Don R. Lewis at Pacific Sun features many record stores in the Bay Area and discusses how record stores are thriving.
Kirk Heydt, owner of Spin Records in Petaluma.
“…..Petaluma radio DJ Jason “Scone Bone” Scogna also recommends Watts Music (1211 Grant Ave.) in Novato because, “to them, it’s not about making a sale, it’s about creating a customer.” Which is something he not only respects, but sees as a smart move—because everyone in the record-collecting community talks and shares stories, good and bad.
“You know, take an album like Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers’ live, last show at Max’s in Kansas City,” Scogna says, by way of example. “Maybe a $10 record; Watts had it for $7. So, totally worth it.”
Indeed, a stop at Watts immediately reveals the long-forgotten smell of the record store. Used and new vinyl is neatly organized among that truly dead form of physical media: the CD. The gentleman working the counter is friendly and doesn’t bombard customers with his musical taste or the dreaded question, “Is there something specific you’re looking for?”
Friendly service matters because, honestly, shopping for vinyl can be intimidating. No one wants to come off like a newbie, and many record-store owners are clichés of John Cusack’s High Fidelity Rob Gordon character, with his menagerie of know-it-all pseudo-employees who’d prefer you shop elsewhere even though they’re ostensibly trying to make a living through record sales.”