dpirmann t1_iy902n0 wrote on November 29, 2022 at 5:29 PM

Reply to comment by Girhinomofe in Music/Record Stores in Northern NJ? by tmantuck

To your comment about thinning the inventory, this is happening all over the place. New vinyl is king again compared to crate picking used vinyl. Owners realize there's no reason to keep the complete works of Boz Scaggs at $1 a pop, when instead they can make the shop look cool and trendy. Those used crates got picked to death. Last few stores I've visited have nearly nothing used anymore, it's all new.

(* No real offense to Boz Scaggs, but if you've ever been a crate picker you know exactly what I am talking about.)

Girhinomofe t1_iy9a57t wrote on November 29, 2022 at 6:34 PM

I don’t really agree with this, and your ‘thinning’ response wasn’t really in the context of Sound Exchange.

First, every one of the above shops, as well as the ‘King of NJ’ PREX, have more used titles than new. Princeton is probably the closest of balanced old vs sealed titles, but there are/were only a couple stores that are mostly new, sealed albums (Vintage Vinyl in Fords [RIP] was more on the new side, and small shops like Sweet Vinyl in Denville is more new-leaning).

For as much as corporations like Walmart and Target want to stick their fingers in the icing with 100% sealed records, the indie shops survive on having both used and new— both of which sell. Now, all of the above shops and most others from around the state will outright reject ‘thrift store’ titles (your Boz Scaggs, Perry Como, Humperdinck, etc.), but it’s all a crap shoot on what walks in the door for you to buy.

Having been to a lot of the stores in state, somehow PREX and Station 1 are magnets for kickass collections. It’s pretty incredible to see a tiny shop in Pompton Lakes within a month offer up collections of 60s Blue Note jazz, early 80s punk originals, and ‘dark ages’ 90s alternative originals. Places like Factory are less discerning, and generally accumulate common used stuff— but it obviously sells, to support that size space.

As far as Sound Exchange’s thinning, even in their worst days you would never see Boz Scaggs or Herman’s Hermits in there. It was just that the owner had no patience to throttle inventory– anything that came in, new or used, would hit the floor, and he was apparently ravenous about buying tons of new titles. The place was packed with quality stuff, but was so overfilled that you couldn’t even get to some of it. The thinning has likely been a combo of pulling stuff into storage, and giving less square footage to CDs so that the vinyl had a place to exist besides the floor. The type of albums hasn’t changed, just the ability to edit to improve the experience.

Oh, and it goes without saying to OP that a drive down to Princeton Record Exchange is a guaranteed win.