In August 2020, the Record Store Day queue outside Sister Ray Records in Soho began around 5 p.m. on Friday, two hours before closing. Thirteen hours later, the first customer entered wearing a mask and using sanitiser, and bought a limited David Bowie LP.
Across Britain, 230 shops took part. An event that normally moved about 130,000 records in a day had been postponed and divided into three releases in August, September, and October because of the pandemic.
The thirteen-hour wait was not needed to hear music. It existed to obtain a particular object first, on a particular day. Even when public-health rules restricted interaction inside the shop, scarcity preserved the order outside it.