Coronavirus: Supporting independent shops has never been more vital– Kevin Buckle

The coronavirus could be the final straw for many businesses, warns Kevin Buckle

Record shops have now lost their entire high street income (Picture: Ian Rutherford)

Thursday saw the launch of #loverecordstores a timely reminder that in these difficult times record shops have now lost their entire high street income and will struggle to get through the months that follow.

I’m well aware that record shops are no more deserving of support than many other businesses so personally I haven’t promoted this too much, though there were some nice supportive comments which I greatly appreciated and I would encourage folk to support local businesses at this time, especially those that are trying to eke out an income online.

Selling music online is already a very crowded marketplace and therefore by its very nature competitive. Global international sites like Discogs have a reach massively beyond any normal shop’s own website but of course expose sellers to that competition.

Psychologically at least trying to sell online gives a feeling of doing something rather than simply giving up and so long as the seller is prepared to put in many hours of listing with little result it certainly can’t do any harm.

Now I have time I’ll be adding far more T-shirts in particular to the Avalanche website as well as starting to list the prints we have planned but I’m realistic about the response.

We are asked continuously by customers who aren’t local if our T-shirts are listed as they have friends back home who would be interested but there has never been time. We can always point people in the direction of our music sales but at least this time spent at home can be used productively to cover other areas.

More importantly, as our sales of work and designs by artists such as Gerry Gapinski and more lately Butcher Billy show, having unique and interesting items helps solve the problem of competition. It was already in our plans and will very much be a part of Avalanche’s future as well as helping get us through the next few months.

The problem for some time now has been that for one shop to be given an advantage it must by necessity be done at the expense of others. More often it is the label or artist that has the advantage. At least by sourcing unique and exclusive things to sell we are earning that advantage.

While these next few months will be tricky for all of us what will really matter is how shops bounce back again once they are open and that of course is in the hands of their customers.

In Edinburgh in particular I have a real concern that the efficient and well run machine that is Essential Edinburgh will go into overdrive to bring back customers while the mainly independent and unrepresented, since the failure of the Old Town BID, businesses of the Old Town will struggle to recover. Never has there been a better argument for one organisation to look after the entire city centre.

So certainly do please support independent businesses online and maybe don’t go with the more obvious and busier sites but instead look to see who else you know online that would appreciate even a few sales every day.

At a time when things have never been harder on the high street the COVID-19 virus will either be the final straw for many businesses or the reason that customers return in larger numbers than before.