What does PinPoint sell?

When PinPoint first opened its doors in 1986, the range of stock available covered just about every conceivable musical genre. In those days it was pretty easy to do this as the range of titles available to sell was relatively limited. PinPoint stocked the regular mainstream titles, but backed them up with choices in Classical, Jazz, Soul, Reggae, Metal, Easy Listening, Country, Blues, Electronic and ... almost everything else.
      As the CD market grew in size, so it became necessary to somehow consolidate the range of stock carried. Steve began to find that even though PinPoint carried perhaps 12 different recordings of a particular Classical work, someone would always want 'the 13th'. It became evident that classical product was becoming something of a stock liability, and so the difficult (at the time) decision was made to cease stocking classical product in any quantity and instead place the emphasis on this genre to special customer orders only ... something which continues to this day.
      A couple of years later, PinPoint's Jazz section 'suffered' the same fate, leaving Steve and his staff with stock-space and energies to improve all the other genres. At the time of writing, PinPoint has a very good reputation in the area for (in particular) Blues, Country, Metal and American Import product. This is taking nothing away from the other genres which continue to be looked after with equal dedication. PinPoint has always tried to be ahead of trends rather than follow them, and it has been the case over the years that the store has succesfully championed bands, artists and trends well before the mass media and the public have gotten hold of them!!
      CD Singles are an especially profitable element to PinPoint's weekly trade patterns. With the UK singles chart in some disarray and titles moving with increasing speed in and out of it, the workload involved in keeping up is often time consuming, but ultimately satisfying ... and lucrative if the correct deals can be struck with suppliers!! Indeed, it is calculated that around 14% of PinPoint's yearly turnover is attributable to the singles market.
      Another, even more, lucrative side to PinPoint's trade is that of Second-Hand product. Initiated by Steve in 1988 when he accepted that thanks to the long-term durability of discs, any faulty rate would be low, this element of PinPoint's business has grown as the total CD market has grown. People get fed-up or bored with discs and seem quite willing to have an outlet where they can trade them up for different titles. In keeping with most second-hand dealers mark-up, the margin on 2nd hand remains compariatively high and this part of PinPoint's trade accounts for almost 4% of total turnover. Steve looks at the extra margin as a way to then invest in further new product from suppliers.
      Special customer orders is a valuable service that PinPoint has been offering since the very first day ... and with considerable results. The amount of titles available now has become so vast that (unlike the early days) it has become physically and financially impossible to stock every disc that is released. Steve has always found it peculiar that the major music chains (and more lately the supermarkets involving themselves in music) have never seemed to accomodate their customers in this area, and, ackowledging this, pushed up PinPoint's emphasis considerably. As a result over 14% of the business' income is derived from customers being unable to find their requirements on PinPoint's (or anyone else's!) shelves. PinPoint has a supplier network that can usually locate titles from around the world, and instore posters proudly boast that fact.
      Instore then, PinPoint's stock-mix is currently made up of; Mainstream Rock and Pop, Indie product, Singles, Soul&Dance, Compilations, Rap, Reggae, Funk, Comedy, Heavy (& heavier) Metal, Blues, Cajun, Country, Ambient/Electronic, Jazz (minimal), Classical (more minimal), Easy Listening, Folk & Roots, Soundtracks & Shows, home accessories, replacement cases, 2nd Hand, budget titles, CD BoxSets, a handful of limited edition &2 singles, bargain CD titles, and 100's of specially-priced "Price Smash" offers! .... oh, and the exclusive PinPoint Music Gift Token! (How we fit it all into 300 sq feet is anybody's guess?) All this reinforces our oft-bandied slogan of "When it Comes to Compact Discs ... Come to PinPoint Music" !!!

Write to Steve now for more information