The Record Store Years 55) Computers & The Quest For P.O.S.

A memoir of 25 years (1975-2000) spent working in the world of records & music in Seattle, with occasional side trips into writings on Led Zeppelin and other adventures from my musical life.

Probably the single most life-changing development for people of my generation is the advent of the personal computer, and by extension the internet. My first computer was a Radio Shack TRS-80 received as a Christmas gift from an extended family member in 1981. The ‘Trash-80,’ as it was semi-affectionally dubbed, was text-only (no graphics), plugged into my TV set for a monitor, and had no hard drive. The only way information could be saved from its miniscule RAM cache was to back it up onto. . . wait for it. . . audio cassettes! Of course, as HJ the librarian I immediately started making a database of my record collection, which provided me with a few weeks of fun shuffling records off and on the shelves but no real long-term benefit, and before long the Trash 80 started gathering dust.

Cellophane Square was early getting into personal computers for bookwork and internal business, but somewhat late in installing a professional system for conducting sales at the front counter. Owner Jim was very into technology and also had a knack for seeing coming trends in advance, and he got into Apple computers in the early 1980s. Sometime around 1986 he showed up at the Seattle store with a Macintosh 128K which I believe was a hand-me-down as he had just gotten whatever the newest model of Mac was at that time.

Above: The devices in our pockets today have more computing power than a thousand of these doorstops combined – at left, the ‘Trash 80’ and on the right the Mac 128k.

At this time the management team included me, Scott M, ST and DC, and all of us immediately started incorporating the computer into our regular routines like daily cash register reports and word-processing tasks such as employee evaluations and correspondence. The Mac had no hard drive, but it did allow for backup to floppy disks which was a big improvement over cassettes, and before long we had stacks and stacks of floppies filed in boxes on the manager’s desk. And not long after that, we got a big upgrade to a Mac SE-20, a more powerful machine with a built-in hard drive – a whole 20MB of storage space! Not that we needed much more storage than that since everything on it was text, there were no graphics except for some primitive ‘clip art’ that came with it or could be copied from bootlegged floppy disks passed around between other tech nerds.

Needless to say, the company continued upgrading and adding computers over the years and Macs remained the [back room] standard for the rest of my tenure. We all quickly became adept at Excel, Word, and a few early graphics programs, and DC in particular really showed a knack for the new technology as it developed. He got very good at trouble-shooting issues with the growing number of Macintosh computers in the company, and became our de facto tech support guy before an official position was created in the early ‘90s. In learning the ways of Macs Dave and I both got very adept at Adobe Photoshop and the desktop publishing program Quark Xpress – unknowingly providing the basis for the resurrection of my Zep fanzine Proximity a few years later.

Above: My marketing director desk in about 1997, with a beefy Mac, a high-end scanner, and a book on web publishing at hand. My well-used land line telephone was on the left (out of the photo), and does anybody remember the Rolodex? I had a good one.

Completely unrelated to all the fun stuff we were doing on Macs was the elephant in the room for many growing retailers in the 1980s – to barcode or not to barcode? An over-simplification perhaps, but barcodes started showing up on vinyl LPs and tapes around 1983, and the first computerized POS (‘Point of Sale’) systems came in around 1986. By the end of the decade the big outfits like Tower and Musicland had installed systems with barcode readers and the ability to easily collect sales data, which was then reported to industry trade magazines like Billboard and Cash Box for their sales charts.

When these systems first came into use the sales info for the charts was reported manually by each store based on data printouts and could be tweaked or altered as the reporter saw fit. In 1991 with the benefit of ever faster communication connections the industry adopted a system called ‘Soundscan,’ which captured sales data based on each barcode scanned and reported it directly to the trade publications. This eliminated any potential store biases in reporting and provided much more accurate data for the charts – and interestingly, hip hop, metal and alternative rock all experienced a significant increase in chart appearances as a result.

For Cellophane Square, installing a POS system was fraught with complications, mainly because of the used and collectible product we carried. Aside from the fact that the majority of our used stock was pre-barcode era, any used item that did have a barcode would have come up as new if scanned, and in the early days of POS the ability to print one’s own unique barcodes didn’t exist. Of course these systems did eventually come around, and by the time we got serious about making the sizable dollar investment a POS system required there were several different ones to choose from, each with its own pros and cons.

I don’t remember many specifics about the final decision and implementation of the POS system in the three stores. I was immersed in my own private hell of regional management and though I was kept in the loop, remained mostly out of the research and decision-making process. What I do remember is that installing and integrating the new system was a GIANT pain in the ass with a few false starts, delays in getting equipment, and many frustrations in getting it set up and working right. Nothing like a long line of impatient customers with a non-functional sales terminal, eh? I still have nightmares sometimes!

As our in house computer/tech expert, DC was involved in the initial stages of shopping for a POS system, however when he announced that he would be moving on in 1992 it was decided that we really needed to replace him with someone who could fill the more formal position of “Regional Computer Coordinator.”

Cellophane Square always had an unwritten policy of promoting from within rather than bringing in ringers from outside the company for management positions. Occasionally we would promote someone from clerk level in one store to management in another, which could create ripples in the staff with new leadership they didn’t know, but at least it was a boss who already knew the ropes for one of the stores and was familiar with the company’s culture in general.

The first and only time we made an exception to this rule was in hiring a regional computer coordinator in 1992. Owner Jim had gotten to know a young man in Bellingham – another Dave (DW) – who seemed to fit the bill. He played jazz guitar and was very into music, as well as allegedly having mad computer skills in both Mac and PC formats.

I was against hiring him on principle, unhappy with diverging from our promote-from-within history, but I had to admit that there was no one on the staff at the time who was really qualified to replace DC, and we were on the verge of becoming so dependent on computers that if we didn’t have someone we’d be screwed. It also became clear to me that one doesn’t often prevail in a disagreement with one’s boss, and despite my seniority I wasn’t going to talk Jim out of his plan. Fortunately for everyone, it worked out.

Above: DW and me at a fourth of July company party, early ‘90s.

DW was a soft-spoken, thoughtful guy with long black hair & a moustache. He loved music but I think he was slightly daunted by the depth of fanaticism evident in some of Cellophane’s staff, and he was at a bit of a disadvantage in learning the details of the used record biz since he had not come up through the ranks. Regardless of this he dove right in and seemed to enjoy himself, taking time during his first few weeks to visit each store and check out the existing computers and ask lots of questions, both about the store’s systems and our individual music tastes and predilections. I don’t believe that he was as knowledgeable about PCs and POS systems as he was initially made out to be – but he was unquestionably just as expert with Mac computers as DC had been, if not more so, and overall did a good job filling those shoes.

DW and I got along well and had a few opportunities to play music together at company July 4^th get-togethers, as well as working on a project recording some of his music in my home studio. Despite this, through no fault of his own there was an ‘outsider’ element to DW that persisted throughout his tenure. He was ‘Jim’s guy,’ and since he lived in Bellingham and was based out of that store, he had a direct conduit to the owners that was unique and could bypass the regional management structure. I can’t recall any specific incidents of this being a problem but I know there were a few, and as a result there was caution in fully welcoming DW into the fold.

DW stuck around for a few years and did manage to take the POS project through to completion. By the time we moved the U-District store to its flashy new location on The Ave in 1994 all three stores were fully up to speed, generating unique barcodes for used product and scanning purchases at slick new sales terminals – soon to be connected to the ‘Soundscan’ system, bringing us fully to our long-term goal: respect from the record industry!

Next: The Rise of The Compact Disc