Clive’s to re-open in smaller, more specialised format

Clive’s Record Shop is to re-open in a scaled-down form at its current premises at the end of next week.

The Commercial Street shop was put up for sale last month and staged a clearance sale, with owner Clive Munro’s business suffering – much like many other independent music shops around the world – from the impact of the internet.

After a clearance sale, the shop has been shut for the past few weeks but its doors will open again from Friday 15th April. Mr Munro’s business partner Caroline Miller said they had taken stock and drawn up a new business plan. If the smaller shop is a success they hope to move to smaller premises once the shop has been sold.

“It’d be a shame to lose such a shop, because folk do love music,” Mrs Miller said. “We feel that we can still compete on customer choice, on back catalogues, and that’s what we’re going to concentrate on, especially on the music – that’s what Clive knows inside out.

“Rather than giving up completely, we’re going to open up the premises while we still have them, and try this new format. If it works that’d be brilliant and we can move elsewhere – the building is too big for what we need now.”

Clive’s has seen its profitability eroded significantly by the advent of downloadable digital mp3s and the proliferation of cheap online retailers. It is also unlikely to have been helped by the Lerwick expansion of supermarket giant Tesco, which now stocks chart CDs, DVDs and computer games at knock-down prices.