what was the last thing you bought in hopes of impressing the staff at the counter?

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me? old Six Organs of Admittance and a Go-Betweens reissue of 16 Lovers Lane

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 07:37 (twenty years ago)

go-team thunder lightning strike. but i also really wanted it anyway so it wasn't for the sole purpose of impressing the chappy i've been lusting after for months.

― gem (trisk), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 07:40 (twenty years ago)

THE STORE!

― Huk-L, Tuesday, 1 February 2005 07:42 (twenty years ago)

MC Skat Kat and The Stray Mob, The Adventures of MC Skat Kat and the Stray Mob

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 08:04 (twenty years ago)

Arthur Russel - World of Echoes

It's good, though. No regrets.

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 08:10 (twenty years ago)

Never did this. The number of times counter staff have said "Oh that's a great album" my unacted on response has usually been to want to put it back.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 09:17 (twenty years ago)

LMAO Huk-L

― Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 09:31 (twenty years ago)

Neil Young: Everyone Knows This is Nowhere, because my best friend was working and I wanted to prove I actually buy albums rather than just burn them off of him!

― Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 09:32 (twenty years ago)

trojan extra large

― lukey (Lukey G), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 10:49 (twenty years ago)

I have occasionally gotten comments from record store clerks on the diversity of my purchases, for instance when I bought a Bob Seger record and a Morton Subotnick record, the guy behind the counter remarked on the fact that he rarely saw that combination. There've been other times this has happened to me too, though I don't recall the particular combination of records that precipitated the comments, but I've never done it deliberately to provoke a reaction - it's just what I felt like buying.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 15:17 (twenty years ago)

If you've consciously done this, shoot yourself.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 15:19 (twenty years ago)

Sadly, the staff at our one local record store buy albums just to impress me.

― Bruce S. Urquhart (BanjoMania), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 15:19 (twenty years ago)

I got a comment for buying a Bob Seger record, too ("guilty pleasure", to which I didn't respond) along with some Joplin rags. Any impressing of staff has been coincidental to buying whatever it was I wanted/found.

xpost

― W i l l (common_person), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 15:21 (twenty years ago)

i think i once did this w. a robben ford record, in the 9th grade. i don't have it anymore.

― Jay-Kid (Jay-Kid), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 15:22 (twenty years ago)

This reminds me of when I was maybe 12 and I bought Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger and Da Lench Mob - Guerillas in the Mist at the same time, and I was terrified of what the store clerk would think of the "weird combination".

I never EVER buy anything to impress a clerk, but admittedly, the uber-indie Princeton Record Exchange staff sometimes (wilfully or not) make me feel a slight tinge of embarassment.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 15:23 (twenty years ago)

Sigh, this reminds me of how impersonal buying everything online is. Perhaps some lonely Amazon database server is impressed though.

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 15:40 (twenty years ago)

Different but related question: what was the last thing you DIDN'T buy because you didn't want the staff at the counter to know you were buying it? I suspect even the "I'd never buy anything to impress the staff" crowd has felt a tinge of this.

And Amazon changes that dynamic in an interesting way: you can buy all the things you wouldn't want to be seen buying.

But then all your Amazon recommendations from then on are based on the things you wouldn't want to be seen buying, and not the things that are most emblematic of your taste.

― The Mad Puffin, Tuesday, 1 February 2005 15:50 (twenty years ago)

Lonely database servers, hmm. Was the Absolutely Fucking Amazing sale just a pathetic bid for attention?!?!

― W i l l (common_person), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 15:56 (twenty years ago)

It may be just me but in my experience there is no pleasing these people. I watched a clerk "scoff" at someone buying 36 Chambers on time. How do you scoff at 36 Chambers?

― earinfections (Nick Twisp), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 16:45 (twenty years ago)

I've never bought something to impress salespersons, but I have rearranged the order if I'm buying a stack of CDs.

― Brian Miller (Brian Miller), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 16:51 (twenty years ago)

xpost: In addition to the "no pleasing these people" thing, after a while one does outgrow the sentiment that you should care what a record store clerk thinks.

After all, if they're such hot shit, what are they doing working as a record store cashier? (No offense, but it's not usually the career choice of people who are setting the world on fire with their intellect, their talent, their critical acumen, or their ambition.)

Still. It's a perfectly human thing to have felt at one time or another.

― The Mad Puffin, Tuesday, 1 February 2005 16:53 (twenty years ago)

i guess in my own defense, i didn't buy these records for the express purpose of impressing anyone, i just figured that maybe they *might* be impressed with the purchase. in fact, they (she) was.

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 17:30 (twenty years ago)

Pylon's Hits almost two years ago (I had a crush on this lady who used to DJ on the local college station who worked at Borders and was massively obsessed with James Chance), but I really wanted to buy it.

― Ian Riese-Moraine (Eastern Mantra), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 22:13 (twenty years ago)

This is a fool's endeavour for a number of reasons, but one reason is that if it's something the cashier thinks he cool, they're going to think you should own it already. Why so late to the party, you uncool fuck? And don't give me any of that "But it only got released this week" crap - all my hip mates had advance copies months ago.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 23:03 (twenty years ago)

he cool? I dunno. "is cool"

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 23:03 (twenty years ago)

(ha - I *did* actually feel uncool buying the LCD Soundsystem album last week. I had this moronic impulse to tell the cashier I'd had the MP3s for weeks)

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 23:06 (twenty years ago)

Ha, I got "good choice!" the other day when buying the paper-sleeve version of Simple Minds' Sons and Fascination, but I shure as heck didn't do it to impress them! I was actually more worried that they'd think I was lame, instead.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 23:08 (twenty years ago)

If you've consciously done this, shoot yourself.

you have to remember the ubiquitous sexy record store girl. and i'd never buy something like a bright eyes album to impress her. it would have to be something i'm interested in, too.

Yea, alba, i have impulses like that. i bought copies of Loveless and Unknown Pleasures for a friend of mine and had to be like, "Don't worry, they're gifts." pathetic.

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 23:09 (twenty years ago)

Are there any record store clerks out there who can confirm whether this phenomenom is actually real or simply in the mind of music fans who overly emphasise music taste as a personality barometer? Surely after you've rang through your ten thousandth cd you cease to care any more?

― everything, Tuesday, 1 February 2005 23:20 (twenty years ago)

I do remember a clerk commenting "don't see that too often" when I purchased Lucinda Williams and Bauhaus together. I think I responded "well, they both do songs about suicide."

― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 23:24 (twenty years ago)

'Incompatible' purchases, cashier responses

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 00:59 (twenty years ago)

When I was 15 I bought Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto's "Vrioon" to impress a pretty girl working at the counter of a record store. I ended up loving the disc though, so I don't care how pathetic I am. lol

― Nic de Teardrop (Nicholas), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 01:52 (twenty years ago)

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