Pieter
If you’ve wandered the narrow cobblestone streets of Leiden’s historic center, then you’ve probably noticed an intriguing place called The Lonely Hunter. It’s the shop with boxes of colorful vinyl records in front - and many, many more records, CDs and DVDs inside. I hunted down the owner, Pieter van Ulden, in March 2017.
Pieter is a lifelong Leidenaar: “I was born and raised and stayed all my life in Leiden, except for a few years in Delft… I studied for about three, four years there at the [Delft] university.”
[Pieter has owned his shop] “for almost 40 years now. I was about 23, 24. And now I’m 63…When I quit my [university] studies, I had a year of doing nothing at all. And by accident I came through this alley and I saw this shop for sale. The building was for sale…There was no shop at all. And I got the idea of starting a second-hand business. I asked my mother to actually buy this estate, and she agreed with it… And I started a very small business of second-hand stuff.” Pieter still owns the building and lives in an apartment above The Lonely Hunter shop.
Neighborhood pioneer: “When I started here this [area] was a dump. There were some furniture stores but all [were] terrible. And there was no renovation at all in this area. The Burcht was not like at the moment a tourist attraction. It was a forgotten area. And it’s the center of the town. But later on there came a lot of second-hand shops, and design shops and all kind of things. I don’t know if I was the one who started this (laughs). But I was the first second-hand shop here in this area.”
Transition to selling records and CDs: “It started at the moment I could buy a few albums. And I made a small box in the shop where I put some albums And they sold so very quick, and I thought, ‘well, that’s nice.’ And I was interested in music, but I didn’t know if it was something for traders. It wasn’t in those years.”
“I started [selling] records in the late ‘70s when everyone got bored with records and [CDs were coming on the scene] and everyone brought in boxes of records. And they actually really didn’t want any money for it. And there were records that were selling very [well] for collectors…And it grew.”
“In earlier days I had a few guys who helped me with the stuff. And my sister helped me with the shop, and I could go on the road and get records. Later on when the shop got well known, people brought [the records] in, and I didn’t have to do anything to get my stuff. And still they bring it in.”
“Leiden has become a tourist city. Because it has a lot of history with the university and artists. With Rembrandt for example. And people are searching for roots and the history of the town. And this is the real center. So actually everyone who’s a tourist comes across my window.”
Adapting to change: “A lot of the retail is gone to the Internet of course. My sales are [now] about 80 percent on the Internet and 20 percent in the shop. And this is because all the good stuff is on the Internet side, and not anymore in the shop. He sells mainly to record collectors.Collectors pay about 10, 20, 30 Euro per record. But [customers] in the shop who buy a record pay 1,2,3 Euro per record.”
“I don’t have a website of my own. I work through Discogs.com. It’s an American organization that has a very huge database. And I look through …what I’ve got, and I tell what the condition of the record is and the sleeve and the price I want to have for it and my shipping costs…At the moment I think I’ve got about 7,000 records on Discogs.”
“Vinyl is not dead.”
“I used to go to markets in the early days, to flea markets, and I went everywhere, and people called me up and the same evening I was riding to the east of Holland or something, or the north or the south to get the records. But that’s over. I only buy records that people bring in... I’m a bit lazy now, a bit spoiled I think.” (laughs)
New directions: “I have a lot of plans for changing. Of course I want to keep the Internet [record] sales. But I want to reform the shop. I want to do something with art. I’m going to rebuild it. The second-hand shop, I think it disappears within a year or so. It’s too much work for nothing…I’m interested in art and I’m interested artists, and I want to do something with that.”
“The only problem in Holland is that the rent for shops is too high. So it’s impossible for someone who want to start a business like I have now. You cannot do it. This is my own building, and so I don’t pay any rent…But if you have to pay the rent people [now need to] pay here in this area you cannot run a shop like this, it’s impossible.”
Enjoys the work?: “Of course. Absolutely…I’m still doing it…And it’s not only the aspect of selling music or things you like…But it’s the contact with customers. All kinds of customers pop in. International, national. Sometimes famous people…a lot writers, all kinds of people come in.”
The Lonely Hunter shop is located at Burgsteeg 9 in Leiden, near de Burcht van Leiden. Pieter’s business does not have a website. Pieter’s sister owns a clothing boutique across the street from The Lonely Hunter.
