Record Stores in your Hometown that have Closed & you miss

alphawolf said:

Music Emporium in Fenwick Island, Delaware. 

Its basically Ocean City, Maryland
I worked there in 97' when i was 20 and stayed on the team for 5 years. 

Got lots of pj promos. 

Advanced copy of Single Video Theory on VHS. 

Got the entire 2000 bootleg set, chunk by chunk. 

Doubles (at least) of every pj Vinyl ever pressed thru Avocado. 

No Code and Vitalogy hanging mobiles.  

One of the best jobs/boss/coworkers/managers ive ever had. 

The owner Jon had a metal rack of used vinyl that continuously rotated stock. 

Hed give me 30 records at a time for 5$... or free if he was being 'generous'. 

He was a great guy. 

RIP to Jon Dux. 

And RIP to 'progress.'

Its a real estate office now 🙁

I’m sure you have great memories from working there. I worked at a record store the summer after I graduated high school before I left for college. That little minimum wage job was the one of the best jobs I ever had. So much fun. 

Rock Records - Downtown Chicago
G-Bs Books and Records - Decatur IL
Crows Nest - Someone already mentioned this one above
Val's halla Records - Oak Park
Dave's Records - Chicago
Jazz Record Mart - Chicago 
Permanent Records - Chicago

Bentleyspop said:

Unfortunately I can't remember the names of the store I grew up with except for Kemp Mill Music which at its peak had 30+ stores in the DC metro area. The last one closed a few years ago.
The owner was coocoo crazy. 

I also grew up going to NYC frequently and shopping at Bleeker Bobs and Sounds. 

@Bentleyspop I remember them. Did you ever go to Penguin Feathers on The Rockville Pike, or Peaches. I remember going to those two when I was in High School. Penguin Feathers also sold weed paraphernalia if remember correctly. 

Tower Records in Campbell CA. There were two buildings right next to each other, one with records and tapes, and the other one with posters and a head shop in the back. I don't know how many posters ended up on my walls from that store, but there were quite a few over the years. My parents both partook, so while they were in the head shop, I would check out the posters. I was too young to go back into the head shop.  After I left for the Navy, I was stationed on a Naval base on the isolated island of Adak, AK. This was just before the internet started to be wide spread, so my only link to new music was to watch 120 Minutes on MTV which was part of the on base cable TV system. I would see videos of bands, and call my Dad, who would go to Tower, buy the CDs and then mail them up to me. I saw a video from the Smashing Pumpkins. The next time I called my Dad I asked him to pick up their CD Gish. He called me back a few days later saying he went to Tower, but they had never heard of the Squished Pumpkins. After laughing, I told him it was "Smashing", he had misheard me. He went back, got the CD and sent it to me. 

JeBurkhardt said:

Tower Records in Campbell CA. There were two buildings right next to each other, one with records and tapes, and the other one with posters and a head shop in the back. I don't know how many posters ended up on my walls from that store, but there were quite a few over the years. My parents both partook, so while they were in the head shop, I would check out the posters. I was too young to go back into the head shop.  After I left for the Navy, I was stationed on a Naval base on the isolated island of Adak, AK. This was just before the internet started to be wide spread, so my only link to new music was to watch 120 Minutes on MTV which was part of the on base cable TV system. I would see videos of bands, and call my Dad, who would go to Tower, buy the CDs and then mail them up to me. I saw a video from the Smashing Pumpkins. The next time I called my Dad I asked him to pick up their CD Gish. He called me back a few days later saying he went to Tower, but they had never heard of the Squished Pumpkins. After laughing, I told him it was "Smashing", he had misheard me. He went back, got the CD and sent it to me. 

120 minutes was an amazing show for it's time.  Before that it was Reflex and Maximum Rock n Roll for me.

AO253126 said:

demetrios said:

I miss Sam the Record Man.

Me too. Big Time. I remember making a road trip to Toronto back in the early 90's when someone told me it had the highest concentration of record stores in North America. Sam The Record Man was my favorite and the one I remember most. The gigantic neon turntables were a sight to behold.

I never got the chance to see the big neon turntables on Toronto. :(  We had 2 Sam The Record Man stores in Nova Scotia. They were both the best! 

Are you still planning on making shirts for these places? Me and a buddy would be very interested in a couple Crow’s Nest shirts.