Sainsbury's has gained a great deal of positive publicity in the last 24 hours, with a raft of stories reporting it to be 'the biggest vinyl retailer on the high street', following claims made in its Q1 trading statement.
Only it isn't. Not in terms of market share, anyway. And that market share, of eight per cent, was reported right next to that 'biggest retailer' claim. Which confused a confusing situation. Pushed it towards baffling, in fact, because, surely, at some point, most people would look at the words 'eight per cent market share' and the words 'biggest retailer' and think something along the lines of 'how the hell can you be the biggest retailer of vinyl with a market share of just eight per cent?'.
And the answer, of course, is that you can't be. And it isn't. It might, with a not so grand total of 18 separate SKUs available in 171 stores, sell vinyl in more outlets than any other retailer on the UK high street, but it sure as hell doesn't sell more vinyl.
We know who does though. Over to you, HMV: "Sainsbury's first quarter trading statement released on 8th June claimed that they are 'currently the biggest vinyl retailer on the high street, having already achieved eight per cent market share'.
"Without wanting the numbers to go round and round, we would like to suggest that with a market share of over four times that of Sainsbury's, HMV is indisputably the biggest vinyl retailer in the UK - carrying a range of up to 1,500 records in each of our 128 stores.
"We make no claims regarding meat and veg, but come and see for yourself the best range of vinyl offers in the UK in our annual vinyl week from 13-19 June."
