This has gone viral Paul Sinclair being told to fuck off in a record store in Berlin. I doubt that is no. 1 in the retail training manual
The Berlin Record Buying Experience
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https://superdeluxeedition.com/feature/saturday-deluxe-back-to-berlin/
I was going to post a comment along the lines of “second hand record shops are specialized hobby shops these days so you need to expect poor social skills every now and again”. Then I reflected that I rarely have that kind of experience in second hand book shops. But then again, second hand book shops are, unlike record shops, often either owned or run by women, and that may have something to do with it. I think men often seen retail as a competition rather than a service, and hate the idea of someone getting a bargain, hence the guys checking Discogs at the counter rather than putting a price sticker.
Given the way this has gone viral, I doubt SilverDisc is going to stay open much longer.
I see the tote bags are € 3.90. Screenprint FUCK OFF! across the image and that would be a nailed on winner of a product. I’d buy one.
I wonder if it is a Berlin thing? The last time I was there (ages ago), there were some stalls on Museum Island, including a second hand bookstall. We were in a bit of a hurry to catch a train, but we had a few moments to spare, so stopped for a quick browse. The stall holder appeared to be packing up to leave, so I moved to go, but he said to me to stop and he would put out the books for me to look at.
Unfortunately it was quickly obvious that there was nothing of interest, so I did start to leave.
He called out “Fuck you” as I walked away. Charming.
That shop is a well-known candidate for Berlin’s annual asshole-list. And the practise described is actually illegal in Germany – there’s a law that requires to label every item in a shop with a price (»…unmistakably, easily viewable, incl. all taxes and handling fees«).
I suspect the actual shop is just the warehouse for their online business… which seems to be doing OK.
I’ve been there a few times and while I didn’t have a bad experience myself, I noticed the guy on the till wasn’t exactly bonhomous. I’m meeting with Paul in a week and taking him to Galactic Superstore in Frankfurter Tor, complete with “secret” room – I know he will enjoy that much more!
What is in the secret room?
Junior – more expensive rarities, some real nuggets. I found a very early pressing of “Unknown Pleasures” and an original “Trans Europe Express” in there
If you need to ask you can’t go in there
Galactic Superstore – now that’s a proper Plattenladen. The owner once lent me a whole crate of 30 or so ultra-rare albums from the secret room (including a concept album about the inner feelings of plants!) to listen to (I made miniDisc copies of most of ’em). (That was during the corona times when the shop was closed for almost a year…)
It’s a fantastic store, I really like it and the owner is a lovely guy. I was in there a few weeks ago and unfortunately he is having to close soon, thanks to the landlord. Its a real shame as you say, its 100% a “proper Plattenladen”
that’s a shame, I went in there after your recommendation in the other thread and thought it was a great little shop
A few years ago I was browsing a small record fair at a posh (I’d just paid £2.50 for a 99 ice cream) seaside resort. There was also a small art & craft fair at the other end of the hall.
It wasn’t cheap, but the “3 for £20″ bins were well stocked (including several copies of No Parlez).
A customer pulled out two Pet Shop Boys promo 12” singles, each £50, and paid for them, explaining that he’d seen them years ago but had no cash at the time, and they would complete his collection. His wife bought a painting.
After they had left, one record seller said to the other “What a twat – a hundred quid for plastic pop and his wife bought a painting I wouldn’t hang in my downstairs loo.”
I was the only other person in there. I put down the five albums I’d been holding (in the wrong crates), and left.
They also take their record fair to the seaside town where my mum lives. I haven’t been in there since, either.
I guess you didn’t really need those 5 copies of No Parlez after all.
I find this sort of attitude baffling. Take the money and congratulate yourself on a decent profit.
Hipster shit. Who knew? Take your money elsewhere, cunts like this don’t deserve it.
Only a step or two removed from Harry Enfield’s “See You Coming” shop.
I spent Easter in Berlin, visited a number of record stores (thanks to recommendations from @slotbadger in another thread) and had a very pleasant experience in all of them. I have to admit though, something about Paul SDE using his influential website to name and shame this record store doesn’t sit right with me.
Indeed. Why take the bad behaviour of a local pranny onto the global stage..? Everyone in Berlin knows this place, if they need to know (source: me. I worked there for a while.) Stick to the rare Johnny Hates Jazz 12 inch singles!
Now there’s an insight into a fellow poster!
Same here. Yes, he clearly had a terrible experience and the shop’s whole attitude is wrong, but I’m not sure a post that could provoke an internet pile-on (as his has) is very helpful.
If I go in a shop and there are no prices on things, I leave and take my business elsewhere. If they can’t be bothered to add price labels, I can’t be bothered to waste time asking the cost of things they hope to sell. That feels like a fair arrangement to me, and I accept that other shoppers might have a more relaxed and inquiring position. I don’t need to share my bad experience online so that all and sundry can give the store a kicking.
Jon Ronson’s book So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed has eye-opening stories about this sort of thing. One ill-judged online comment, one slip of the tongue in a video that goes viral, etc., and that’s the end of your job/career.
The internet can be great (my music collection would be a lot smaller without the information gained from the SDE site, which is my go-to source for news on new releases), but sometimes discretion is best.
Pranny – there’s a word I haven’t heard for a long while. It’s great to have these words in the back of your mind when someone has been irritating you and you can sum them up like that. More effective than the more taboo words. I remember my Scottish mother would occasionally say someone was glaikit, and I kind of knew what she meant without her explaining it.
As heard in “The Troggs tape” a sacred text, I’m sure you’ll agree:
My mum (Glaswegian) said that too! I took it to mean “away with the fairies” vibe. That seemed to work in the context used.
Yes, that’s what I thought it meant.
I’m Glaswegian – I thought it meant stupid, foolish, thoughtless, vacant, etc.
(Edit: see also – https://www.visitscotland.com/things-to-do/attractions/arts-culture/scottish-languages/scots-words-meanings)
I’m from the north of Scotland and that’s how I remember it being used. Synonymous with “eejit’ basically.
Spot on!
I agree now with the more expansive definitions above👍 As my mum and gran were the only people I heard say it, it was probably used in the more benign “vacant” usage. If you see what I mean!
That’s nothing compared to the (long gone) Cyclops Sound in Birmingham. You were actively prevented from browsing the middle racks (S-Z), bafflingly covered up. The owner was a strange man who had no obvious reason to own a record shop.
There was a short-lived second-hand shop in Leeds that was similarly weird. The main CD rack went from something like A-H and then jumped to something like T-Z. The remaining titles were on another rack nearby.
There was another shop on the same road selling new CD releases that was equally impossible, as they filed things by genre, and had dozens of baffling ones. I went in looking for some recent release – I can’t recall what it was – and must have spent about an hour going through all of their racks trying to find it.
Filing by genre, and then alphabetically within the genres, was pretty universal practice in the days of WH Smiths, Our Price, Virgin and the like. But the genres they used were strictly limited. And in some Virgin shops, a separate quieter room for the classical and jazz albums.
This shop must have had 40 or 50 different micro-genres, known by the shop owner, but impenetrable to anyone else. You simply couldn’t find anything.
Anybody else remember that tremendously grumpy woman in the Terrapin Trucking Company in Crouch End? I was in love.
Well at least the proprietor had the good manners to say FUCK OFF in English.
No effort at all – the expression has practically joined the German language. They even use it in those »senior citizen« sit-coms on TV! 😉
I wonder what Paul would make of “Brian’s Record Option” in beautiful Kingston, Ontario. It was a bit too much for me when I went there once. Brian is nice enough but the store is crazy
It seemed the LPs under ‘S’ were in order, some of them anyhow.
Kingston does look beautiful @dai but if I were to go for a holiday I reckon I’d spend quite a few days at Brian’s and maybe do some tidying up when he wasn’t looking.
He would put them straight back the way they were!
Of that I have no doubt, although he seems a nice guy.
Perhaps ‘fuck you’ means ‘have a nice day’ in German.
“Have a nice day somewhere far from me.” perhaps.