I recently bought Human League Dare t-shirts for such an occasion, but this lady turned out to have very specific needs. I let her watch while her daughter who, in fact, was also going to the party, asked if the Guns N ‘Roses Appetite For Destruction t-shirt she had taken out would count.

I said the album was actually released in 1987 but most of the 80’s parties seemed more 80’s pop pop. It was starting to remind me of Bargain Hunt’s challenge where they have to buy an antique that matches. to certain criteria.

Regardless, his mother then gave more details. They were going to an ’80s-themed weekend at a summer camp for women over 18.

It was a whole different party than I had in mind, but the lady had already decided to buy a Blondie T-shirt. I confirmed that yes Blondie released music in the 80s so any of the different designs we had would.

A shirt with Debbie Harry holding a microphone was produced and a discussion about her fit ensued. However, always wanting to give the customer the best possible service, I suggested that the X Offender shirt we had could be more in line with the description of the party given to me.

X Offender is, should I add, the first track from Blondie’s debut album. After a bit of discussion, it was decided that this would indeed be the best choice and both ladies walked away happy.

Later that week I had an old lady looking for a shirt for her “grandson” who turned out to be 20 years old. All she knew was that he really liked Queen and that there was a chance we had a shirt that she could buy him.

Now we have a wide selection of Queen t-shirts, from their crest to album covers, so she was happy with the black shirt with their crest that she and the friend she was with settled on.

What has definitely changed, at least with Avalanche, is that I would say that most of the adult customers that we get now are actually buying for someone else.

Young people obviously tend to buy for themselves, but even then there is a fair amount of freebies being bought both for their peers and the classic “my dad will love this” shirt, normally something akin to. punk persuasion.

I don’t know if this is a general trend, but customers certainly feel that when looking for an interesting gift, it is more likely to find something in a store than to search the internet.

Visitors to Edinburgh in particular like to find something unusual or interesting to take home and with Christmas approaching this tendency to shop for others will only increase.