Interesting article over at AnIdea about how manufacturers are willing to lower costs for “routine customers.” I can see how easily this would apply to the Personal Goods Industry, but not sure how flexible manufacturers / distros in other industries would be to an idea like this.
Interesting Read.
CPG companies spend tons of money on discounts, promotions and samples to try to do just that. Individual purchases don’t create much value in themselves, but routine customers are a tremendous asset.
Ask an associate in a Best Buy what they think of the new Will Oldham album and odds on you’ll get a blank stare. At an indie shop, you’re certain to find an informed, if not passionate, opinion on any form of music – and yes, that opinion may well be delivered in a certain tone by a Jack Black type in a T-shirt and frayed jeans.
Looking at the most complete sales data available (for 2008), the sales of vinyl LPs jumped an eye-popping 89 percent, from 990,000 units sold to 1.88 million units sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan’s year-end report.
“His shop is old school — that’s why I go there. I expect a bit more from my music buying experience than opening up an amazon.com box or watching a download click across the screen. Meeting actual people is part of that experience that you internet shut-ins are missing,” wrote a poster named Frank.
We’ve been working on all different fronts lately, selling Digital Download cards for all kinds of crazy uses. Album Art packages have been doing really well as well. Currently we’re only taking orders by phone / email, but our turnaround time can’t be beat.
Anyway, stumbled upon some sweet hand-drawn album covers, so here they are:
Every Friday afternoon my dad would pick me up from school. From about 4 – whenever he would close, we would hang out at LJ Sports Cards with my dad, Lenny (the owner) other kids on their way home from school, then the guys on their way home from work. We’d hang out late, talk about the Mets, statistics, what new sets were coming out, what big cards we were thinking about buying… Probably most Fridays for 3-4 years we did that. It’s what I loved to do. Its how I became a collector. It was the greatest thing in the world.
