Sunday has a piece of bread and calms down

lolly said:
As plants have been mentioned, when did they become a huge thing again? It feels like every second new shop that opens here is a plant shop. Or a gift shop which also sells plants. Or a cafe which also sells plants.

A few years back if I was in tow, the only place I could get a houseplant would be a small selection at M&S. Now I reckon I've got about there are about ten places I could go within a ten minute walk of my office.

Is it a lockdown thing?
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Yes it is a lockdown thing. I got into them in lockdown as did everyone I know. I think because it gave people something to focus on at home.
 
lolly said:
We did the Gloucester Road charity shop crawl on Friday. Really quite depressing from that perspective.
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Charity shopping is dead for vinyl mostly. I have one store (out of town) which I still get some stuff in and that’s pretty much it. It’s either insane overpricing (“Nightflight to Venus” marked “RARE” with a £25 price sticker on being my recent favourite) or just granny records. I just don’t get it- even if you are putting them on eBay, put them in your shop for a decent price and attract people to come in who might buy other stuff.

Even the tip has been dead the last few months. They’re clearly keeping them back for something or someone working there is taking them home.
 
On the train - the guy a few seats along was picking his nose, sure. Now he’s plucking nose hairs with tweezers :o
 
I was in a charity shop the other day and as I walked in, the guy on the till hauled out a box for his mate to root through that he “hadn’t priced yet”. I lucked out as he couldn’t say no to me when I asked to look too as I’d overheard and got a copy of George Michael’s Faith for a couple of quid. I’m guessing there’s a lot of that going on- holding back and stripping the good stuff by dealers/ mates.
 
As much as I love plants, I'm not a fan of indoor ones. I only have an Aloe Vera in the kitchen
 
Plucker is still digging for green gold and tweezing - he has sparkly nail polish too so werk I guess.

The thing I find the most confusing is that I thought he was using his phone as a mirror or the camera to see what he was doing, but he’s watching some sort of workout video 2 inches from his face
 
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lolly said:
As plants have been mentioned, when did they become a huge thing again? It feels like every second new shop that opens here is a plant shop. Or a gift shop which also sells plants. Or a cafe which also sells plants.

A few years back if I was in tow, the only place I could get a houseplant would be a small selection at M&S. Now I reckon I've got about there are about ten places I could go within a ten minute walk of my office.

Is it a lockdown thing?
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Probably that, but I have noticed that with so many shops closing, you still see random gift shops opening (that often sell plants) which seems utterly bonkers and unsustainable. I think a lot of them now are people who can simply afford to run it and do it as a side project more than a living, especially in some of the wealthier little towns, where you might have a boutique clothes shop open 10-2 on weekends ONLY kind of hours :D. I'd probably do the same if I could....

I used to know a lady who opened a vintage tearoom and she used to tell me to keep quiet that she actually owned the building so that customers thought she needed the income :D Which is why she's still there in a town where that business otherwise wouldn't have survived I expect...
 
Good morning.

I've taken a varying approach to Sundays over the years. Time was when I'd have been up, dressed, been to Asda and be back by now. Time also was when I wouldn't get up until after midday. Because I'm off work at the mo', I'm enjoying waking up naturally, which, today, was about 9.45am.
 
Sheena said:
I was in a charity shop the other day and as I walked in, the guy on the till hauled out a box for his mate to root through that he “hadn’t priced yet”. I lucked out as he couldn’t say no to me when I asked to look too as I’d overheard and got a copy of George Michael’s Faith for a couple of quid. I’m guessing there’s a lot of that going on- holding back and stripping the good stuff by dealers/ mates.
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The Oxfam here has become ridiculous - In the window, vinyl of Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation. £54.99, sleeve visibly battered. You can get a better copy for £40. Also, one of the charity shops in town had a copy of Slates by the Fall on 10" vinyl. They put it in the window (during summer), attached it to the display using a fucking BULLDOG CLIP and wanted £30. No.
 
octophone said:
The Oxfam here has become ridiculous - In the window, vinyl of Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation. £54.99, sleeve visibly battered. You can get a better copy for £40. Also, one of the charity shops in town had a copy of Slates by the Fall on 10" vinyl. They put it in the window (during summer), attached it to the display using a fucking BULLDOG CLIP and wanted £30. No.
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The fucking hilarity of it all. You think the old cunts who work in charity shops would have been round first time around and know how to treat vinyl but some of the things I’ve seen…
 
I think the way to go about it is to go back the old fashioned ways of used record stores and also sell some limited stock of 'new' vinyl.
I've noticed a few of those cropping up.
Mind you they'd need to have food licence I imagine and/or alcohol as well if they want to make a good profit.
 
Suedey said:
I think the way to go about it is to go back the old fashioned ways of used record stores and also sell some limited stock of 'new' vinyl.
I've noticed a few of those cropping up.
Mind you they'd need to have food licence I imagine and/or alcohol as well if they want to make a good profit.
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It's my dream- I just haven't quite worked out how to get the stock, though.

There's a good used record shop here which has three pricing levels- £3, £5 and then individually priced for higher priced bits. It's great, but the stock turnover is very slow- I go in once every 3-4 months and often there is fuck all new in the £3 section (which is the only one I'm interested in really). I imagine he sells online too, cause no way does the store get enough footfall to keep it afloat.

But even most used record stores are ridiculous price-wise in this country. Go to Sweden and it's still fantastic- I come home with armfuls of vinyl every time because used shops still have sensible pricing. A big issue is the youngsters getting into it. I saw a copy of Dark Side of the Moon this morning and the guy wanted £30 for it. It wasn't mint condition (I'd say VG at an absolute push and there was one nasty looking scratch on one side I would have risked £2 for but no more). 5 minutes later, I saw some kid walking around with it in his hands. Completely clueless- you can buy it new for £20.
 
Suedey said:
I think the way to go about it is to go back the old fashioned ways of used record stores and also sell some limited stock of 'new' vinyl.
I've noticed a few of those cropping up.
Mind you they'd need to have food licence I imagine and/or alcohol as well if they want to make a good profit.
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Yes, we've got one here. Which is also has a CBD cafe, and sells houseplants, and is a hair salon.

Blatantly out of business by before next summer.
 
I miss the days when they couldn't give away vinyl. I remember going into stores and buying 5 albums for a quid!
 
lolly said:
As plants have been mentioned, when did they become a huge thing again? It feels like every second new shop that opens here is a plant shop. Or a gift shop which also sells plants. Or a cafe which also sells plants.

A few years back if I was in town, the only place I could get a houseplant would be a small selection at M&S. Now I reckon I've got about there are about ten places I could go within a ten minute walk of my office.

Is it a lockdown thing?
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I’d say instagram has a lot to say for this
 
lolly said:
Yes, we've got one here. Which is also has a CBD cafe, and sells houseplants, and is a hair salon.

Blatantly out of business by before next summer.
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Ours is coffee & cakes. It's been doing well so far but I do feel I'm the only one that actually buys records whilst most people go in for the (admittedly lovely) homemade cakes..
 
Sheena said:
I miss the days when they couldn't give away vinyl. I remember going into stores and buying 5 albums for a quid!
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It's moved to cassettes as well now. Not all charity shops have them, but those that do have a better selection than of LPs (as in it's not all Acker Bilk or Die Zauberflöte), but whereas before you could get them for 50p, now it's a fiver for any old shit.
 
There is one near me which started off as a caravan selling coffee cake and vinyl, theyve now taken over a unit, put a big outdoor seating area and sel craft ale and have live music. Quite a nice little vibe.
 
lolly said:
Yes, we've got one here. Which is also has a CBD cafe, and sells houseplants, and is a hair salon.

Blatantly out of business by before next summer.
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Oh, I don't know, if you're going to be that random, you can just throw in something else. "Footfall's down...quick, throw in a nail bar and a charcuterie, that'll keep us afloat".
 
lolly said:
It's moved to cassettes as well now. Not all charity shops have them, but those that do have a better selection than of LPs (as in it's not all Acker Bilk or Die Zauberflöte), but whereas before you could get them for 50p, now it's a fiver for any old shit.
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Yup! I still get the odd cassette bargain to flog. (Madge is generally good- especially if it’s a cassette single or a foreign copy- shout out to the Indonesian Like a Virgin I bought for 20p and flogged on eBay for £100ish) But you’re right, most are now stupidly priced.
 
We have Pie and Vinyl, but that only sells new. It’s very successful, seemingly.
 
OT:

Mr Sheena Moonpigged his anniversary card this year and it’s amazing:

3B893991-8E03-4A59-AE27-8686BDD7C770.jpeg


(If you know, you know)
 
Sheena said:
Charity shopping is dead for vinyl mostly. I have one store (out of town) which I still get some stuff in and that’s pretty much it. It’s either insane overpricing (“Nightflight to Venus” marked “RARE” with a £25 price sticker on being my recent favourite) or just granny records. I just don’t get it- even if you are putting them on eBay, put them in your shop for a decent price and attract people to come in who might buy other stuff.

Even the tip has been dead the last few months. They’re clearly keeping them back for something or someone working there is taking them home.
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We've got a new coffee shop that's opened in Cowes that sells loads of vinyls. It's really cool.
 
A few charity shops have dedicated vinyl stores, but they have become depressing recently as well. We've got a CLIC Sargent one here that was pretty good, but our favourite was a Dorothy House one in Bath. You could get properly interesting stuff in there - I remember Mr L coming out with a batch of South American vinyl on one trip, having spent about eighty quid. He'd have spent double that on discogs for the same (plus postage from there is utterly ludicrous), and it felt like a nice mix of him getting a good deal, and the charity making a nice amount rather than them going for a couple of quid a throw like they used to years ago.

We probably go to Bath about every six weeks or so though, and I don't remember a sniff of anything decent since the end of last year. Now it's all the stuff that used to turn up routinely in standard charity shops - standard 80s and 90s stuff at a fiver a time.

There is a lovely new shop right opposite though which sells (overpriced) new and used vinyl, plus plants and has a small cafe at the back... :D
 
And HMV in Bath has moved out of their old three storey store into a much smaller shop in a poorer location :(
 
lolly said:
We probably go to Bath about every six weeks or so though, and I don't remember a sniff of anything decent since the end of last year. Now it's all the stuff that used to turn up routinely in standard charity shops - standard 80s and 90s stuff at a fiver a time.
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I was there last weekend and had a look. Nothing exciting.
 
Glasgow most successful independent record shop, Monorail, is built into a pub/restaurant that occasionally doubles (triples?) up as a venue. When they opened about 20 years ago, the notion was considered bizarre. Since then, it's become perfectly standard. In fact, one of the most recent openings in Glasgow is a combined bar and record shop.
 
Supposed to be going to my sisters birthday lunch in an hour but the present I ordered isn’t scheduled to arrive until half two and I’ve just realised I don’t have a PEN so can’t write on her card :D:goodgrief:
 
Soldi said:
Supposed to be going to my sisters birthday lunch in an hour but the present I ordered isn’t scheduled to arrive until half two and I’ve just realised I don’t have a PEN so can’t write on her card :D:goodgrief:
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How do you NOT have various bic biros scattered around every drawer of the house, many in the wrong lids, and which depsire their sheer number you can never find one when you actually need it?
 
Suomi said:
We had much of this iconic footage playing in the background at our own wedding :disco:
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ICONIQUE!

The best thing about that at the time was the newspaper reporting about who was actually dead.

“One cast member said “I knew I was a goner because they said to the make up lady “MORE KETCHUP ON HER!”.” :D
 
I was just in Aldi and burst into song in the checkout queue. For what I presume to be reasons of undeserved confidence, I received a joyous round of applause from those around me.

For my next performance, check listings at your local Spar.
 
Ag said:
I was just in Aldi and burst into song in the checkout queue. For what I presume to be reasons of undeserved confidence, I received a joyous round of applause from those around me.

For my next performance, check listings at your local Spar.
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But WHAT did you sing?
 
Ag said:
I was just in Aldi and burst into song in the checkout queue. For what I presume to be reasons of undeserved confidence, I received a joyous round of applause from those around me.

For my next performance, check listings at your local Spar.
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We need a video of the Ag perf to go viral please
 
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