Remembering Record Stores

[Quad Linda]

Which Pacific store?

Oak Park is the only Pacific store in W or N Chicago 'burbs that I didn't work! Worked at 8 locations in 4 years. Opened a couple new stores.

 

[cbmmm3]

got my first CD in this mall. No, not at Monkey Wards. There was a bookstore in the mall that was one of the first in the area to carry Compact Discs.
Every one of the CDs was Import as there were not domestic CD production at that point. Man, wish I could remember the name of that store !! I remember driving the ole Datsun B210 to the store on Friday eve to browse. Money was tight but I still would come home with a disc or two

 

[JerseyEd]

Music Den at the Menlo Park mall in NJ. Bought many albums there. This was before the mall was enclosed. At that time it was more like 2 opposing strip malls with no roof between them. Side note - across from the Music Den was John Hardy shoes where I bought my Beatle Boots.

If we're talking CD's I need to move about 20 years later. The same mall, which was now enclosed and added a second level, had Compact Disk World. It was actually on the outside of the mall and not accessible from the main mall. Some of my firsts were, of course, The Beatles, Yes and a slew of others.

 

[Sal1950]

Which Pacific Stereo did you work for? I did a ton of business with the one on North Ave in Oak Park.
I do remember my first CD player, a Magnavox CDB-560 that had been so well reviewed as
the budget player to buy. The Sony CDP-101 was way out of my price range in those days.
IIRC my first CD was Dire Staits - Brothers In Arms and a few others I can't remember.
Wow, getting those first CD's were exciting times!

AFAIR Chicago Digital was the first store in the area that sold USED CD's
Back when new CD's were expensive, Chris started the used "trade-in" policies that no one else had.
IIRC he was doing the 2 for 1 trade deals and paid pretty well for our used stuff.. If CD's didn't look too bunged up
they would normally play just fine. If your looking for something special, Chi-Di probably has it.
When I sold-out (to him) my entire CD collection he paid me fairly handsomely for my solid gold.
Going to his in-store website, I see he's now committing sacrilege and selling use LP's also, big money there I'm told. What a fountain of knowledge he is!

 

[barfle]

I believe Rasputin’s in Berkely is still around. If you’re stuck in the Oakland area, it’s worth checking out.

At one time, I had a job that took me to the area three or four times a year. Rasputin’s was two stories of remarkably good-condition LPs, although you had to look for the quads.

These days, that’s probably the only reason I have to go there, and there are record stores here that I still need to quadraid.

 

[reedfoot]

@reedfoot mentioned Spring Hill Mall in West Dundee IL. Sadly Friday was its' last day of operation.

Every business I have ever worked for has gone out of business after I left (excepting my current employer) and most of the locations I worked at have been torn down or repurposed (including Spring Hill and Lakehurst Malls). I need to figure out a way to monetize that with my current employer, or at least let them know they should not lay me off if they want to survive as a company.

 

[reedfoot]

I regularly shopped at five of six Chicago Korvettes locations: Arlington Heights, North Riverside, Elmhurst, Morton Grove and Oak Lawn. Four of them were Korvette City, with a full hi-fi salon in addition to a record dept and appliances/tv/small electronics dept. Korvettes even had a proprietary (house) brand of hi-fi called XAM. It was the backwards spelling of the electronics buyer's cat, Max!

Tower Records first opened in Illinois in the 90's. I shopped at all 4 Chicago locations regularly: Clark St., Downtown (formerly Rose's flagship), Schaumburg and Bloomingdale. Also shopped on multiple visits 4th & Broadway NYC, old and new upper west side NYC stores, Trump Tower, Tower/Good Guys (electronics) superstore in Vegas, New & Old UNLV stores and New Orleans.

Became friends with several Chicago area Korvettes and Tower employees. They allowed me to exchange ANYTHING still in print for full credit, no receipt needed. Lots of 2ch LP's of mine became Quad LP's for an extra buck! My LP collection was already a couple hundred when I was in high school. I was one of their best customers.

Began buying Quad LP's in college. That eventually grew to over 500 QLP's & Q8's. Korvettes had an entire gondola full of Quad LP's! 1st three QLP's I bought: Santana III, Stoney End - Streisand, and Hold on to Me - Bonnie Koloc. Didn't have Quad gear yet, but was already doing the basic DY speaker arrangement.

@Quad Linda where was the Arlington Heights Korvettes located? My parents took me there once and I remember being impressed with the store (especially the LP department) but living in Crystal Lake we never made it back before it closed. I hazily remember it being on Rand Road, possibly where the Menards is now? If so, that's really close to another of my Recordtown/Coconuts jobs at Rand and Arlington Heights Rd, which is now a mattress shop.

 

[Quad Linda]

@Quad Linda where was the Arlington Heights Korvettes located? My parents took me there once ...

NW corner Rand and Arlington Heights Rd. Kitty corner from Coconuts.

There's a Burlington Coat Factory there now.

 

[reedfoot]

NW corner Rand and Arlington Heights Rd. Kitty corner from Coconuts.

There's a Burlington Coat Factory there now.

Thanks for solving that riddle - I worked @ that Coconuts for about 9 months.

Too bad Google Street View doesn't have an option to 'drive' down streets from the distant past...I would pay for that feature!

 

[Bill B]

Too bad Google Street View doesn't have an option to 'drive' down streets from the distant past...I would pay for that feature!

If there is one thing that I regret, it's that I (and my father before me) didn't take more pictures of random buildings and streets around town. Things that I took for granted get lost in memories and forgotten forever. I'm guessing with digital photography (no developing costs). a camera on every phone, and a phone in every hand all of the time, both the common and obscure will be well documented in the 21st century.

 

[kfbkfb]

A side, but related topic- returning defective records & tapes:

The only defective record/tape I returned (happened to be to the Sycamore Mall Musicland) was the prerecorded cassette of Elton John - A Single Man (the tape was recorded too loud and was distorted), the one I got as an exchange was not distorted (although MCA wasn't known for making high quality prerecorded cassettes during this time [no Dolby B NR, for example]).

I returned/exchanged several LaserDiscs and one (SP speed) prerecorded music video [VHS tracking couldn't be suitably adjusted] to various record/video stores.


Kirk Bayne

 

[par4ken]

Not a lot of defective records but the odd time the wrong record. One of my CD-4 albums (I think it was Billion Dollar Babies) contained the stereo version of "America". I returned it to the store the very same day.

Another time I received Gordon Lightfoot in a Jimi Hendrix cover! That was in the dying days of The Record Club of Canada, so no exchange.

The Grand Funk Railroad LP "E Pluribus Funk" from The Record Club of Canada has one channel missing on over half of side two of the LP. My brother had that one, I latter found my own copy in a used record store and it unfortunately had the same defect.

 

[MidiMagic]

LOL, funny you posted this, as I recently bought a couple albums from Walmart Online. Their shipping dept could teach a certain quadio shipper how to package their products so they arrive undamaged.
And No, I can't remember what I paid for them

Our WalMart has half the length of an aisle on the top shelf with three-high record bins and also an end cap - about 500 records.

I remember the first record I got to pick out, the first record I bought with my own money, and the first 33 album I bought.

- The first record I picked out: Perry Como "Round and Round" on a 6-inch 78 in 1957 at Ben Franklin in Bloomington IN..
- The first record I bought with my own money: Bent Fabric "Alley Cat" on a 7-inch 45 in 1963 at Jubilee City in Indianapolis IN.
- The first record album I bought was Petula Clark "Downtown" in 1965 at AyrWay in Bloomington IN.
- The first record I ordered was Boots Walker "They're Here" in 1967 at Vance's Music in Bloomington IN.
I still have them.

 

[MidiMagic]

Not a lot of defective records but the odd time the wrong record. One of my CD-4 albums (I think it was Billion Dollar Babies) contained the stereo version of "America". I returned it to the store the very same day.

Another time I received Gordon Lightfoot in a Jimi Hendrix cover! That was in the dying days of The Record Club of Canada, so no exchange.

The Grand Funk Railroad LP "E Pluribus Funk" from The Record Club of Canada has one channel missing on over half of side two of the LP. My brother had that one, I latter found my own copy in a used record store and it unfortunately had the same defect.

I have had very few defective records:

- I bought a cutout copy of Derek and the Dominos "Layla" and it was dangerous to play because they drilled the cutout hole through the runout groove. I returned it.
- A copy of Vince Guaraldi Trio "A Charlie Brown Christmas" bought in 1973 had the wrong side 2 (rock songs I didn't recognize).
- I have a copy of Leonard Nimoy "Space Odyssey" where the stamper was not centered on side two. I can play it by removing the spindle from my PE turntable and visually centering the grooves first.
- A friend got a CD supposedly of "Christmas Classics". The wrong music was on the CD. He returned it, but not before I found out what it was and ordered it: Maranatha Singers "We Shall Stand".
- I got a CD with part of the label printed on the wrong side, so it didn't play right. I exchanged it for the same CD.

 

[cbmmm3]

Our WalMart has half the length of an aisle on the top shelf with three-high record bins and also an end cap - about 500 records.

I remember the first record I got to pick out, the first record I bought with my own money, and the first 33 album I bought.

- The first record I picked out: Perry Como "Round and Round" on a 6-inch 78 in 1957 at Ben Franklin in Bloomington IN..
- The first record I bought with my own money: Bent Fabric "Alley Cat" on a 7-inch 45 in 1963 at Jubilee City in Indianapolis IN.
- The first record album I bought was Petula Clark "Downtown" in 1965 at AyrWay in Bloomington IN.
- The first record I ordered was Boots Walker "They're Here" in 1967 at Vance's Music in Bloomington IN.
I still have them.

awesome !! great Memory.

 

[chinera123]

In downtown Toronto we had Sam the Record. I remember those Saturday 7am $2.99 sales for new releases. I was in many a line-up for those. And almost next door was the A&A flagship store, and Sunrise Records across the street. All gone now.

 

[Bob Romano]

Which Pacific store?

Oak Park is the only Pacific store in W or N Chicago 'burbs that I didn't work! Worked at 8 locations in 4 years. Opened a couple new stores.

I know we've talked about this but I used to go to the one out the Hillside Shopping center (and drool profusely). I later worked at Hillside Music in about 1977 to about 1980 or so before I move to JB Record Ranch in Berkeley IL. When I was a kid my aunt used to take me weekly to Korvettes to buy my a couple of the latest singles. If I only still had those.

 

[Bob Romano]

AFAIR Chicago Digital was the first store in the area that sold USED CD's
Back when new CD's were expensive, Chris started the used "trade-in" policies that no one else had.
IIRC he was doing the 2 for 1 trade deals and paid pretty well for our used stuff.. If CD's didn't look too bunged up
they would normally play just fine. If your looking for something special, Chi-Di probably has it.
When I sold-out (to him) my entire CD collection he paid me fairly handsomely for my solid gold.
Going to his in-store website, I see he's now committing sacrilege and selling use LP's also, big money there I'm told. What a fountain of knowledge he is!

Totally forgot about Chicago Digital. They had everything CD although, back then, it was expensive and I don't think they were trading or buying used stuff yet. I also lived in Bellwood and Hillside so it was quite a haul for me to go to Oak Park. But after I bought my Sony D-5 at Marshall Field's for $365 I had no choice. It was the place to go.

 

[barfle]

Our WalMart has half the length of an aisle on the top shelf with three-high record bins and also an end cap - about 500 records.

I remember the first record I got to pick out, the first record I bought with my own money, and the first 33 album I bought.

- The first record I picked out: Perry Como "Round and Round" on a 6-inch 78 in 1957 at Ben Franklin in Bloomington IN..
- The first record I bought with my own money: Bent Fabric "Alley Cat" on a 7-inch 45 in 1963 at Jubilee City in Indianapolis IN.
- The first record album I bought was Petula Clark "Downtown" in 1965 at AyrWay in Bloomington IN.
- The first record I ordered was Boots Walker "They're Here" in 1967 at Vance's Music in Bloomington IN.
I still have them.

My first 45 was “Love You So” by Ron Holden. I still have it, although it is cracked, it is also autographed.

My first LP was “Beach Boys Concert.” I still have it.

 

[MidiMagic]

awesome !! great Memory.

It works great for events in my life.
Not so great for remembering people's names.