Shelter skelter

Record stores during the pandemic and the new selling of old stuff

Bibliographic Data

ID11267702
AuthorsMichael Palm (0000-0003-3068-8144, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume44
Issue2
Pages395-403
Publication date2022-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedia Culture & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0163-4437 • E-ISSN: 1460-3675
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/01634437211065686
OpenAlexW4220898991
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited6

In this essay I draw on observations about how the pandemic impacted sales of vinyl records, in order to describe a (further) dis-embedding of brick-and-mortar second-hand stores from their local economies and communities. Before the pandemic, the majority of vinyl was already being purchased online; while buyers and sellers were sheltering in place, the vinyl marketplace’s reliance on the internet became total, and vinyl traffic skewed more than ever toward used records. Nearly all record stores had an online presence before the pandemic, and shops that already had an online sales system in place and a customer base accustomed to buying online had an enormous head start toward staying solvent while sheltering in place. During the pandemic, Instagram joined sites like Discogs and eBay as a platform for vinyl sales, and social media graduated from primarily functioning as a means of promotion for record stores and became a requisite component of sales infrastructure. I ask how local merchants of vintage goods like records can maintain a local orientation despite shifting away from local customers

Advertising · Brick and mortar · Business · Commerce · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Order (exchange · Pandemic · Political science · Promotion (chess · The Internet · World Wide Web · Cinema and Media Studies · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Music History and Culture · Marketing

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