Record Stop: Sachem's Hidden Gem

In between numerous erratic phone calls, cheeseburger bites-well done, no pickles-, stock re-orders and providing detail-specific assistance to customers, owner Bruce Berg takes time to chat it up about the business his friends call a "fantasy." For 36 and a half years, Record Stop has been Long Island's safe haven for unheard of and collectible music of all genres, but like many others, large corporations included, they are feeling the brunt of the illegal downloading and file sharing music generation of today. 

As The Wallflowers "One Headlight" spews into the snuggery of a store, on CD, not an iPod, Sachem Patch gets the scoop on a once flourishing haven where vinyl collectors and music lovers hung out for hours on end to hear each other's opinion on the latest Ramones album or Rolling Stones show.

Sachem Patch: I want to know how you are even staying alive in a world of pirated music and MP3 players; what are your strategies for staying in business when everyone else is drowning?

Bruce Berg: Price, service, selection, and taking care of the customers, working with the people and answering their questions. I built up a really strong following by giving good service, special orders, having what the people wanted, being on the forefront of the trends, except for Disco, (chuckles) having good, fair prices, bringing in imports. Also, having a knowledgeable staff; you can ask for anything from any genre and we can find it for you, even before the computer helped we knew the answer. You can't get the service from these big stores that you can from a record store.

SP: What is your response to this economic downturn?

BB:  My son sells on Amazon and eBay. He did very well for four or five years but now everyone is on the Internet. CDs have been de-materialized so much; you can buy Janis Joplin's greatest hits for $2 online. We're also moving into a warehouse store, Record Stop's Media Warehouse on Ramsey Road in Shirley. There will still be the same service; we just won't be there on weekends. It's going to be a sad day; this was my baby. I had two real babies and this was the other one. There is no store like this on Long Island. I had a guy come in for Bob Dylan's "Bringing It All Back Home;" Best Buy didn't have it, neither did Wal-Mart or Target.

SP: What is your demographic market; do you aim for the older generation or everyone in general?

BB: Now I do.  Well I get everything in, I have the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus and I have all that stuff just because I have been doing it for that long. But my customer base is old. This used to be a hip, young store back in the day, now were oldies. It's what it's become because young people don't buy CDs. This was a gathering place; this was a community center. There is no way I can get the Miley Cyrus and Jonas Brothers crowd because they don't understand the concept of collecting; touching, smelling, etc. There has been a little bit of a backlash for the past couple of years; records have made a comeback. Young people maybe 24 to 30 years old have been coming in to buy records like The Beatles or Jeff Beck or jazz, but those people are music people.

SP: What is your top selling album right now?

BB: CD: Eminem's new album "Recovery." They're not my typical customers but those people come here because I can get it for them. Nothing is a big seller anymore except for hip-hop; Bret Michaels is big too. On vinyl: Beatles, across the board, Beatles are big.

SP: What is the rarest item you have?

BB: I have a sealed Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" on vinyl with an original K-Mart price tag on it and a sealed "Fresh Cream," Cream's debut album, on vinyl with an original Sam Goody price tag on it.

SP: How did you manage to hold down a "fantasy job," and why Lake Ronkonkoma?

BB: I graduated from college and traveled for four years, went to Woodstock when I was 21. Then I said to myself, I better grow up. I drove into town and saw the store for rent, it was half the size at the time. I thought to myself I'm going to open a record store and sell 8 track tapes for car stereos. I always had a fantasy of opening a music/stereo store, I talked to my college friends about it. I just opened it; didn't know the area, had low overhead. I just did it. I work from instinct.

SP: Do you have any regulars, any true standby customers?

BB: I have people who have been coming in here for 30 years. They used to come in when they were young, happy and good-looking; now they're old. (Chuckles) People come back, even people who move in and out of state.

SP: Who are you listening to right now?

BB: My favorites are the Allman Brothers, Bob Dylan, The Stones, The Ramones, Neal Young and The Kinks. Right now I'm doing a lot of doo-wop like The Five Satins, The Duprees and The Young Rascals.