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An online sales tax seems sensible but would mean we all paid more. If we all voted for that, it'd surely be the first time any direct tax increase won a popular vote...
30-40 years ago, changes to daily life were viewed positively, indicators of progress and improvement.
Today, changes are viewed as automatically negative, everything that 'ceases to be' is a loss, and folks just want things to 'stay the same'.
Its funny the way that being Anti-change is now respectable - it used to be seen as "You're getting old before your time!"
I’m due to go in today to pickup up a guitar that’s had some work done.
Can you solve evolution?
The High St merely reflects society's demand and changes in shopping habits.
In many French villages, you'd still go into your local shop to buy your bread - daily. In most English villages, there's no longer a village shop. (Nor a Post Office, nor a pub, nor ...). I'm not saying one is right, or better. The difference reflects the different values of the different societies.
From my perspective, we value cheap rather than good (use the Bread example again). And that applies to pretty much all of us in one way or another.
We - being guitarists who perhaps value knowledge and experience of guitars - may bemoan the loss of guitar shops in the high streets, but we're quite happy to buy our books from Amazon because they're cheaper and get delivered next day.
Whereas the bookists are still mourning the loss of High St book shops since Amazon put them out of business by offering cheaper prices and next day delivery.
If there is a solution, it's that guitar shops need to become more interesting places. They have to make an advantage out of what makes them different rather than accepting the difference (ie the high street presence) as a disadvantage (ie the costs of the high street presence!). But I've little idea how they might do that ...
What is easy us to solve it for yourself. Opt out. Its all in your head. Buy fewer things, buy quality, pay more. Have less cheap crap shipped from China on your behalf, thus pollute less too. Concentrate on people and experiences instead of trying to fill the void with acquisition.
Ironically, the internet makes it easier to seek out artisan makers and smaller retailers. For example, my wife recently bought a UK hand made leather handbag that will last her a lifetime. It was a lot of money, but way less than a designer bag from China, and represents great value for money. Not trendy of course, and how many will follow that example in our society these days?
Even on this forum, how many will say that they'll have 1 or 2 really nice guitars, a hand built amp ( ) bought locally, then stop buying and focus on playing? Not many.
Here endeth today's sermon!
As a member of a gigging band though, we still need a ton of cheap Chinese PA and lighting tat to stay on the road - there's no way on earth we could afford to gig with "good" stuff. It might last longer but the initial outlay is horrific.
I can't imagine it'll be long before Gammlins, which is next door to PMT, closes as well, however due to the employed personal there I won't be disappointed in the slightest (I don't like anyone losing theirs jobs, so I'm not pushing for that, I just think they're knobs)
Feedback can be found here http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/908933#Comment_908933
View my feedback at www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/1201922
I used to work in Swansea and often popped in to Cranes at lunchtime with a guitar playing colleague. Quite a large shop, but it seemed most of the stock was entry-level stuff. There was talk of the Cardiff branch opening above the old store to deal with high-end used guitars, but that never happened.