Re: GG and CD shop clerks

["Sven-S. Porst" <ssp@earthling.net>]

Hi,

>I am also surprised that no one in this discussion has mentioned the films
>"Clerks," or more importantly, "Slackers."  That pretty much says it all.

At least as far as 'Clerks' is concerned (haven't seen 'Slackers'), I'd
like to disagree a bit. While of course having the same mind-numbing job
as CD-store clerks, the guys in 'Clerks' still seem to know what they're
doing - they just don't care. If they get the total wrong, I'd rather
guess that they did it deliberately or they weren't paying attention.

The examples mentioned here, however, showed people, actually trying hard
but failing because they have no idea about what they're doing.

Personally, I believe that this is what we have to expect in the future
and all we can expect in a world run by big corporations. In small record
stores, of course the owner will know what he's doing and serve you
properly. In your average chain, however, it's probably cheaper to employ
temps give them a bit of 'hands-on' training and there you go. People
being perfectly ignorant of what they're doing (_and_ not caring because
they're not payed enough to care anyway) and just having learnt by heart
which buttons on the magic cash register to press.

The only hope I can see is the advent of more sophisticated tills. The
ones in my supermarket are quite clever and manage even complicated
offers like 'buy any two of Mars/Snickers/Bounty and get a third for
free' without a glitch. The system seems to be extremely foolproof as it
was always right so far. It tells the checkout-person what to do on-
screen after every step, so there are no problems. So clever tills will
make our lives better. It's quite a sad perspective.


As far as buying CDs is concerned, there doesn't seem to be a point in
going to CD stores these days. Most of their stock isn't worth looking
at. They're likely not to have what you're looking for. The way they
organise things tends to be confusing (some stores have GG with
'Classical->GG', some just have GG CDs among Bach/Schönberg/Beethoven/
Hindemith etc. some have an extra section on 'Solo Artists'). The prices
are just normal. Staff isn't helpful. There are always people browsing
_just_ in the place you want to look at. If you're not buying the top10,
mail order seems to have loads of advantages here.

Perhaps people shoud 'think small' again. Have a small local record
store. Get to know the people there. They'll order what you want, maybe
point you to other music, offer to play it for you etc. It will be a bit
more expensive though (but that doesn't really matter when earning >100
grand because you can do your percentages ;). These days this kind of
shop only seems to exist for very special Underground or Dance music and
second hand vinyl only.

All the best

            Sven

--
Sven-S. Porst . PGP: 0x0085ABA3 . http://homepage.mac.com/ssp
                      "I'm dark and myterious and pissed off!"