Like someone who has come out the other side of a messy divorce, I get the sense that UK MI retail is starting to feel good about itself again and is even starting to receive the occasional compliment on its shape.
Certainly it has been through a fair amount of pain over the last few years and, let’s not make light of the fact that people lost jobs and businesses as the market flattened out and recession bit hard. But, I said at the time, that it was a case of adapt or die. The retailers that were sitting in their shops wondering when the next customer was going to walk through the door while doing very little to help bring them through the door, were not going to wait it out and survive. Not this time. Even some of those that were proactive still went under despite their best efforts.
The difference was probably the severity of this decline and of course, this was the first High Street recession of the e-commerce age, where price wins over customer service and product knowledge. So a lot of the retailers that were still struggling with online and were…how to put this kindly…less competent at the modern vagaries of business and customer service, fell by the wayside. Truth is, a little bit of natural selection was certainly at play.
The JG Windows story isn’t actually that recent, but we’ve only just got MMR Global going and I wanted an opportunity to talk about the new and better retail offering that is emerging in the UK, so I put it up. I’m the editor. Sue me.
We may have ended up with a leaner retail base than existed before but the quality of some of the major dealers who are investing in new shop fits, new websites and perhaps most importantly, new attitudes are worthy of comment. Naming just a few off the top of my head, the always excellent PMT, GuitarGuitar, the recently floated Gear4Music, Red Dog, Yamaha London (yeah I know, it’s supplier-owned), Andertons, Absolute Music, the list goes on. All are part of a new tranche of UK retailers who are changing the notion of what a music store should be.
I know. You’re already pining for the spit and sawdust store with racks of gear and just as many cobwebs as packets of strings. Maybe there’s still a niche for that. I hope so. As much as we welcome this new breed it would be a poorer place if every store was a flourescent-lit plan-o-grammed retail consultant’s wet dream. But there were an awful lot of bad shops in MI that were not beloved of suppliers and its hard to imagine were that much of a favourite with customers either. Those are the ones that won’t be missed.
If I may return to the divorce metaphor…. you’re so much better off without the fat, cheating hag and you never loved her anyway. No, wait a minute. I’ve gone to another place there. Forget it.
Er…it was painful. Nearly as painful as this thinly stretched metaphorical rambling which, to be honest, I wish I’d never embarked upon. But, for MI retail, from where I’m standing (and thank God it’s no longer ontop of a multi-storey car park with a bottle of Bells) the future is starting to look a lot brighter.
