IanRees Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 with my dad and my best friend and im just a little excited about it to say the least. The area i live in known as the "South Bay", which is a beautiful beach community in So.Cal between Long Beach & Santa Monica, has been without a independent record store for roughly the last 8-10 years. The South Bay has a rich music history being home to many classic bands ranging from Black Flag, Descendents, Pennywise to The Beach Boys. A big part of me growing up was me and my dad taking weekend trips to the record store and my relationship with my best friend grew because of both of our involvement with local bands so naturally this is a partnership that has been a long time coming. Currently we are in the process of looking for a location. So my question is, does anyone on these boards have any insider knowledge or tips. Wither it's distros, store supplies like racks or just any little quarks that may not be general knowledge about running a record store. We will also be launching a online store, which already exsists but primarily focuses on t-shirts which is consumermerch.com we have yet to decide but the store will most likely be Consumer Records. We are hoping to open our doors just before summer time rolls around. oohdoiloveyou, 6heart6breaker6, Emo Revival and 8 others 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
companyinkrecs Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 Wild. Good luck to you guys. I'm sure a lot of labels around here would be willing to donate some records to help in the early goings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattalica17 Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 nice one man best of luck to you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFP Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 Sounds awesome! Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanRees Posted March 21, 2013 Author Share Posted March 21, 2013 Thanks dude. We will definitely need them. So if anyone wants to get at me about wholesale'ing please do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbruise Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 This is fucking awesome. You gotta post some pics when it's up and running. Emo Revival 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFP Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 You know what, one thing I can suggest is maybe educating new listeners about good equipment, I can't stand going into an awesome store and seeing Crosley's for sale haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattalica17 Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 for record shelves a few of the stores around here build their own. any of you good with a saw? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanRees Posted March 21, 2013 Author Share Posted March 21, 2013 yeah my dads a construction worker/carpenter and my girlfriends dad is a fine carpenter so thankfully we have the shelving situation taken care of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanRees Posted March 21, 2013 Author Share Posted March 21, 2013 You know what, one thing I can suggest is maybe educating new listeners about good equipment, I can't stand going into an awesome store and seeing Crosley's for sale haha. ideally we will carry something like pro-jects in the store. definitely no crosleys oohdoiloveyou 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emo Revival Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 Thanks dude. We will definitely need them. So if anyone wants to get at me about wholesale'ing please do. I work at a distro and can help you out with some wholesale stuff, shoot me a PM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle_ftl Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 You know what, one thing I can suggest is maybe educating new listeners about good equipment, I can't stand going into an awesome store and seeing Crosley's for sale haha. I am sure that these record stores you're going to are selling Crosley's because it's easy money, and not because the owners think the brand is a super amazing quality product. Gotta make a profit, man! Can't expect people to walk into a record store wanting to drop hundreds upon hundreds on a quality product when there's a cheaper option out there. Not everyone cares about quality as much as the people on these boards! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtw88 Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 Not to mention some people are on a budget and if you snub your nose at unaware or broke customers then they are probably not going to be interested in supporting your business. almightyseancore 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanRees Posted March 21, 2013 Author Share Posted March 21, 2013 Yeah, to be honest even though we all know Crosleys arnt the greatest thing out there they have gotten people back into record collecting and thats a good thing. Im not gonna lie, i had a Crosley when i got back into collecting i've since upgraded but it was a cheap way for me to enjoy my records again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebiglebowski Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 Good luck. No insider knowledge. I would think the first thing I would consider doing is look for a record store that is closing within a state or two and offer them 10 cents on the dollar for their stock. More record stores closing than opening. Cheap, easy way to fill your shelves initially and then you can cherry-pick the other records you want to carry from distros and stuff. IanRees 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebiglebowski Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 Gotta have a dollar bin too... almightyseancore and One Hundred Fifty-Two 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFP Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 No, I know it is for the quick buck, and also convenience for the customer being all in one that is why I said "educating new listeners" FuzzRecords 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogers Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 This is awesome, I grew up nearby and still live close and we need a good record store in the area. What areas are you guys looking into? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanRees Posted March 21, 2013 Author Share Posted March 21, 2013 Rad, we are currently looking in the South Redondo/Torrance area, trying to stay west of Hawthorne and close to the beach as possible. But it all depends on the price and some other factors we've deemed as important to us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlebistro Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 Can I move to CA and work for you? It's too cold here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanRees Posted March 21, 2013 Author Share Posted March 21, 2013 ha give us a few months and we'll see if we can afford an employee outside of ourselves. It aint cheap to live here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle_ftl Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 Yeah, to be honest even though we all know Crosleys arnt the greatest thing out there they have gotten people back into record collecting and thats a good thing. Im not gonna lie, i had a Crosley when i got back into collecting i've since upgraded but it was a cheap way for me to enjoy my records again. I debated getting one for a while, just because I wasn't educated well on even the basics of listening to my records. I'm still not very educated, but I at least know that Crosley isn't a very good player, so I'd rather go after something else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebiglebowski Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 If it was me I would also try and find a label or two to do an in-store version of one of their releases to draw some people in the first time. I'm sure it is a lot more complicated than it seems but if you could get say, Asian Man to an in-store release of something, even if you essentially took no money for yourself out of the deal, it would be a lot of good publicity and worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanRees Posted March 21, 2013 Author Share Posted March 21, 2013 yeah we are going to do stuff like that. we have a advantage because my best friend/partner is a manager for quite a few bands and we have good connections with a lot of smaller labels and whatnot. We are really good friends with Jake from Pure Noise as an example. We already have a lot of ideas for in store promotions ranging from exclusives to meet n greets/in store shows. Our grand opening should be pretty bitchin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuzzersonKillwell Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 I'm sure it won't be easy but I'll be damned if I'm not pretty jealous. That sounds amazing. I'll be flying all the way across the country this summer, hopefully you'll be open by then and I can spend some money. Good luck and congrats man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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