Back in the day I bought a lot of LPs from Roger Hewland who had a shop near Waterloo Station in London.
All his stock was shelved totally at random and he had a lot of shelves. His only concession to order was to put new arrivals in a separate area, still at random.
One day I asked him why he didn't put the albums in some kind of order. He said 'well you've been here three hours looking at every record I have. If I put them in order you would just look for specific items.'
His customers typically spent a whole afternoon in the shop. He provided coffee and had easy chairs where we could get a rest and have a chat about music, mainly opera.
He was a good bit older than I and the shop isn't there any more. He said to me one time 'one day I'll get your record collection'. I never could follow that.
Another day a Japanese man, a regular customer, had been searching for three or four hours. He had pulled out about 20 discs and took them over to Roger to pay him. Roger said 'I'm not going to sell you any records today'. Asked why, he said that he had seen the man push Roger's cleaner away when she was trying to vaccuum around his feet.
They don't make 'em like that any more.
Roger's brother was the eponymous designer and maker of the gearboxes that monopolised the rear of grand prix and other cars from the 50s to the 70s.