smoe.org mailing lists
ivan@stellysee.de
| From | Not Lame <popmusic@notlame.com> |
| Subject | Mail order bad? and 'playing it safe'? No way, Jose! |
| Date | Fri, 28 Feb 2003 10:15:13 -0700 |
[Part 1 text/plain ISO-8859-1 (5.3 kilobytes)]
(View Text in a separate window)
> Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 09:33:57 -0500
> From: "Robert Berry" <rberry@nc.rr.com>
> To: <audities@smoe.org>
> Subject: Parasol
> Message-ID: <006701c2df36$6d65eea0$6401a8c0@raleigh.ibm.com>
>
> Frankly, I think it's risky to give your money to these new-fangled
> "on-line" music stores. I'd say that anyone who's unhappy with the customer
> service they get from those places should play it safe and shop at Best Buy
> and Circuit City. Nobody ever had a customer-service problem at *those*
> places.
>
> Robert Berry
Ouch, Robert! big owwie. ;-)
Not sure if you are joking here or are serious.
I *think* it's the former (as I know you have purchased from Not Lame for
awhile, too......thanks, mate!) . But if the latter, let me rant and
take some liberties and address the subject brought up here either way.
First(and real quickly), it does makes me cringe to have a screw up Not Lame
might do publically flogged (please, no offense Kelly...i understand the
frustration you went t hru entirely)......we'll mess up, like Parasol did w/
Kelly ( but forgive us....we're people who trip up personally and
professionally, just like everyone on this list..and we have limitation to
the timing of the services we'll provide when it comes to stocking limited
editions cd's),----------BUT, much m ore importantly, I do have to
*strongly* defend the inference of Parasol with the above statement( and Not
Lame and other niche online stores) in just-as-strong terms. It attacks
the very core of why places like Parasol and Not Lame exist. what we both
do(and the other niche online stores, too), that can NOT be found at some
faceless, clueless, quarterly-driven, sell-below- cost -to- get- folks- to-
buy- electronics chains like these *is* this:
We care and love the music we carry. We have relationships w/ customers. We
know what we sell , intimately and passionately. And we'll go the extra
mile, wherever possible. And when we screw up, we'll own it. Personally.
and make it better in a way you'll never see a corporation like the above
do. Like in our personal lives, a little grace in a mis-step/mistake goes a
lot of ways as it all comes back around, in the end. It's no reason to
avoid places like Parasol or Not Lame.
Parasol and Not Lame and other like us exist because of the fuel that
propels a list just like this one to have a soul, in my opinion. We live
and breathe this stuff. We don¹t' punch time clocks and do a job pushing
every electronic gizmo under the sun and merely stock cd's as a loss-leader
to create profits for the other goods sold at BB or CC.
"New fangled" is not Parasol or Not Lame. Parasol has been around for 11/12
years. Not Lame 8. :-D
We're all constantly trying to upgrade and make things better w/ our
companies. With next to no money and limited resources. I won't speak for
Parasol here, but for me, what Not Lame has done always comes right from my
own pocket, label and store-wise. And all it's related to large, sometimes
huge risks, too. There's no hidden investors, stock or trust fund. I owe a
bank, like many us do. And try to keep it at a minimum, wherever possible.
We're perfectly safe to do business with. And anyone saying we're not,
well, yr just plain wrong. in my opinion. Of course, anyone here is free to
feel otherwise.
And, more frankly, one of the most significant problems battling the music
industry(and, yes, I think Mike Roux will agree...even places like Parasol
and Not Lame), especially on the retail front, IS the best buys and circuit
cities and h ow they do business with selling music. Sure, they sell cd's
cheaply. Why? Most of them are sold below cost or at cost. Really, folks.
It's true. You get a great buy picking cd's up there...no argument. But
they do it for a reason: To get you to buy all the other stuff there. Most
which, arguably, you don't need. (upgade that mircrowave while you pick up
the new Coldplay, please) And those sales are to t he detriment of mom and
pop music stores of all kinds --- all of who have a shockingly
'philistinic' business model.
That is: They buy at a certain price. Mark up a certain amount to cover the
costs of labor, salaries, rent, utilities, office exenses and then enough
to, hopefully, make a small net profit to keep on selling music they love.
'Shocking'. Truly shocking. ;-)
And I'll add this, BB and its ilk, de-value the basic worth of music,
making a throw-away commodity, more so than MP3's every could.
I've said before, I'll say it to my dying breath......support indie music
retail: in your home town, on your travels around the country and online.
It's the plasma that keeps great music flowing into our lives. Okay, sure
you'll pay a few dollars more, sometimes, possibly many times. But there's
a lot more going on than saving a few dollars when you buy indie. A LOT
more. And we'll carry music you'll NEVER, EVER see in those stores.
Never. And we'll carry artists that populate this list, who would never be
given a listen by the buyers for those companies.
Again, not sure if the statement above was joking or not, but I took some
liberty to address why companies like mine exist and,I hope, are important,
in whatever modest way with getting indie and hard-to-hear music heard.
To those who read, thanks for indulging me.
Peace
Bruce @ Not Lame
For assistance, please contact
the smoe.org administrators.