Record City USA

Demographics and psychographics combine to make Richmond fertile ground for vinyl collectors

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Every few months, there’s another story about the resurgence of vinyl records. It’s a narrative that’s worn out but keeps on playing, because someone wants to hear it. The real story is that vinyl records never went anywhere. They might’ve been tucked into attics, basements, storage units and hi-fi cabinets when the compact disc arrived, but they never truly left. It is true that record labels are pressing more records these days, and now they can be found at exclusive boutiques like Target, Urban Outfitters and Whole Foods, and young people do love the shiny black discs. Richmond is a good place to find them. Most major cities have a handful of record stores, but Richmond boasts 11 independent shops that sell records. Some, like Barky’s Spiritual Stores and Plan 9 Music, have been around for decades, while others, such as Records & Relics and Small Friend Records and Books, are new to the game. So why does Richmond have so many independent record stores? Where are the records coming from?

Katie Gilstrap, assistant professor of marketing at Virginia Commonwealth University, doesn’t own a single record. But Gilstrap, the former chief marketing officer for a local bank and daughter of a bluegrass musician, thinks she knows why there are so many record stores in Richmond.

“I think that what you see around this issue and other related issues is that Richmond is the perfect storm of the psychographic profile of hipsters,” she says. “I know that’s not a scientific term, but it does have meaning in marketing in terms of personas of audiences.”

So Richmond has a lot of hipsters — you may not have needed a college professor to tell you that. To some, the term “hipster” conjures an image of a bearded white dude in a plaid shirt holding a plastic cup of craft beer. But this doesn’t encompass everyone Gilstrap is referring to.

“It’s a lifestyle and a point of view,” she says. “I don’t see it tied to gender, age or ethnicity.”

But back to that perfect storm that’s raining records on River City.

“We are also such a young city, demographic-wise with the four universities, that we have this constant influx of young people here, and we are a nostalgic city that’s steeped in a love of all things vintage,” Gilstrap says. “That’s manifesting itself in things like record stores, tattoos, you see it in craft beer, you see it in artisanal coffee, so it’s not surprising to me that we’re over-indexing in vinyl records, because we over-index in related categories that speak to that young, hipster, vintage, psychographic profile.”

Not a bad analysis from someone who streams her music exclusively. It should be noted that record stores aren’t the only places selling records. Thrift stores such as Diversity Thrift, Goodwill, FanTastic Thrift, The Love of Jesus and many others typically have a healthy record selection with varying degrees of quality. Of the chain stores with records in their inventory, Urban Outfitters, which has a shop in Short Pump, is one of the largest sellers of records in the country, while 2nd & Charles, with two locations in the region, has an immense selection of records and books. You’ll also find records in a few places where you wouldn’t expect to see them, such as Carytown Pack & Ship, which has a rack of dance music for sale. Though these other places sell records, they don’t have that indie record store vibe.  

“In my day, when we used to go to record stores, it was about a community,” says John Glaser, vice president of sales for Alliance Entertainment, the country’s largest distributor of vinyl records. “You can walk in there and talk about music with someone. You knew they were going to turn you on to something new and fresh and maybe something that you weren’t exactly coming in for.”

“That’s a big number,” he says, when told about the amount of retailers in Richmond selling vinyl, almost double the tally you’ll find in Miami, near Alliance’s headquarters in Sunrise, Florida. “There’s probably fewer pure record stores in your town,” he says. “I assume the majority of those guys are diversifying into different products.” Indeed, most of the “guys” are peddling something besides music. At Barky’s, you can buy a choir robe; the records at Steady Sounds share space with vintage clothing; Plan 9 has posters, turntables and 8-track tapes; Oregon Hill’s Vinyl Conflict offers vintage band T-shirts; and Records & Relics has, well, relics.

Despite the popularity of vinyl, making a living selling records is still  tough. Local store Monument City Coffee & Records closed in 2015. Retail mainstay Plan 9 Music sought protection under Chapter 11 of the federal Bankruptcy Code in 2011, after closing most of its satellite locations. Small Friend Records & Books turned to a crowdfunding site for help several months after opening last year.

Chicago resident Quinn Cunningham closed his brick-and-mortar store Funk Trunk a few years ago. Now he buys records for Reverb, an online marketplace for audio gear that has added records to its repertoire. Cunningham recently made his first visit to Richmond as a buyer. He spent approximately $70,000 on records, buying them at stores and storage units and through house calls over a week.

Does this mean he might return?

“It means that I might move there,” he says, and laughs.