Martin Bandyke column: Nothing beats brick-and-mortar record stores

Steve Bergman, owner of Schoolkids’ Records, closed down operations in January of 2008 after a truly impressive run of over 30 years. These days he reads electric meters in Livingston County and has no regrets. “I have to say the transition was really easy,” says Bergman. “I did it on my terms and loved what I was doing, but it was clear it wasn’t going to work out.”The 56-year old Bronx native opened his store at 523 E. Liberty in May of 1976, and his timing was perfect. “We embraced punk, which was coming into style; we had a great jazz section when that genre had a resurgence; we did in-store meet-and-greets with Iggy Pop, Dexter Gordon, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Ramones, Indigo Girls and k.d. lang. The Violent Femmes performed three times at the store. I was a brick-and-mortar guy interacting with customers.”

To a music junkie like myself, Schoolkids’ Records was a revelation, with deep inventories of every conceivable type of music and a super-knowledgeable staff. Rare punk and new-wave imports on their shelves were guaranteed to make me ooh and ahh — and drain my wallet.

During its heyday the store expanded both east and west, occupying some 7,000 square feet of space, with business peaking in the 1980s. Then came competition. “We had the influx of Borders and Tower Records in the late '90s,” says Bergman. “In a small town like Ann Arbor, we suddenly had 30,000 extra square feet of music retailers within a five-minute walk of our store. Actually, after Tower opened we still did great, but when Borders came in across the street it created problems.” Music downloads were the beginning of the end for Schoolkids’ Records, which transitioned from its sprawling Liberty location to much smaller digs in the basement of Bivouac on State Street, the second floor of Shaman Drum Bookshop, and finally to a Nickels Arcade storefront.

Bergman’s career change from music retailer to meter reader has not only been enviably smooth, but has had a positive impact on his health. “I have type 2 diabetes, so this is saving my life,” he says. “After music, my next biggest love is to hike and backpack, so this job is right up my alley. Livingston County has gorgeous terrain, there’s lots of wildlife and I’m out working in it every day. I’m my own boss and I’m having a blast doing it. Things can work out well when you’re open to it.”

Open for business and defying the odds is Encore Recordings at 417 E. Liberty St., a store specializing in used vinyl and CDs and owned for 15 years by Ann Arbor native Peter Dale.

One would think that his customers would mostly be University of Michigan students, but that’s not the case. “Most of my customers are from out of town,” says the 60-year-old Dale. “I don’t advertise on campus, and the student base is not where I primarily draw my customers or inventory. I get people who work at the university in the store, but students generally don’t have a lot of money and most foreign students don’t have any discretionary money.”

Dale’s description of his clientele rang all sorts of bells in my head, taking me back to my time spent working for him some two decades ago when he owned Car City Classics.

“Most women stop buying music when they become adults,” says Dale. “Most of my customers are male, and a huge portion of the student body doesn’t buy music, period. I do just as well in August as I do in September (when the students are back). On the other hand, the classical music section does well because of the university, with U of M’s School of Music a function of that.”

Dale admits that the recession has hurt the store a little bit, but business overall continues to be good. So how has he managed to survive while places like Schoolkids’ Records and the once-dominant Harmony House chain haven’t? “The key to survival is diversity,” says Dale.

“It’s the stuff you can offer that no one else has. Plus we have a good staff and we all complement each other's interests. If you want to shop in a record store with a broad selection, where else are you going to go?”

Has he seen a renewed interest in vinyl, something that’s been much talked about lately? “Yes, but it’s a niche market and it always will be,” Dale says. “The cost of vinyl records is high and not competitive with digital downloads, so it’s not going to be a mass-market thing. There’s a lot of CDs being sold but the value of them is falling, where the value of vinyl is rising.”

Speaking of vinyl, I still vividly remember the first album I bought (Jefferson Airplane’s “Surrealistic Pillow”) and the special day in late 1967 when I purchased The Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” at Dearborn Music. I was so excited about buying that lavishly packaged album that I spilled my money over the counter, then marveled over the artwork on the bus ride home.

And I still chuckle at the lamest question ever asked of me when I worked in retail: “What speed do you play a 45 at?”

Martin Bandyke is the 6-10am morning drive host on Ann Arbor’s 107one. Follow him on Twitter @martinbandyke and at his web site.

Editor's note: We would be remiss if we did not mention other independently-owned record stores in Ann Arbor, including PJ's Records & Used CDs (617 Packard St #B), Underground Sounds (225 E. Liberty) and Wazoo Records (336 1/2 S. State St.).

Top photo: Encore Recordings storefront photo by Flickr user Jbcurio. Second photo: Fall 1976 Schoolkids' photo courtesy Steve Bergman. From Left to right: Steve Bergman, Dexter Gordon, Michael Lang, unidentified employee, assistant manager Al Bray. Third photo: Encore Recordings owner Peter Dale stands in his store in Ann Arbor, Mich. on Aug. 24, 2009. Angela Cesere | AnnArbor.com