My record store is closing.
For more than a decade I have had a record store to call home. Having a record store is having a happy place. A place where no question of mine was ever too inconsequential or frivolous because at least I was sincere. Other customers snickered at me that day I got really excited when I found Dick Contino on a schmaltzy compilation album, but Mr. E felt free to announce that I knew my stuff and so what if I liked the cheese.
Now the clock is ticking, and soon I will have no record store. Yes, there are other stores in town that sell records but they aren't my record store.
My record store is closing.
I found out last week from LCG. We were chatting and all of a sudden he got solemn and said, "I've got some sad news." It was obviously not personal tragedy sad news, but it still didn't look good. "Richie Cunningham is so sad," he added. I couldn't imagine what kind of news would make both Richie and myself sad. It couldn't be a band breakup, you would be hard pressed to find a band breakup (other than say, Iron Maiden) that would make both of us sad. Our tastes don't converge all that often. Then the bombshell arrived, right on schedule.
LCG: Mr. E is closing his store.
Me: No.
LCG: He is.
Me: He can't.
(silence)
Me: Where will I go to buy...how did this...why?
LCG: You know...
Me: I know. The store's been struggling for a while now.
LCG: Yep.
Me: But...
LCG: I know. I'm sorry.
I called my Crabby Friend shortly after that conversation because it's not just my record store, it's also the record store of his Crabby Child.
Me: Mr. E is closing his store.
CF: What? Where is Crabby Child supposed to shop? He always goes there first. He buys some stuff online but only if Mr. E doesn't have it and isn't going to get it.
Me: I know. Did I ever tell you about the time I bought a turntable from him and the needle was messed up and when I took it back to the him he called the needle store that was about to close and made them stay open so I could get a needle that night? Then when I was at the store he called to make sure I had gotten there. You know...
CF: That's service you aren't going to get anywhere else. Ever.
Me: No kidding. I won't see service of that caliber again.
I was very glad that I had found out from LCG, because when I checked my email before work that night I had something from Aaaahj waiting.
Subject: A Sad Day...
It's with a very heavy heart that I have to relay the following press release to you:
It was Mr. E's press release announcing the closing of the store and the beginning of his store closing sale. It also gave the reasons that he is closing, each more depressing than the last.
An excerpt:
There comes a time in everyone's life when they have to weigh the costs of fighting the good fight so to say. Unfortunately...in this world of FREE MUSIC, CDRs, MP3s, DVDs, Video games, buying direct from manufactures...and a whole slew of other things (IE: The internet itself) that are preventing people from actually getting off their dead bored ass and go to a store and converse with people and learn about their favorite music....
Uh-oh. Did free music really take him down? Probably. I haven't worked in a record store for three years now, but things are very different than they were just a few years ago. In 2001 customers would ask us if the free download site (only one was well known at the time) was hurting our business. "Well," we would say, "no." In 2001 free downloads were generating business, at least at our store. Someone would try out a couple of tracks by an artist they didn't know very well, decide that they liked it, and then come in and buy the whole album from us.
I don't think that is the case anymore, even at the store where I worked. LCG called me on Labor Day this year and asked if we used to have a Labor Day sale. No, we had a set number of storewide sales a year and Labor Day wasn't one of them. It is now, said he. He had gone in to do a little shopping and the discount was enormous. Thirty percent off his entire purchase. We never had to do that three years ago. I mean, we didn't get that many customers on Labor Day anyway but we used it as a good day to catch up on work. It seems like a lot of the stores are hurting these days, and Mr. E doesn't think he can compete any longer.
Another excerpt:
It is with a very sad heart that I must do this....but after 10 years of success and 3 years of trying to JUST STAY AFLOAT...I cannot go on like this. Do not think I am dropping out of the scene or anything like that. I will still be doing the radio show....I will start doing the record conventions again...the label and website will still be active and I will also increase my web selling.
In this day and age....it is all I can do now for the days of the Mom and Pop retails shops are just about done. I have watched many like me drop like flies over the years. Now I am dropping with them after hoping that people's views about music and the economy itself would change.....and I do not see this happening in my lifetime so it is time to move on.
It is the end of another chapter for me and the beginning of another for many. If you were a good customer and reading this...I thank you for your years of support and your patronage. I will definitely miss you and I know that many others like yourself will miss this store AFTER it's gone.
Three years of trying to stay afloat means that it is my fault that Mr. E is closing his store. My shopping has tapered off in the last three years and I am afraid I'm personally responsible for the closing. Instead of going once or twice a week, I was only going once a month and then I would usually just chat with Aaaahj instead of actually shopping. It didn't used to be that way. It didn't used to be that way at all.
I remember the first time I went to Mr. E's store. It was the summer of 1994 and he was located in the basement of a hi-fi shop. No, really. Ten years ago it was still possible to find an LP store in the basement of a hi-fi shop. When I worked at the Salvation Army a crazy regular LP scrounger had told me about the store, and after nearly a year of knowing about it I finally paid a visit. Mr. E took me seriously although he really didn't need to. I mean, I was wearing a Nirvana baseball cap (not a Nirvana fan, it's a long story that is also in poor taste) and quite possibly a flannel shirt with the sleeves ripped off.
However, I did work at a record store myself and he was pleased when I told him how much better his store was. Then I spotted a New York Dolls record that I needed and got all giddy and maybe that is how I passed the taste test. He had been friendly during my visit but when I bought a New York Dolls record he became downright cordial. I shopped there a few more times and then fell out of the habit.
A year, maybe a year and a half later I went shopping at his new location. New! I said that I had accidentally fallen off the shopping wagon but I used to shop at the basement location. He had moved out of there so he could set longer hours for the store, and then he felt free to claim that he remembered me. "No, you don't," said I. I mean, come on. I approved at the attempt to be a superhero-like customer-knowing record store guy, but come on. He named some of the bands I like and I stood corrected. I also stood in that store for hours and hours over the course of the next several years.
Not one of my phases was ever deemed unsuitable for discussion, no giddy squeal over a Mike Nesmith record ever generated a roll of the eyes. Some record stores are pretentious and/or pompous, but not Mr. E's store. Everyone there loved music and loved to talk about music and I loved going there. Nothing beats having a record store guy. One fine February I showed up at the store and started eyeing a record by Freddie and the Dreamers when over my shoulder I heard the booming voice of Mr. E.
He tried to sell the record to me based on the fact that it had the instructions on how to do The Freddie on the back cover. The Freddie is that cool dance they do in old clips of I'm Telling You Now. I'm telling you now, Mr. E knew the best way to talk me into buying a record. Even with my regular customer discount, it was too expensive and I passed but I have no doubt in my mind I bought something else that day.
What about the day Mr. E asked me how it was going and I told him super because I had driven my '68 Charger? He flipped, because he had once owned a '68 Charger so I invited him outside to enjoy my car. Well, I co-owned the car. It was in rough shape and mostly primer on one side, but it had a 383 and a four barrel carburetor and the gas cap on the rear quarter panel next to the trunk instead of under the license plate and that is what counted. I started it up for him and he breathed the exhaust leaking into the vehicle like it was perfume.
Mr. E: My Charger smelled just like this!
Me: You can't drive this car unless the windows are down or you'll get carbon monoxide poisoning. Would you like to drive it? Or I can drive you on your lunch errand.
No, Mr. E had many business owner errands to run but that didn't matter. I had just enjoyed quality bonding time with my record store guy. He liked my car and cats and trivia and I liked his store, and continued to spend a good chunk of time there.
Then...stuff happened. The Charger got sold, I got a divorce and was broke. By the time I was no longer broke I was going to school and had to buy books every quarter. Then my tuition went up when I switched from straight business to IT and not only did I have to buy books each quarter, I had to make a monthly payment to my school for the amount my financial aid didn't cover. All of my income went to my school payment, my car payment, or was hoarded for the next time I had to buy books or make car repairs.
Like cruel clockwork, every time I had extra money books or car repairs would crop up and wipe me out. Full time job, full time school, full time miser made it difficult for me to get to the record store. These things happened over the past three years, which are the years that Mr. E has been struggling. If only I had found a way to divert more of my funds to LPs, maybe this wouldn't be happening.
The past year I've had more pocket money but since my temp job was supposed to last three months I have hung onto any disposable income, just in case unemployment strikes. The job has been going for thirteen months now but I couldn't shake the paranoia of losing it, so again I avoided providing my record store with profits. Also, working third shift I am asleep during store hours.
Now my record store is closing.
You see, I took it for granted that the store would always be there. I figured that eventually I would be able to (at the very least) resume my three dollar a week LP habit. I knew that the store was having problems and I still didn't make enough of an effort to visit during the tough summer months. There are still other places to shop, but they aren't my happy places. They are just stores.
When I was a kid the record store section of the Yellow Pages was fairly large, chock full of both chains and independents. Great American Music and the Wax Museum slowly closed stores over the years and finally disappeared altogether. The neighborhood stores like Positively 4th Street, Groove Monster, Flipside, InZane, Tatters and Platters, and Garage D'or are long, long gone. Now Root Cellar will be added to the list, and I will become an LP collector with no home base. Please shop at your local music store, or this could happen to you too.
My record store is closing, and I am crushed.