THE RECORD EXCHANGE BLACK FRIDAY TOP 50 SELLERS
1. Various Artists - The Life Aquatic Soundtrack
2. Aerosmith - 1971: The Road Starts Hear (vinyl and cassette combined)
3. Billie Eilish - No Time to Die
4. Jimi Hendrix - Paris ’67
5. Jason Isbell - Georgia Blue
6. The Avett Brothers - Emotionalism
7. Miles Davis - Live-Evil
8. Dio - Holy Diver
9. Lana Del Rey - Chemtrails Over the Country Club
10. U2 - Gloria
11. Little Feat - Electrif Lycanthrope (vinyl and CD combined)
12. Fleetwood Mac - Alternate Live
13. Carole King - In Concert at the BBC
14. Joan Jett - I Love Rock ’n’ Roll / Bad Reputation
15. Leonard Cohen - Songs of Love and Hate
16. Blackberry Smoke - Stoned
17. Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
18. John Legend - Once Again
19. Thundercat - The Golden Age of Apocalypse
20. Big Brother and the Holding Company - Combination of the Two
21. Brian Rich - Amen
22. All Them Witches - Live on the Internet
23. Judas Priest - The Best Of
24. Canned Heat / Memphis Slim - Memphis Heat
25. Dio - Last in Line
26. Chris Travis - Pizza and Codeine
27. Joe Strummer - Johnny Appleseed
28. Maxwell - Now
29. John Powell - How to Train Your Dragon Soundtrack
30. Jorma Kaukonen - Christmas Candy Cane (both versions combined)
31. Ray Charles - Live in Stockholm
32. The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong - Original Grooves
33. The Munsters - At Home with the Munsters
34. Crobot - Rat Child
35. Trippie Redd - A Love Letter to You 1 / A Love Letter to You 2
36. Chris Isaak - Beyond the Sun
37. Saigon Kick - Lizard
38. Jackson Conti - Sujinho
39. “Weird Al” Yankovic and Osaka Superstar - Beat on the Brat
40. Modern English - After the Snow Live
41. John Carpenter - The Ghosts of Mars Soundtrack
42. Non Phixion - The Green LP
43. Norah Jones - Christmas Don’t Be Late
44. Smith/Kotzen - Better Days
45. The Wrens - Secaucus
46. Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears
47. Nancy Wilson - You and Me
48. Sam Cooke - The First Mile of the Way
49. Chet Baker - Albert’s House
50. RZA as Bobby Digital - Digital Bullet
LOONEY TUNES - WEST BABYLON, NY
This weekend was a tremendous success. We are exhausted lol!
If you add Friday, Saturday and Sunday together, both instore sales and online sales….
Sales up 24% over 2020
Sales up 14% over 2019
When I got to the store at 7am we had about 100 people on line. A lot less than years past, so I was a little worried. But it was raining and VERY cold. We did our regular handing out free bagels and coffee to everyone in line. Customers were all in good moods and happy to be there.
We handed out coupons for our big 50th anniversary celebration which will be 12/18. We are still looking for nice prizes to give away and help from the labels.
info here - https://www.looneytuneslongisland.com/post/looney-tunes-is-celebrating-50-years-on-saturday-dec-18th-2021
It was not the same without our long time manager John who passed away last week. So we spent a lot of time talking to customers who were asking WHERE'S JOHN?
We have decided to do a music scholarship in his name to keep is memory alive. We miss ya buddy…
info here - https://www.looneytuneslongisland.com/post/john-sadowski-tribute
Overall sales were just great. CONSTANT…… Usually there is a MAD rush and then it dies down…This year as usual 8am - 9am was the best hour but it was really busy the whole day. Sales were really spread out through the whole weekend. Which was really nice. Online sales started the following Saturday and were strong!
Thank you to everyone that was a part of this wonderful event. Especially Andrea, Carrie and Michael…..I know you guys work so hard on this event for our benefit….we owe you a lot.
Best sellers
Aerosmith
Dio
Iron Maiden
Joan Jett
Jason Isbell
Hendrix
Ozzy
Wish we had more could have sold a TON more
Judas Priest
Saigon Kick
All the best
Karl
PLAN 9 - RICHMOND, VA
We were lacking in stuff to giveaway, including concert tickets this year.
After a brief interlude mask-free, we've been requiring masks since delta reared its head.
We had the shortest line outside that I think we have ever had. Weather was not a factor, although some of our regulars showed up later, even near the end of day saying they had to work.
So RSD shopping carried on through the day when usually we’ve slammed out most of it in the first three hours. That said, shoppers came on strong all day long, and we ended up 23% over last year.
Top sellers:
Jason Isbell
Miles Davis
Lana Del Ray
Little Feat
Hendrix
Carol King
Slow: U2, Maxwell, Dire Straits, Mobb Deep
Thanks to Carrie, Andrea, and all involved in RSD BF!
HOMERS - OMAHA, NE
Hello everyone,
Homers had a line of about 75 at our 10am opening.
We offered coffee and donuts to our crowd.
We had a successful Black Friday event with BF sales
up 20% from 2020 and the weekend up 24% from 2020
Sales for BF were down 7% compared to 2019. However, the
weekend sales were flat vs 2019.
For the year we are up 26% over 2020 and 20% over 2019
As has been the case for us for the last couple years
RSD product represents under 50% of day's/weekend's
total sales. So, we are lucky and thankful customers
shop us for more than just RSD products
Sell through so far is about 40%
top sellers
Eilish, Isbell, Hendrix, Aerosmith, Life Aquatic,
Cohen, U2, Del Rey, Miles, Wrens, Thundercat
no sales on 24 titles; Labrie, Legend, Cooke, Lang,
Strummer, Beleza are the most glaring
I would suggest RSD pull back on titles going forward with
250 on RSD, another 100 on a Drops day and
100 on Black Friday
-- Mike Fratt
WATERLOO RECORDS - AUSTIN, TX
Waterloo Records enjoyed a strong 2021 Black Friday and Small Business Saturday weekend! Once folks could get fully vaccinated this past spring, we had decided to do all of our year to year sales comps back to 2019, Vs 2020, because that year was so out of the ordinary. Our sales were down 2% on Black Friday, up 3% on Small Business Saturday, and down again on Sunday, but it all worked out to a 1% increase for the full 3 day weekend, when you factor out missing our historical bestseller release of the year. This year, again like 2020, there
wasn't a KGSR ACL Radio Broadcasts CD & LP, because many bands weren't touring, much less doing radio in-studio performances. This charity benefit release is historically our bestseller of the year. In fact, it had accounted for over 4% of our BF19 weekend.
When we opened Black Friday at 7am (3 hrs early), there were 60 folks waiting in line, versus 100 back in 2019 when we didn't open until 9am. Like other stores, we had done a really good job of messaging folks about the plethora of Black Friday title bumps, so there weren't many folks surprised or disappointed to find out their desired BF title now had a Dec21 or RSD22 release date. We're obviously still in a Covid world, (OmyGod - Omicron!) so I'm not even gonna try to shame any label or distributor for all those BF bumps. As our wise, local sage, Ray Wylie Hubbard often deadpans, "Every day that I keep my
gratitude higher than my expectations, that is a really good day!" Myself & everyone here has very high gratitude for all of the great music that was released for BF21. Thank you all!
On Friday the BF21 exclusives comprised 34% of our sales, compared with 41% in BF19, which we attribute to less titles and more bumps. We had a 42% sell through for the BF21 exclusives on Black Friday, (Vs 33% in 2019) and a 50% sell through overall for the 3 day weekend (Vs 42% in 2019), so our BF21 purchasing was tighter this year, as we had planned.
These BF indie exclusive releases are an appreciated and needed strong driver, that has given customers a reason to shop independent record stores on Black Friday, and after. Here's a big 'Thanks' again to every artist, manager. label, distributor., and manufacturer that helped make all of these Black Friday releases happen!
Overall traffic drivers this weekend in addition to the BF21 releases were:
- CIMS' GTGOM $9.99 CDs & $5 off LPs
- UMG's Black Friday week rebated CDs
- Amex Small Business Sat
- Austin Chronicle full pg RSD/BF ad, shared with all Austin RSD
pledge stores and others
- Waterloo's BF early opening underwriting announcements on KUTX and Sun Radio
- Social Media posts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook
Waterloo's Top Black Friday sellers:
(All Formats combined)
1. Little Feat 31 (LPs + CDs)
2. Jason Isbell 29
3. Miles Davis 26
4. Jimi Hendrix 26
5. Lana Del Ray 22
6. Aerosmith 20
7. Life Aquatic 19
8. Fleetwood Mac 19
9. Billie Eilish 19
10. Carole King 11
11. Chet Baker 10 (SO)
12. Leonard Cohen 10
13. Iron Maiden 10
14. Blackberry Smoke 10 (SO)
15. Nelson/Haggard/Price 9
16. John Legend 8
17. Big Brother 7
18. Munsters 7
19. Dio Holy Diver 7
20. Chris Issak 7 (SO)
21. Shangri-Las 7 (SO)
22. Dusty Springfield 7
EASY STREET RECORDS - SEATTLE, WA
Well, we’ve all come a long way from a year ago. We doubled where we were from last years RSDBF. That one sucked so hard I didn’t bother with a wrap up. We were about 20% down from 2019. I can’t say we were too surprised. We weren’t getting the calls and questions we normally get about titles. We just didn’t have any drivers that were registering for us like previous years. At the same time, I think we fell short of rallying behind some of the releases at the store level. We didn’t do a lot to pre-promote the titles like we normally do. We did still do a few things and we overall had a good day and overall, a pretty good weekend. We are hopeful that this might carry into a nice holiday stretch.
Our operating costs are back to (and in some cases higher) than pre-Covid levels…there is definitely a motivation to find areas within the store to utilize better. We’ve continued to expand our product lines as well. We are back to selling posters. We’ve improved our t-shirt, book, and Hi-Fi business, but still…we aren’t back to pre-Covid sales figures just yet. So, things are still pretty challenging.
We partnered with Sub Pop reissuing the ’93 power pop classic The Fastbacks-Zucker. Been out of print for years. They performed on BF as well. We were able to sell 250 copies in November. Made for a great night https://www.instagram.com/reel/CWv193ilBPw/?utm_medium=copy_link
Here’s a small biz video we participated in https://www.instagram.com/p/CWlsugqNuKZ/?utm_medium=copy_link
A few newer releases that performed well all weekend…. Adele, Taylor, U2, Nirvana, Kiss, Coltrane, Brandi, Mogwai, Snail Mail…
A few surprise sellers we could’ve used more of…Strat Cats, Aerosmith, Little Feat, Fleetwood Mac
A few we thought more of than sales would indicate…Charlie Parker, Mr. Big, Dio, Maxwell, John Legend, Joe Strummer, Lana Del Rey… (let us know if u need any of these)
STREETLIGHT RECORDS - SAN JOSE & SANTA CRUZ, CA
Well, another successful Black Friday and Small Business Saturday are in the books! It was full of happy customers, busy employees and buzzing cash registers. Customer after customer told us how happy they are that we’re still here and thriving. Our San Jose store kept the appointment system we’ve been using since the onset of the pandemic and it went well. The Santa Cruz location used a numbering system for the people in line and called them up in groups, also proving to be a solid system.
As always, many thanks to everyone who participated in making Black Friday happen, with an ultra big thanks to Carrie Colliton, Michael Kurtz, Andrea Paschal, Eric Levin and Luann Myers! We had a couple last-minute product arrivals, but otherwise it was pretty smooth sailing. Below are a few stats for each store. Many thanks, and have a wonderful holiday season!
--Paige
San Jose
--Black Friday was up 8% over last year and up 21% over 2019.
--Small Business Saturday was up 26% over last year and 27% over 2019.
Santa Cruz
--Black Friday was up 22% over last year and up 14% over 2019.
--Small Business Saturday was up 16% over last year and down 14% from 2019.
