May 10 2016

 

     It's a funny thing 'retail'! Once upon a time you'd just make a TV ad and away you go, you'll have a suceessful business, yet now, with the internet essentially affecting every single aspect of out lives, the good needs to outweight the bad.

 

     To be honest in the mid 90's when Napster allowed us to download the music we wanted immediately and without charge I personally thought it would be nice to grab the songs I needed to learn for the band without having to take my lazy butt into town and physically buy the single! The dismantling of record companies and profits for the afore mentioned tyrannical overlords meant that they could no longer 'invest' in the artists they signed, and music has become less regulated and (some could argue) less polished, less imaginative and for my mind contain far less virtuosity! Where we go to from here and if music is going to benefit or suffer, we'll see.

 

     I bring this up as I fear the same for retail and local business if we're not diligent and nepotistic in relation to our local traders, we may suffer irreparably in the long term. If you buy something you CAN get in town or in the country elsewhere, you are unquestionably doing yourself and incredible dis-service. Regardless of price, there's a high chance you will need to buy this product again as alot of things I've gotten online are of substandard quality or aren't as advertised. This means you will need to buy this product again, or replace it before a reasonable amount of use. Whichever way you look at it it's false economy. You MAY save initially, but in the long term you will pay with either replacing it, or once online stores have a monopoly they will be able to charge what they like for WHAT they like!

 

     That being said, I refuse to not exploit the fact we have access to the Internet wherever we are, and have unprecedented information available instantly. So USE social media, use websites and use the internet as best as you're able to promote you and your product.