A Letter from us, RE: Record Store Day 2011
Shuga Records would like to make the following announcement to all of our customers, friends, and family regarding Record Store Day, April 16th:
We were greatly anticipating the arrival of Record Store Day this weekend, as I know many of our customers were (our phone has been ringing off the hook all week with calls about RSD). Attempting to spread the orders out through multiple distributors to mitigate the risk of supply issues, we ordered thousands of dollars in Record Store Day titles from various groups we work with, such as Red Eye Distribution, FatBeats Records, Secretly Canadian Distribution, and locally, The Electric Fetus (the ‘one-stop’ record source where most of the local shops order their inventory through, and the people we ordered a significant amount of our RSD titles from).
At around noon yesterday, we called the Electric Fetus to find out when our order would be ready, but the message was not responded to. I sent multiple e-mails to our contact at Electric Fetus, which were not responded to. This morning, after still having no response from the Electric Fetus, Adam called again, finally got through, and was initially told that they didn’t believe we had made an order. Later, they called back saying they had found a small order of “300-500 dollars” (the Flaming Lips Boxsets we ordered 4 of were $96 each, so how we only made a 400 dollar order is beyond me).
Ultimately, the most frustrating part of this event is that we have traditionally had a blast on record store day, holding in store performances from numerous local groups (this weekend is the 8-bit Short Circuit event), but this year we will have an unfortunately small amount of product to sell to our customers that have been calling for weeks hoping to snag some special vinyl. I’m not a big fan of airing dirty laundry publicly, I can deal with the petty interpersonal bullshit that has been boiling for a longtime with the Electric Fetus (in addition to numerous local record store employees or owners that don’t work at Shuga, we are ‘banned’ from shopping in the retail portion of their store. Yup. They’ll take our money for One-Stop Distribution, but they won’t let us buy a $1 classical record from their bargain bin), but when they take a shit on my customers as well, It really gets to be too much. I don’t need their used records for myself, I can find plenty, I do it all day for a living, but if I order new records for our customers to purchase, which I wasn’t able (at that time) to obtain from other sources, I expect to either be told to go elsewhere to order, or to have my order fulfilled.
All that said, we will have a small portion of record store day titles, including artists like Hank Williams III, Adele, The Flaming Lips, Daedelus, Flying Lotus, Tom Pettty, Mates of State, The Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen, Omar Rodriguez Lopez (super dope boxset!!), and more. Also, thanks to our friends at Red Eye Distribution, a company WORTH doing business with, we’ll have 75 limited edition Daptones Records sampler CD’s to give out, we’ll be giving away Free Drinks at the 331 CLUB & Anchor Fish and Chips Gift Certificates for every $20 spent, while supplies last. Used Media (in store) is 50% off, all online inventory is 30%, and all electronics are 30% off. The monthly 8-Bit Circuit-bending showcase, “Short Circuits”, will be taking place from 4:30 to 9.
We are excited to participate in this event, despite the lack of support from those entrusted with distribution of the fruits that fall from the RSD tree, and look forward to seeing anyone that wants to come party with us. We appreciate the continued support from Northeast, and the greater twin cities area, especially those that read this to completion. Big ups, the internet hasn’t destroyed your attention span and you stuck with me.
- Will / Shugarecords
