Well there is no hiding or denying that 2024 has been our most challenging year yet!
The positives though are that we are still here and fighting with optimism that the future will be better.
It's very clear that the continuing rising costs of new vinyl coupled with squeeze on most people's finances has caused a major issue for us.
The margins on new vinyl is very slim as it is, with stiff competition not only from that massive online company but also record companies selling their own artists direct themselves.
Consequently of course they can sell much cheaper cutting out the record shops. Add to this some exclusive versions or signed editions and suddenly many of our potential customers are lost to those places.
We can fully understand the latter reasons as who doesn't want the best deal possible and also exclusive or signed editions. It is a big blow for us though that the record companies are trying to cut out the record shops altogether.
So we have been hit hard with unsold new vinyl on new releases but also other back catalogue items.
Some of the price rises from the record companies have been obscene and way beyond standard rising costs and inflation.
When a lot of classic titles are suddenly having to be sold at a retail of £40 - £60 each when many were around the £20 - £25 retail price not long ago, you know something fishy is going on!
So we have decided our best way to survive this current climate is to pull back on new releases and to cut back on the amount of new vinyl we stock in the shop. We are not though stopping stocking new vinyl altogether, we are just being more selective in our purchases.
We have been built over the many years on used vinyl and cds and so we are going to be making sure that's more of our major focus ongoing.
The support you have given us over the years is the reason we are still here 25 years later! We can't thank you enough!
So we look forward to the next 25 years and hope you can come along for the ride and continue with you fantastic support.
A massive Thank You!