Radical Concept to Fix RSD Lines/Scalpers, Thoughts?
IMHO, I think that the way that you fix it is that shops prioritize access to their regular customers first. The folks who come in regularly to make it part of their regular routine get priority access/dibs. Then the masses get whatever is left. An example from last month, One of the local shops had a lottery appointment shopping hours for the morning and then opened it to the general public in the afternoon.
To further expand on what this could look like:
- If you've been making purchases regularly for at least X months before RSD,
- established a relationship with the staff, (you know their name, they know your name)
- done trades,
- Staff know what you are looking for when you come in the store.
- Signed up for the newsletter,
- followed them on social media,
- attended a listening party,
- bought a few non exclusive high flip records,
- said please and thank you, ran into staff at a local show.
Boom, regular customer shop time. Or an invitation to be entered into the aforementioned reserved appointment slots that a shop did before.
I think at the end of the day it's about relationships and community building. We all want to both enjoy our hobby and share in our passion. We can be edge-lords all we want but also want to make sure that there's accessibility to the folks who have no idea what this whole thing is about.
If we want the stores to survive into the next decade again, making sure that they are third spaces where gathering and community is going to be just as important as them being transactional hubs.
On a complete side note, I was a shut in depressive for a few years post pandemic and vinyl collecting got be back into loving music, which led me to go back to concerts, and one of my plans is to do a road trip to all the independent music stores I have bought from online over the years.