Yes, with some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket I decide I’d visit FOPP. I’d been avoiding it for sometime now, especially in the weeks before my birthday, but thought it safe to purchase some older items. Of course, as ever, FOPP’s effect on my spending patterns is dramatic and instead of just one or two CDs of older stuff I ended up with:
- Bruce Springsteen – Born in the USA. Damn you “Music Hall of Fame” programme on Channel Four!
- Zwan – Mary Star of the Sea. Been meaning to pick this up for a while, but didn’t want to pay full price. But I’ll pay a £5 for it, yes sir!
- Leftfield – Rhythm and Stealth. Where my copy of this has gone is beyond me, and it’s not a CD that anyone I know would borrow from me. But a replacement for £5? Yes sir!
- Weezer – Green Album. Been listening to “Hash Pipe” and thought, buy the album for a £5? Yes sir!
- Sigmund Freud – Civilization and its Discontents. A book. A small thin book from the Penguin “Great Ideas” range. At £3 that’s gotta be a bargain.
- Seneca – On the Shortness of Life. Another book. Another small thin book from the Penguin “Great Ideas” range. Again £3.
So you can see where I go wrong in FOPP. I fall prey to the simplest suggestive buying technique there is, namely, placing items on a shelf so I can see them.
In saying that, I’m a bit worried about FOPP. Once the purveyor of all things musical, they obviously make a bigger profit selling DVDs and the music shelves are getting smaller and smaller.
On a related note: Where do we learn, what I like to call, the “shelf shuffle”? It only happens in CD or book stores I think, anywhere there are racks of items you need to take in slowly. So there you are moving down an aisle in one direction, someone else is moving towards you and you both co-ordinate your movements as you meet. You both step in the correct direction to allow the other a seamless browsing experience. Clever ain’t it, but how did I learn it? Osmosis?