I was excited to stop in and check out a new used vinyl shop here Wilmington but was rather disappointed after doing so.
First, the good. It's a very clean shop and the staff was very friendly and eager to help. There's a pretty good selection of things and they appear to have many of the very popular 'must haves' of used vinyl around the shop.
Okay, the bad.
First, it's very cramped inside. This isn't usually that big of a deal and not enough to ever warrant a low rating, but it's so tight in the shop that it's hard to look through selections if there are even 3 other people inside browsing. This is also an issue when looking through items in the crates on the floor beneath the main display.
Second, organization. It's always a major problem when you only have country, blues & Jazz, R&B, and Rock as categories. The biggest issue here, obviously, is to have a monolithic 'rock' category that includes everything from folk, pop, soft rock, punk, classic rock, and heavy metal all under one banner--you can't find anything and spend more time fishing through countless rows of genres you have no interest in. To have appropriate categorization only makes things more convenient for the customer as well as easier for workers as well.
Third, and this is the big thing: price. I understand that a local shop needs to have a mark up, and I'm okay with that; it's great to not have to wait for something to ship and have it right away and it's a nice feeling to buy local. However, when every single album (used and new) is being sold for 50-100% more than not only every major used vinyl site online (e.g., discogs) but also other shops in town, it's ridiculous. You have to be aware of what your competitors (both online and in town) are selling things for and offer a fair and reasonable price as well. Almost every new vinyl album here is selling for around $30-$35 when literally every site online, major stores in town (target, Best Buy, etc..), and other used vinyl shops sell the same ones for $19. It's borderline insulting. The used prices are even more atrocious. Usually, any used vinyl album will be *cheaper* than new at a used record shop, since their cost for the supply is much, much less than when buying new from a distributor. Thus, you can get used Beatles, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and Hendrix everywhere for $15-$25 all day long. Here? Try spending between $45-$60 !!
As someone who really knows used vinyl prices and what's worth what, it was a very unpleasant thing to see this shop being run like this.
I don't see how this can be a sustainable business unless they fix their price points to a reasonable (10-15%) mark up for what the same item sells for on discogs. Perhaps some unsuspecting college kids will drop $40-50 for a $15 album not knowing any better but the few who do so won't be keeping the lights on here.
I'd be more than happy to check in on the shop at some other point in the hopes that they make appropriate changes (which is why I'm giving them 2-stars as opposed to 1), but time will tell. read more
