I will gladly pay a couple bucks more in the store, and often do, but I still buy from Amazon if the store doesn't have what I am looking for. Does that mean I don't care about record stores?
While they were doing renovations at 66th St. Tower moved uptown temporarily to the Ansonia building between 73rd and 74th. HMV had a big staff meeting to discuss how best to deal with the increased traffic for the few days when Tower was closed.
195 Calyer Street in Greenpoint, in the basement. A doughnut and coffee at Peter Pan, a couple hours at Captured Tracks, and lunch in a Polish restaurant (Christina's is the best and don't let anybody tell you different) is about as perfect a Saturday morning in Brooklyn as I can imagine.
Of the three, or five if you count The Thing and Dream Fishing Tackle, record stores in Greenpoint, I prefer Record Grouch and Academy. It's rare that I find anything at Captured Tracks, but it's always worth hitting all three if you're in the neighborhood. I do miss Permanent Records when they were in the neighborhood---Co-Op 87 not so much. It will also be interesting to see what becomes of Human Head.
Manhattan is a much easier trip for me, and maybe soon I can finally go there. I had planned to go to the Brooklyn location but never got there.
Wow, Rockefeller will be good for me as I work in Bryant Park. Maybe not so good for my wallet. It's been a while since there's been a decent vinyl store near work. Barnes & Noble was lame and The Record Mart was a bit overpriced and didn't carry much stock that was of interest to me
Whereas Grouch and Academy rarely have much for me, and I never even bother with The Thing. (For one thing, that open stairwell to the basement triggers my vertigo.) When Permanent moved to that bizarre location in Park Slope in like the back room of a co-working space or whatever it was, I knew it was the end. However, Co-Op 87 is still there. They just changed their name to Brooklyn Record Exchange. They're a decent second stop after CT, but my bag is usually already close to full by the time I'm climbing up the stairs on Calyer Street.
This NYT article mentions the rent issue: Rough Trade Record Store Has an Unlikely New Home: 30 Rock Interesting article, not sure if it was posted already. When RT first announced they were opening up in NYC and it would be in Williamsburg it made a lot of sense considering who I thought their clientele would be. I never would've guessed a move to midtown, though, reading the article I can see why they went with that option.
In the Metro area? There's places in NJ that blow away anything in Manhattan. If you actually meant NYC, then I'd say that there is no "best" because there are no great record stores left here, although there are some very good ones (for different reasons). My votes go to Academy, Jazz Record Center and Downtown Music Gallery. though there are several others that aren't far behind.
Captured Tracks was very good for several years after it opened, but around 2018 they seemed to be putting out fewer worthwhile new arrivals and slowly physically decaying. For the last year I lived next door they never had anything worthwhile. But I suppose they could have upgraded since then. As of November 2019, Academy was by far the best and largest; those guys seems to get in large collections everyday that they priced according to reasonable guidelines. Grouch was very good too. Co-Op blew before it departed; don't know if it's back in the same tiny location with a new name but that's another store I watched decline every week for years. Alas for Marjorie and Permanent, those were good times on Franklin. Dream Fishing Tackle is absolutely worth going to if Robert is still carrying on. His prices are too high and he doesn't understand condition or differences between pressings, but he gets tons of the obvious classic rock standards (often buying them off Discogs) and some interesting obscurities. His lack of actual expertise means he often makes mistakes that result in excellent bargains. The Thing should, of course, be at least looked at briefly just to say you did. I got some good stuff there over the years but the ownership in Manhattan seemed to have improved their sifting out anything that might have even the remotest interest to humans. Oh to be clear, I mean Academy in Greenpoint. The one in Manhattan is only worthwhile if you happen to be in that lame neighborhood already, maybe you need a corkscrew at Bed Bath & Beyond.
Interesting. I find the opposite is true. Everything that is priced isn't the price and when you bring him the record to purchase, he looks it up on Discogs and quotes the highest price regardless of condition or pressing. I gave up a long time ago. The smell of cat piss didn't help either.
Also HMV had a pretty decent selection of imports as well, which weren't that easy to come by in the pre-internet era And I forgot Disc-O-Rama in the West Village and Union Square- a great source for chaep CDs (They must have had some record industry contacts, because I noticed a fair selection of their inventory were promo CDs, marked as such)
Depends on what you're looking for. I only buy used, so my "must visits" are Academy on Oak St AND 12th St, A1 in the East Village, and Jazz Record Center on 26th St. I could easily kill a whole day making the rounds.
Has anyone been to Human Head in Bushwick? I just heard about it recently, but I haven't made it out there yet. Looks like they sell used books too.