledge...a record store employee actually thanked a customer for dropping some knowledge and didn't act like they knew all about music...I was amazed.

So there you have it gmku, good customer service is out there, even the rare & exceptional like my encounter, then again it was at a book store that carries some cd's, oh well it was still refreshing to meet a music shop employee with some humility.

this is the sort of welcome that i expect when i walk into a record shop:

Ha! Yeah, now that's what I'm talking about!!

Only problem--no kool rock chicks.

Oh yes.