Mix it Up

With nothing left of Borders and Tower Records but empty buildings and rusting signs, how does a small, independent book and record store manage to stay in business?

According to Phillip Lieb, owner of Vinyl Planet and Vitamin Planet, at 112 Washington Street, the key ingredient is flexibility.

“A lot of stores start with a theme and don’t waver at all until they go out of business,” says Lieb, who has owned his shop for 10 years, five of which he spent on Kentucky Street. “But these days you have to wear many different hats. You can’t be too rigid.”

Lieb’s store, which sells used books, records, vitamins and assorted bric-a-brac picked up at yard sales, embodies fluidity that can be bewildering for first-time visitors.

There are record store staples like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, and the more esoteric items, like Latvian folk music or spoken word performances. There are Japanese manga and pulp fiction novels, and a rack of cassettes, for a small group of collectors for whom tapes still have a certain allure.

And then, there are the classics— Satre, Steinbeck, Hemingway and Paul Bowles—evidence of a proprietor who not only has a trained eye for what readers want, but also a love of literature.

“I like having the greats around me, because I feel they’re still here,” says Lieb, 49, a fourth generation Petaluman who now resides in Novato.

Last year, following an announcement that a new edition of Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” would take out the word “nigger” because some found it offensive, a stream of customers to Lieb’s store sought out used copies of the original.

“It makes me feel more safe in this digital world, like I’m preserving something original that offers a connection to our world as well as something that is part of our history,” Lieb said.

To find his treasures, Lieb combs library sales and buys books and records from customers. And he is picky about what he buys, ever mindful of the items that sell well (like classic novels that are school reading lists) and those favored by the more esoteric collector (sound effects records, anyone?)

“In the past, I’ve gone into a used book store and had to look through 100 crappy books to find good one,” Lieb said. “But my books are hand-picked and that’s important to my customers.”

Lieb became a business owner in 2001 when he purchased Petaluma Health Food on Kentucky Street. Having spent two decades working in the supplement industry, as a merchandiser and later a rep, Lieb knew vitamins were a good moneymaker because of low overhead and relatively high prices.

But his store looked empty, so with time he began selling books and records. In 2004, Red Devil Records moved to San Rafael and the following year, Discoveries, another record shop, closed, giving Lieb an edge.

Sales are steady at Vinyl Planet and Vitamin Planet, even as a handful of downtown businesses have closed in recent months. Lieb attributes his success to cheaper rent because he’s “on the fringe” of downtown and his unusual combination of merchandise.

“If people can go to Costco and buy a bottle of vodka, some tires and fill a prescription and not think it weird, why should my store be any different?” he said. 

Customers are sometimes perplexed to find aloe juice and acidophilus sold next to Ray Charles and often ask Lieb about it.

Although his answer may differ depending on the day, the underlying message is always the same:

Because it works.

Vinyl Planet and Vitamin Planet is located at 112 Washington Ave and open Tuesday through Saturday 10:30am to 6pm. For more information, visit the store's website.