Avalanche is getting ready to move on to bigger things - Kevin Buckle
I mentioned last week there was a chance of the post office leaving the unit next door to Avalanche and though we were looking for more space, I would much rather the post office was nearby than have the opportunity to expand into the space.
I hadn’t expected to hear much more about it, as really the piece was about the post office rather than Avalanche, but there has been a steady flow of customers asking about our plans and in some cases whether we will be taking on more staff.
I think I can say with certainty that whatever happens with the post office we will not be looking at that unit, despite it being next door.
In fact some time ago we were closer to taking on the unit on the other side of Avalanche at the request of the centre, but when it became clear the vaccination centre needed a bigger space to move to, any thoughts of expanding were put on hold.
If truth be told we would be far better off just expanding our online presence and while I have no wish to join the competitive field of selling new releases, we have a wide selection of exclusive merchandise and also do really well sourcing titles that are not available in the UK from all over the world.
Given we have no special connections to do this and use the import companies dealt with by many record shops, I’m always surprised at how many people comment that they have never seen even some of our biggest sellers elsewhere.
I never fail to be amused when people bring up a pile of vinyl and the first thing they say is “you can’t buy these in London”.
We will do more online in the future and the new website we launched last year to coincide with the Taylor Swift x Butcher Billy exhibition works just fine for us, but obviously there are many other platforms we currently don’t use.
Whatever happens we will look to expand the Avalanche team and though we already have cover to get us through what is going to be a very busy summer as soon as August is over, whether we have plans to move or not we will look at who we need.
A few people have already registered an interest with us and we will keep them informed of our plans.
One thing that has changed over the years is that there is so much to know about in the shop that it is hard to employ anybody part-time as they will just be too much out of the loop.
One thing I’ve always felt important is that when we don’t have something that a customer feels we would have, we explain why.
With merchandise this nearly always means the artist only sells their merchandise from their own website, while with music it will normally mean it is not available anywhere in the world or if technically available is out of stock.
So for now, it is a case of wait and see, but as soon as I have something for sure, readers of the column will be first to know!