finishing school, and they decided on a record shop. “But we were also hoping to create a space beyond just selling records,” Capon recalls. “In college, we were involved with promoting shows and with the college radio station community. And community appealed to us as much as retail.”Schnable concurs. “Going against some preconceived notions of record stores, we wanted to create a comfortable environment where people could hang out, meet up, exchange, be a part of something.
Mark: Yeah, because they’re tired of lugging them around! What happens a lot when we buy collections is that we’ll break it down and say, “We can take.” And they say, “Do you just want them all? I don’t want to take them back out to the car.” Matt: Yeah, we probably could have gotten two or three grand. It was something that only RCA executives got; they made five or 10 of them. Mark: We’ve had a variety of actors and tons of musicians, but at least in our world, Brian Eno is the most famous, most legendary. He sat on that very couch ; we sat on either side of him, grabbed his knee. We had an hour with Eno in here; we were open, but no other customers came in.
Matt: Keep an open mind. Have the ability to be influenced by your customers. Evolve naturally with the community. Trying to grow exponentially when your town—or you—can’t handle it is a terrible idea. And start small, but with as stacked an inventory as you can manage.