Interview
Pure Pop: Single Store Independent Retailer
of the Year
Pure Pop in
Burlington, Vermont won NARM's Single Store Independent Retailer of the Year Award at the
1995 NARM Convention in San Diego.
President and Principle Owner John Crandall opened his
store 15 years ago, stocking it largely with his own record collection. He spoke with us
about his store's niche in the marketplace and the importance of staying true to his
alternative roots.
Tell us about the origins of your store.
How long have you been in business?
Pure Pop started out in 1980. It was always a dream of mine
to get into retailing. I had worked for Handleman's Los Angeles and Denver branches, and,
before that, Peaches' Denver branch. And I was heavily into buying and trading used
product. A friend suggested that a college town would be most supportive of such a
business, so I decided to try Burlington.
So, you were living in Denver and just
decided to test the waters in Vermont?
Yes, I up and left Denver -- didn't know a soul out here.
Initially, Pure Pop shared a small space with two other businesses. Although I invested
$5,000 in a start-up catalog of new product -- which was mainly Rock-oriented -- Pure Pop
was basically a used record store: my own, personal collection of about 3,000 albums. It
was really painful at first to trade and sell them, but I consistently used the money to
reinvest in new product, and we slowly grew from there. Our store is currently about 1,600
square feet.
How many employees do you have and what is
your management philosophy?
We have seven full and four part-time people. Our strategy
has been to try to give them enough of a living wage so they can stay with us! Instead of
having a high turnover and people who don't know where anything is, we've had a very
stable staff. And it's paid off: we've seen our largest growth over the past two to three
years. Of course, we hire people who have an interest in music and purchasing product for
their own collections. It's a great fringe benefit for them and we get feedback from our
people on what's new on the streets and what our customers want.
What makes Pure Pop different from other
stores?
I would say that it's mainly the attention given to trying
to stock what's new on the music scene. Instead of concentrating on hit product, we try to
look for and anticipate developing markets.
What's your biggest challenge as a
retailer?
Competition with the chains is always a challenge for an
independent store because the chains can centralize functions, like ordering, and run
their stores with younger, more inexperienced staffs -- and pay them minimum wage. That's
the market reality and it's not going to change. In contrast, we have several older
employees -- between 25 and 40 years of age -- who are valuable members of our team. Our
biggest challenge is remaining profitable enough to adequately compensate our people.
Tell us about your customer base.
Our customer base is pretty varied. It grew out of the
college market, but we're still really strong during the summer so I know it's gone beyond
those roots. I think we've grown because we stock the more eclectic selections, rotate our
stock all the time and keep bringing in new product. 
Which leads to our next question. How do
you attract new customers and retain existing ones?
I think the key is to keep doing the job we've been doing,
never take our customers for granted, never get stale and continue to keep on top of what
they want. We order every day, we don't order direct, and we get overnight shipments to
keep our stock very current. Our customers know they will find something new when they
come into our store.
We depend on word- of-mouth and, not as frequently as in
the past, a little co-op. About three years ago, we put in a Ticketmaster Outlet and
that's been a traffic generator.
Primarily, we try to be the grass roots of what's new in
music for our customers. We're not built on selling hit product. I think the labels
recognize that and we get terrific service as a result. We have a particularly strong
relationship with our distributor, Northeast One Stop, especially George Smith. I've
worked with him for over 10 years and he's always given us great service.
The industry has faced many changes and
challenges in recent years. Have some of the issues that have surfaced affected your
business or your approach to retailing?
Well, we've had no problems with the stickering issues. Our
policy at the store is we simply won't have censorship. If the public demands it, we'll
carry it. Regarding packaging, I'm glad they eliminated the jewel box. The Rolling
Stones' Virgin reissue, for example, was packaged that way, at least initially, and we
lost sales because we couldn't stock it with the regular catalog.
Also, I know our customers don't like the paper packaging,
for example Neil Young's newest release, because they wear out. Although this doesn't make
for an entirely happy customer, I understand the environmental aspect, and I do believe
it's the artist's prerogative.
What was your reaction when you learned
you were named NARM's Single Store Independent Retailer of the Year?
I was very surprised to learn that we had won. There's a
lot of great stores out there and to be nominated by a national association was honor
enough. But to win, that was a big surprise.
What are your plans for the future?
We've had some opportunities to expand in the past, to
change location and move to a larger store. But we feel we're strong where we are and it's
best to pay attention to what we're doing here and now. Especially with the competition --
we've had several music stores open in our area over the past two years. We're just going
to continue trying to make Pure Pop the best it can be. We want to give our customers a
good deal, the newest music available, and make sure they find what they're looking for.
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