Your CD-shop Modus Operandi

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When you're in a record/CD shop, do you ever browse exhaustively from A through Z in one or more categories, pulling out all the discs that interest you most? That’s me on the few occasions when I’m not in a hurry, and I’m in a good shop I haven’t recently visited. Then I usually have to go through my stack of CDs and agonize over which ones to put back so I don’t spend too much.

Also:

Separate tabs for even the most-obscure/least-prolific artists
vs
"Miscellaneous B"

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Monday, 13 January 2003 02:10 (twenty-three years ago)

I only browse the sale bins exhaustively

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 13 January 2003 02:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Sometimes. Usually I try to go by a list so I don't get distracted and spend too much. Which I do anyway. Easier to shop online.

― Tom Millar (Millar), Monday, 13 January 2003 02:22 (twenty-three years ago)

It's usually impossible to go straight from A to Z, there'll always be someone hogging some of the letters.

I usually have a vague list of things I'm looking for in my head.

Thing is, I can only remember one at a time. So I'll be thinking, "M, I have to look at M", and then there's someone already looking at M. I'll look at at another letter until they're finished - G maybe - and I'll be muttering, "Why the hell am I looking at G? I don't like any Gs. I am such a faker. Why won't that guy at the Ms hurry up?"

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Monday, 13 January 2003 02:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Meanwhile I've finished the Fs and you're IN MY WAY...

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Monday, 13 January 2003 02:41 (twenty-three years ago)

I wander aimlessly, trying to think of who it was that I was looking for in the first place - unless I've brought along a list I'm usually clueless. Which means that I actually look at different things and stumble across new artists. And once I have decided that I am tired of the thumbing though the stacks (which happens rather fast, as I find my brain overloaded by all of the colors and images and the background noise,) I pay for my selections and then wander around outside the store, humming, people-watching, and otherwise filling the time while I wait for my s/o to finish his browsing, which involves looking at every single CD, in alphabetical order, in every category (include those he doesn't like), choosing 20+ CDs, and then waving me back inside to convince him to put half of the selections back into the racks. The replacement process is hindered by his additional browsing while determing where he originally found things. I have now instituted a policy that I put the cases back while he pays. Maybe I should just shop alone?

― LCD (Ms Laura), Monday, 13 January 2003 06:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, and I vote for separate tabs for artists, no matter how obscure or non-prolific - I detest "miscellaneous" racks, where everything is jumbled - when that happens I just randomly scan and then leave, having missed most of the CDs in the rack.

― LCD (Ms Laura), Monday, 13 January 2003 06:49 (twenty-three years ago)

Absolutely individual tabs for each artist. Though it seems that the better the shoppe, the more often "misc." racks are used.

And I always have a precise idea of what I'm getting, if I choose to browse (for which I rarely go to the shoppe nowadays), it's to kill time, so I head to the used section and try to look through random letters.

― Leee (Leee), Monday, 13 January 2003 07:19 (twenty-three years ago)

I usually go straight for the compilations - not only are there always good ones I've never heard of, but seeing all the artist names will trigger me to go off and look for the other things I was interested in, which I forgot the names of the moment I walked through the door.

― matt riedl (veal), Monday, 13 January 2003 17:53 (twenty-three years ago)

I jump around. As far as the individual dividers goes; it depends on the store -- inaccurate and mis-filed entries prove upsetting because you just know how many times (when you can't find a specific record) it's the fault of the these said errors. Oh, and i pull all incured misfiled entires. If they want me to refile properly i need a finders fee.

― christoff (christoff), Monday, 13 January 2003 18:04 (twenty-three years ago)

i usually just wander aimlessly for the first ten minutes,then gradually seeing one cd jogs my memory of someone else i wanted to look for,etc
i spend ages-if i have the money for one cd,i will pick out about five or six,then spend about 3/4 of an hour trying to decide,all the while browsing and thus seeing other possibilites

― robin (robin), Monday, 13 January 2003 19:04 (twenty-three years ago)

I haven't bought a CD in so long I can't remember... but back when I did, I was definitely one of the A to Z'ers. It was how I used to spend my Saturdays. I was so anal about it that if someone stood in my way, I'd wait politely (staring at them till they felt uncomfortable) until they moved and let me carry on browsing.

I'm also terrible at just picking up every CD that catches my interest and carrying them around for ages before deciding which ones I want and putting the others back.

― kate, Monday, 13 January 2003 20:27 (twenty-three years ago)

As far as the individual dividers goes; it depends on the store -- inaccurate and mis-filed entries prove upsetting because you just know how many times (when you can't find a specific record) it's the fault of the these said errors. Oh, and i pull all incured misfiled entires. If they want me to refile properly i need a finders fee.

Precisely for this reason, I tend to prefer when stores supplement the individual tabs with "miscellaneous" ones. Otherwise that Brian Ferneyhough disc you're not finding is probably stuck in the Brian Fennelly section because nobody ever got around to making a separate tab for him...

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Monday, 13 January 2003 20:36 (twenty-three years ago)

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