MI Pro

So, another month rolls by and the world around us continues to behave like a child seeking the attention of grown ups. It kicks and screams and causes all manner of fuss so that us normal, hardworking people have to stop what we’re doing and worry a bit about everything. It gets in everywhere and it is, frankly, a bit of a pain. On the upside though, we just took delivery of a massive batch of new effects pedals and that excites us all in our sheltered, guitar-shaped world so, on balance, things are pretty much okay.

It would seem that the key word for the last month or so, the recurring theme that has lodged itself into my head like the annoying yet catchy tune that I heard on the radio this morning, has been pricing. The only way is up, as Yazz once sang, and if there’s one thing that electro-pop pioneers of the ‘80s knew about, it’s the pricing structure of the MI business.

It’s understandable really, considering the pound’s nosedive into the depths of economic hell. Passing these price hikes on to the customer has been the number one conversation starter in recent weeks, although bizarrely not one that has caused much in the way of wrath.

A Blitz-type spirit pervades our customer base – a sense that yes, things are bad, but that’s okay, we can pull through together. And importantly, they don’t seem to blame us – they don’t feel we’re doing it to get at them and they’re still buying things. Joy.

All the big names have been caught up in it though, with the likes of Fender and Yamaha (huge sellers at our place) having to gradually up the prices of things and everybody else following suit to a greater or lesser extent. At our shop, we’ve always been on the richer end of the price spectrum anyway, a service-based covenant that our customer base seems to understand and support, yet it is still galling to have to increase the numbers, there can be no doubt about it.

Still, a bit of good old-fashioned salesmanship, and a kettle that is never, ever given time to breathe, has meant that even though we are a small shop based in a tiny village with next to no passing trade and the most basic of websites, we are chugging along nicely. Take, for example, Fender’s rather wonderful Baja Telecasters. Great guitars, as anyone who has played one will no doubt agree, but with a £500ish price tag that you’d have thought would warrant some serious thinking about before purchase. Not so. We haven’t been able to hold on to any we’ve had in for more than a day at a time.

Price rises are, I suppose, part and parcel of the next couple of years as we hopefully stumble towards some sort of economic recovery (or failing that, a new world order where we all give up and let the cats have a go at running things for a while) and certainly a sign of the times. It’s just one that, thankfully, our wonderful customers understand a whole lot better than we expected them to.