MI Pro

It’s not been the best of months for our store. The gods have turned against us and sent nothing but waves of misfortune our way. Upon returning from a week spent sunning myself away from the hustle and bustle of the shop floor, I was greeted by a sullen fellow shop-hand whose slumped shoulders and deathly pallor told me that all was not well on our happy little ship.

When he pointed to our wall of high-end guitars, I immediately noticed a sizeable gap. Surely a good thing, I thought; the sale of such big-ticket guitars can’t be bad. Alas, I was mistaken. A few days before I had made my way back to Blighty’s sunny shores, a couple of lads had made their way into the shop, sidled up to our prized wall of top-notch six strings, and made off with prime guitar goodness worth nearly two grand. Theories abound as to how they managed this, especially as the instrument in question was no more than ten feet from the staffer manning the counter at the time, but the fact remains that they got it out of the shop and well away before anyone noticed what had happened.

It’s a kick in the guts for anyone to lose such an expensive item, especially in the testing retail environment that we’re currently in. It is, of course, easy to throw accusations around willy nilly after the event, taking the ‘how the hell didn’t you see that’ line, or to bewail our store’s trusting policy of not having every guitar in the shop rigged up to an alarm system, but ultimately the gear is gone, and we will probably never see it again.

As the details emerge, it would seem that we are destined not to catch the swine who made off with our precious six string. Our CCTV system, usually so dependable, had thrown a strop and chosen not to work that day, while cameras in the surrounding area caught barely a half decent shot of the dastardly bastards who ruined our week. Of course, these things happen in any retail environment, but knowing that does little to sugar the pill.

On the upside, the kids are back to school and lapping up new instruments at an alarming rate. Such is the demand that we can barely keep up, but we’re bravely doing our bit and ensuring the superstars of tomorrow are given their chance to start on the long road to musical success.

And now the inevitable march to Christmas is beginning, which has us all both rubbing our hands in delight and trembling in our boots at the prospect of a thousand confused mothers playing Santa...