If music be the food of... er... supermarkets
As mentioned below, I popped to Sainsburys to do the weekly shop. I don't mind shopping most of the time, and this was going to be okay, as I was going to get the chance to get the new Interpol album and probably pick up the new Embrace album whilst I'm at it.
Pah.
Fat chance. The shopping was ok, but they didn't have the Interpol album at all - no mention of it. Now, I've always found it a little odd the thing they do with the album charts where a new release CD is automatically in the top 10. I understand that this makes it easier for them to merchanidise, and pretty easy for people to find, but it just seems so presumptuous. If the Interpol album makes the top 40 next week, I bet they have it.
I was irritated by this, so I detoured via Asda on the way home. Now Asda is huge, and has moved their CDs, DVDs and stuff right to the front of the store. Did they have it? Nope (although on the plus side they had put Brian Wilson's "Smile", also out today, in the top 10, where Sainsburys had it at number 40-something... so at least they have some taste).
Both had Embrace, but I was by now determined to get them both on the internet, and indeed, I've just been over to those good people at Play 24/7 and placed my order.
It's all very well these supermarkets dabbling with music, but aren't they just putting independent record shops out of business and then ultimately killing my choice? It would have been alright if I'd been buying "pure bling" (and yeah, I know there's always the internet, but I wanted it NOW. Good job I didn't nip out at lunchtime, else I would have wasted an hour popping into town and would never have got any work done).
Say what you like about HMV (and trust me, I do, I used to work there) but they would have had Interpol in stock.
Pah.
Fat chance. The shopping was ok, but they didn't have the Interpol album at all - no mention of it. Now, I've always found it a little odd the thing they do with the album charts where a new release CD is automatically in the top 10. I understand that this makes it easier for them to merchanidise, and pretty easy for people to find, but it just seems so presumptuous. If the Interpol album makes the top 40 next week, I bet they have it.
I was irritated by this, so I detoured via Asda on the way home. Now Asda is huge, and has moved their CDs, DVDs and stuff right to the front of the store. Did they have it? Nope (although on the plus side they had put Brian Wilson's "Smile", also out today, in the top 10, where Sainsburys had it at number 40-something... so at least they have some taste).
Both had Embrace, but I was by now determined to get them both on the internet, and indeed, I've just been over to those good people at Play 24/7 and placed my order.
It's all very well these supermarkets dabbling with music, but aren't they just putting independent record shops out of business and then ultimately killing my choice? It would have been alright if I'd been buying "pure bling" (and yeah, I know there's always the internet, but I wanted it NOW. Good job I didn't nip out at lunchtime, else I would have wasted an hour popping into town and would never have got any work done).
Say what you like about HMV (and trust me, I do, I used to work there) but they would have had Interpol in stock.
posted by swisslet @ 21:44
4 Comments:
At 10:22 pm,
Damo said…
I never buy CDs in supermarkets. It's not like I don't use cheap online retailers (try www.cd-wow.com as well), but supermarkets have no love of music at all. You can get stuff like, say, the Futureheads album on CD-Wow, Play... and of course the music retailers, but all supermarkets do is let record retailers help break bands, then cream off the profits by bulk selling yer Justin Timberlakes et al. They can afford to make pennies on them, because they separately have a grocery business. Tower Records once protested by selling fruit and veg for a week...
At 12:48 am,
swisslet said…
I agree with you - as a point of principle I usually try and get my CDs either from FOPP or Selectadisc in Nottingham. Both are reasonable. Failing that, I use the internet. The only trouble is that the supermarkets are so damn convenient. I used to work for Boots, and I still bought my toothpast and stuff in Sainsbury's, because that's where I was when I remembered I needed it.
To change tack, is the Futureheads album any good? I loved the last single, and actually picked the CD up and held it for a bit when I was last in Selectadisc. Ultimately I bottled it though. Worth having?
At 8:22 am,
Damo said…
The Futureheads record is my album of the year so far - and if you ask Teresa (aka Serena Wombat) I think you'll find she says the same. Treat yourself!
At 9:40 am,
Teresa Bowman said…
Futureheads = ACE.
Supermarkets are terrible places. If only the hectic pace of modern life didn't make them such a necessary evil, I'd never use them.
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