It is a day once a year when the country’s bricks-and-mortar record shops promote themselves and each other, with nationwide publicity and a website supported by BBC Sounds.
UK sales of vinyl records are set to outstrip sales of CDs in 2022, in a development no-one in the music industry anticipated.
This has breathed new life into record stores, with customers enjoying browsing sleeves and printed lyrics. Two hundred and sixty independent record stores have taken part in this year’s Record Stores Day, and can be found via the website’s Store Locator feature.
Could we in the trade not do something similar and have an Antiques Shop Day #AntiquesShopDay?
We could enlist the support of the BBC and the presenters of their popular and endlessly repeated antiques programmes. We could choose the first or fourth Saturday of a particular month, rather than a date.
It would be a collective effort to promote ourselves and each other, relatively simply and inexpensively, for antiques shops of all budgets, from the very grand to the relatively modest like my own.
The radio, TV and press coverage would be there for the taking; an opportunity to showcase extraordinary pieces in fabulous showrooms and quirky items in emporiums and tiny shops.
I realise many colleagues have moved into online sales, or sell only at fairs, but those of us still on the high street, backwater, retail park, industrial estate and cul-de-sac, paying rent and business rates, would surely welcome an initiative across the trade to publicise our existence, enticing more customers and, importantly, encouraging visits from younger generations. Hashtags, websites and TV personalities do this splendidly.
Could we give it a go?
Clarissa Reilly
Digger & Mojo Pewsey, Wiltshire
