Decades ago.

Records, as in vinyl?

What do they mean by statistically? Per capita? Why is that surprising?

I saw a documentary movie recently 'Sound it Out', it's about this record store in the North East of England, apparently there are statistically more record stores in the UK than the whole of the US, that really came as a shock.

I saw that documentary, too.  While it was an interesting programme, saying something like  there are statistically more record stores in the UK than the whole of the US doesn't mean anything without a lot of explanation.  The first question is: What is a record?  Is it just vinyl, or are CDs (for example) records?  Once that's answered, we can ask: What is a record store?  If it's a store that sells nothing but records, there are probably none of them anywhere in the world.  As I recall, the record store that was the subject of the documentary also sold posters, and maybe other things too.  So, how many records/what proportion of records to other stock is necessary to make a shop a record store?  If that was answered by "any records at all" every charity shop with a bit of vinyl gathering dust in a corner would count as a record store.

Pet said:

I saw a documentary movie recently 'Sound it Out', it's about this record store in the North East of England, apparently there are statistically more record stores in the UK than the whole of the US, that really came as a shock.

(Whoops!  The quote thing seems to have vanished.  That quotes Border Mind's post.)

I saw that documentary, too.  While it was an interesting programme, saying something like  there are statistically more record stores in the UK than the whole of the US doesn't mean anything without a lot of explanation.  The first question is: What is a record?  Is it just vinyl, or are CDs (for example) records?  Once that's answered, we can ask: What is a record store?  If it's a store that sells nothing but records, there are probably none of them anywhere in the world.  As I recall, the record store that was the subject of the documentary also sold posters, and maybe other things too.  So, how many records/what proportion of records to other stock is necessary to make a shop a record store?  If that was answered by "any records at all" every charity shop with a bit of vinyl gathering dust in a corner would count as a record store.

I would say in my life experience of going in record stores there has nearly always been other products sold besides vinyl records. In this day and age everyone has had to branch out a bit. I wouldn't count charity shops as real record shops personally, though I do tend to get most physical formats from charity shops these days if I am honest. I am in North London and can think of very few record stores as such in a 5 mile radius, though there are places like Flashback, which whilst operating as a second hand trade-in that sells DVDs and books as well as music, they stock a lot of new vinyl and are one of the few places I can think of outside of central London that are doing so. Even the central London stores are not selling exclusively vinyl records, but they are still record stores as far as I am concerned, though they are very few and far between.

Best record shop near to me is X-Records in Bolton. The website has a huge database of all their stock. Might be worth you visiting.

what's b & m?

yeah one of them appeared down the road from me. madness you say?