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.