Any funny stories about the *worst* record store you've been to?

Used to stop by a used record store in the UK.
It was run by a guy who had drummed for Joe Cocker in the time before his
big breakthrough.
This guy had a personal grouse with Cocker over the arrangement of 'With a little help from my friends'
This guy claimed to all and sundry that HE had come up with the arrangement and idea for reshaping the song and had been cheated of an arrangers royalty credit,not only that,but was then replaced on the drummer stool shortly before Cocker had his breakthrough.
Our big thing,that is my mates and myself,was to go into the store and start to browse,there would then come the inevitible ,"Can i help you guys"......followed by....."got any Joe Cocker".....followed by...."++++ +++ and don't come back"!!!!

 

I also had an odd experience with A-1 Record finders back in the 80s. I called ahead (the guy sounded like a KFI DJ when he picked up the phone!) and asked him about some Grateful Dead titles that were nearly impossible to find back then. He put me on hold for like 10 minutes and came back telling me he had three of them. I asked how much and he said he'd have to look them up, or something like that, and to come by later that week. I took the 45 minute trek from my Mission Viejo home, 0nly to find out he wanted $20 apiece for them, which was pretty steep in 1983! I had driven the distance so I bit the bullet and laid down $60 for the three records. Here's the kicker, I live in Northern Cal now and find these same titles EVERYWHERE now, for dirt cheap. Here's the double kicker: one of the titles was Steal You Face. Yikes! I paid $20 for that! It's still in my collection though. Thanks for jogging the old memory cells Vidiot!
Thanks for the Record Rama video too. It was actually kind of moving.....

 

Bill's in Dallas. No prices on the items, they just made them up when you brought your stuff to the front counter. There was definitely an "if I don't like the way you look I'm going to charge you three times as much" vibe too. The worst part was that they had a huge amount of stuff I actually wanted (likely because the weird pricing policies meant stuff never left the store), but I had neither the time to go through everything properly or the inclination to get my hopes up about actually being able to afford any of it once the Price Police looked me over. Very, very frustrating.

 

I got ticked off at a local used book 'n' record store not too long ago. They had two records I was interested in, but they weren't priced--in the bins, though. So I asked the owner and she said that she would hold them for me and the guy who handled vinyl (her husband, I think) would call me back the next day. No call. So I call the day after and she said that they were no longer for sale. "What happened? Did he sell them to someone else or are they not for sale at all?" "I have no idea." No sorry, no nothing.

 

I've been lucky, never had a terrible record store experience. Today, however, I was in my local FYE, and they are selling used vinyl for some of the most ridiculous prices for very common LP's. They obviously make their money off of people who are not collectors.

 

Not as dire as Sopor Joe's 40-disc store, but I did once visit a local record store, named "Atomic Music" or something, that was a collection of a couple hundred used discs sourced from one or two young men's collection of late '80s/early '90s metal. To make the matter of conflating their tastes with the public's worse, the store was located in a small office building walk-up I was surprised was zoned for retail.

 

Went to a well stocked CD shop in Bedford UK back in the early 90s. I don't know if all record shops in the UK are like this but if a CD was a person's name i.e, Paul McCartney it was in the P section not M. Drove me bonkers.

 

I entered one place that had boxes and boxes of 45s and LPs (from the floor to the ceiling but they were all inside locked glass display cases. That was solo annoying. I only looked through one box, got frustrated and left.

I frequent one who insists on putting Buffalo Springfield records in the S section.

 

There was a place in Ohio called 'Spud City Records" for about 10 years in late 70's to late 80's. They had new and used records. I purchased thousands of $$$ there. They specialized in Bluegrass but had everything. I took a few Lp's to sell and one happened to be a Columbia House version. The owner handed the entire stack and stated I don't buy items that put me out of business, get out of my store. I was just a kid (about 17). Plus, I had purchased and ordered TONS of items through the years. Funny, a couple of years earlier I purchased the Elvis Hillbilly Cat bootleg out of his used bin. He always had quite a few Elvis and Beatles boots. He closed within a year. I do not believe I ever went back. I wish I pointed out that at least the Columbia House record was legal

 

One more thing, many record store owners became really crotchity due to internet, itunes, wal mart, bb, etc. i'm seeing the same thing now with local photography/camera stores. Very touchy owners. Probably the same with many audio stores. But..that is life.....the old business models are not always going to stay around.

 

There was a record store in downtown Grand Rapids MI that I went to when visiting that town one time. I was initially amazed at how many brand new, never opened titles they had. I soon realized that the dude who runs the store puts shrink wrap on all his records and they were all used. Inspect it and you've bought it. Truly bizarre.

 

I was in a local store for the first time and there was a guy looking for a vinyl copy of the Blind Faith album. The owner said he had both the original cover and the censored cover (he didn't call it that). The buyer asked the difference and the owner said something like "You don't want to risk getting arrested with the original cover." I was dumbfounded as the customer walked out with the censored cover.

 

Is he still in business? I went in there a couple of times back in the late 80s / early 90s when I was visiting Dallas. I caught on to his pricing method after paying $10 each for a couple of albums that should have only sold for $5 each. When I went in there the second time and walked up to the counter with a stack of about a dozen albums and heard the total price, I just said "I'll pass" and left. I have never been back and never will waste my time in there again.

 

At the best record store I know of, the guy filing records takes a phone call and apparently the caller is looking for the Peter Criss solo record from the days when all four members of KISS issued a solo album at the same time. Without even looking, the record store guy told him how many copies he had of the record and in what condition each was. I believe he had four of them.

PS: Bill's Records in Dallas is indeed still in business.

 

A similar thing happened here a few years ago - probably about 10 years ago. A used CD shop opened up in a strip center about two blocks down the street from another used CD / record store that has been there for years. I went in there on a Saturday - the day he opened - and looked around a bit. There were quite a few people in the store. He had a few collectable CDs in a glass cased priced for big $$$. The rest of the store - probably about 100 CDs total - was common stuff priced at about $7 - $8. I think my daughter bought a CD and we left. I drove by there a couple of weeks later and the store was empty.

 

That's how they do it in Japan too.

 

I can't recall any 'bad' record stores back in the day.

But these days, record stores are like Pizza, even if it's bad-----it's still good!

 

There's a store at the Parks Mall in Arlington that consists of hundreds of semi-legit hip-hop "mixtapes" (actually CDs) behind glass and on the walls behind the counters. Not a bad thing in itself, but their entire used selection is on two small racks near the entrance, with each disc priced between 7 and 9 bucks. Ninety-nine percent are radio promos for late 80s/early 90s artists nobody's ever heard of.

 

There was one like that near my home in Montreal. It was in fact worst: you could find your Verdi CDs in the Opera section, amongst other artist whose names begin with "O". And of course classical was a C.

 

That's where the old Tower was (RIP). Peaches is freaking abysmal! Last time I was there, they were asking like $100 for a Kiss album that would normally be $30 or so...so many similar examples in that store.

 

A store that will not be named in Tacoma, WA was bought from the original owner a few years ago. What used to be a great indie store that had a lil bit of everything, and cheap turned into a place that was essentially a Goldmine price guide directly transposed onto super common records. The alt/indie section that was incredible now only had (the least desirable) Elvis Costello records in it, and I swear to god all the ELO records were priced at $15. Never went back aside from one time I was hard up for cash and sold all my Dylan SACD hybrids there. I got $1.5 a piece, and when I asked why the man explained "I have to resurface all of these, and that's not easy" . I had literally played them all maybe twice, and I handle my CDs like a baby. It was sad.

 

Oh, at another store in Tacoma, the guy had a whole fleet of records, but none of them were priced. You'd bring them up to him and he'd eyeball them and give you an offer. I brought up Loretta Lynn's Fist City. $40.

 

There was a store I used to frequent in Tucson called Mad Hatter Books and Records. The owner used to drink beer in the store and would throw people out of the store for asking too many questions. The place was a complete mess, though if you were able to find something on your own without pestering the owner, you probably got a decent deal.

 

Forever Young in Grand Prarie (Dallas) Texas area...they have a big store...SOME of the folks there are nice...but my gosh are they so overpriced! I can get the same records in the same condition off of Discogs.com for about 1/4th of the price. It's fun to browse there though and they have a nice collection of old Beatles stuff that is outrageously priced.

But a funny story for there is I went there on Record Store Day with my young daughters (9 and 8 years old) and they were running around looking at records and had been involved with a musical project from school that was themed on the old "Sock Hop" era of music. So they were looking up songs they were doing in the show and my youngest daughter started yelling out to me..."Hey Dad!....is Elvis still alive?"..."No..he's dead." I answered...same question about Bill Haley...and then a few minutes later..out of nowhere across the store she shouts..."Hey Dad...is Justin Beiber still alive?"...my response...."Yeah...unfortunately...."

 

Record shops in the UK file by surname... except for that one in Bedford you were in.