What We Do All Day – Behind the Scenes at a Music Shop

You walk into our shop. Maybe you're the only customer you can see. You might think: quiet day. But here's the thing — you are almost certainly not the only customer we're serving at that moment. And we are very rarely not busy. In fact, most of what we do every single day happens completely behind the scenes, invisible to anyone who walks through the door.

So what do we do all day? Let us walk you through it.

Arrive & Coffee (Non-Negotiable)

The day starts before the doors open. First things first: the kettle goes on. Coffee in hand, we run through what's ahead — orders to pick, repairs to complete, stock to chase, emails to answer. The to-do list is already long before we've taken a sip.

Pick Online Orders & Print Labels

Overnight, orders have come in from customers all over the country. We work through each one — checking stock, picking items from shelves and storage, printing shipping labels, and making sure everything is accounted for. It sounds straightforward. It rarely is.

Pack Online Orders (This Takes Most of the Day)

This is the big one. Packing orders properly — especially musical instruments and audio gear — is not a quick job. Guitars need careful wrapping. Fragile items need double-boxing. Every parcel needs to arrive safely, because a damaged instrument is a disaster for the customer and a headache for us. We go through more bubble wrap than you'd ever imagine. If you thought working in a music shop meant playing instruments all day, the reality is you're more likely to spend most of it wrestling with bubble wrap and packing tape.

Emails & Website Queries

Between packing sessions, the inbox needs attention. Customers have questions about products, availability, compatibility, postage times, repairs, and more. Every query deserves a proper answer, and we take the time to give one. This alone can take hours across the course of a day.

Serving In-Store Customers

Throughout the day, customers come in — and this is genuinely one of the best parts of the job. Whether someone's buying their first guitar, looking for a specific mouthpiece, or just browsing, we're here for it. But serving customers well takes time and attention, and it happens alongside everything else on this list.

Tidying Window Displays & Cabinets

A well-presented shop doesn't happen by accident. Displays need refreshing, cabinets need reorganising, and the window needs to look its best to draw people in. It's a small thing that makes a big difference — and it has to fit in somewhere between everything else.

Instrument Tuning (If There's Time)

If we're lucky, there's a moment to check that the instruments on display are in tune and ready for sale. It's the kind of detail that matters to us, even if most customers never notice it consciously. They notice when it's not done, though.

Repairs & Setups

Behind the counter, there's often a queue of instruments waiting for attention — setups, restrings, repairs, and adjustments. This is skilled, time-consuming work that we take seriously. A well set-up instrument plays better, and that matters enormously to the player. Fitting this in around everything else is a constant juggling act.

Social Media Posts

New stock, interesting repairs, tips, behind-the-scenes moments — keeping our social channels active is part of the job too. It doesn't write itself, and good content takes thought and time to put together properly.

Ordering Stock

Sold something? Great. Now it needs replacing. We monitor stock levels, chase suppliers, place orders, and keep track of what's coming in and when. Adding new lines means researching products, negotiating with suppliers, and making sure we're stocking what our customers actually want.

Adding New Stock to the Website

Every new product that arrives needs to be photographed, described, priced, categorised, and listed online. Done properly, this takes real time — and done badly, it costs sales. We try to do it properly.

General Clean & Tidy

At some point, the shop needs a clean. Floors hoovered, surfaces wiped, stock straightened. It's unglamorous but essential. A tidy shop is a welcoming shop.

And This Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg

We haven't even mentioned stock takes, accounts, supplier calls, staff scheduling, website updates, or the dozen other things that crop up on any given day.

So the next time you walk in and think it looks quiet — know that somewhere out the back, there's a pile of parcels waiting to be packed, a repair on the bench, an inbox full of questions, and a very strong cup of coffee going cold.

We wouldn't have it any other way.