Where Have All The Record Stores Gone?

I was out and about one day at one of the local malls, looking for a music store to purchase a few music CD’s for my car. After checking out the mall directory, I noticed that there were none. Curious, I scurried over to another mall nearby, only to find the same thing. 

What’s going on here, I thought to myself. Has it really taken me that long to realize that record stores are a thing of the past now? 

I can remember when I was a kid growing up in West Long Branch. . .the first single I ever got was the Beatles’ “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”, with an added bonus – the B side of that same 45 was “I Saw Her Standing There”. The first album I ever owned was “Beatles ‘65”. Yes, even at five-years old, I knew the lads from Liverpool were that good. 

Over the years, I flitted around between record stores, depending on what my needs were and which stores had the best selection and prices. 

Around 17 years old, I started buying albums from Alexander’s at the Monmouth Mall. Besides having the best selection, their prices were the best. I can remember buying the Allman Brothers’ “Win Lose or Draw” album for something like $5.99 when everyone else was selling them for $7.99 and up. When you’re a teenager in the 1970’s, two dollars was a lot of money.

Record Town was located by the mall entrance to Alexander’s, and they were always my next stop after hitting up Alexander’s. When Alexander’s closed in the mid-1980’s, as did Record Town a few years later, I began going to Sam Goody’s in another part of the Monmouth Mall. Although the prices were average, they had a much better selection than Alexander’s did. They were the hot record store nationally in the mid-to-late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Then they just up and disappeared. 

Next up was Nobody Beats the Wiz in Eatontown where P.C. Richards is today on Route 36. Besides records, The Wiz also sold video equipment and a lot of electronics accessories. They had cheap prices (nobody really DID beat them in price), and the gadgetry selection made for a more interesting shopping experience everytime I went there. They even started carrying these things known as “compact discs” that would be the wave of the future for music. But then the owners got into some big problems with the law, and The Wiz became another “was”. 

When I began spinning records at the Bar Bombay in 1981, my fellow deejays were telling me that the place to go for the latest twelve-inch singles was CJ’s in Asbury Park. Located on Cookman Avenue right by Main Street, CJ’s had it all musically – a great 12-inch selection, along with singles and CD’s. The store was owned by an older couple, and I used to shoot the breeze with them everytime I went to buy something and build up my musical repertoire. The store was always packed with kids from the neighborhood everytime I went there, especially on the weekends. But over time, that record store closed, and it was time to move on again. 

Occasionally, I’d head on out to Jack’s in Red Bank or the Princeton Record Exchange. Thanks to the store in Princeton, I discovered the market for used records and CD’s. Of course, scratches on records could be heard miles away, but used CD’s were a different story. A nick here or there didn’t affect how they sounded all that much. Eventually, my CD collection at home had a nice mix of new and used discs, and to this day, still does. The sound was still sweet off the used discs, and I wound up savings a lot of money over the years as well. 

Best Buy used to have a pretty good selection of CD’s, but they’ve cut down on their CD shelf space in order to focus on electronics sales. So now, the closest physical record store for me that has a decent selection of tunes is the FYE located in the Ocean County Mall.  Living in Long Branch, I don’t make it out to Toms River that often to check them out. 

So where have all the record stores gone? They’ve become a victim of technology, just like some people’s jobs, the typewriter, and the analog TV. Nowadays, people who have an interest in music can get all their CD’s from places like eBay, Amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com, or they can download music and videos directly from iTunes or any other online repository. The web has totally cut out the middle man, and distribution is seamless, direct to the customer, either electronically or via the US mail. 

So it looks like I’ll have to get with the times and start ordering my music online now. . .like I don’t spend enough time in front of a computer screen as it is. 

(The entire Jersey Shore Retro Blogography can be found at http://longbranch.patch.com/blogs/kevin-cieris-blog .You can also follow Kevin Cieri's blog on his Facebook page, "Jersey Shore Retro" as well as on Twitter @jsretro).