Record Store Day is arguably the most anticipated day of the year for a certain stripe of vinyl enthusiast. It’s a day where the all ages music-loving community get together for a chance of scoring exclusive vinyl releases from their favorite artist(s), and I am no different. In fact, I have been a supporter of it since I first started collecting vinyl. One of my fondest RSD memories was dragging my dad out into the freezing cold for hours to get my hands on a first edition pressing of “Cherry Bomb” by Tyler, The Creator during the pandemic. Despite getting lucky that year, I’ve also had my fair share of disappointments—showing up minutes too late, watching someone else walk out with the record I came for (I see all you Wicked fans out there, and I feel your pain!). It’s a risk that comes with it all, but a risk I always find to be worth it.
All that to say, when I found out I’d be celebrating from behind the counter this year, I was ecstatic! My first Record Store Day working at a record store. I had been the kid in line for years, but what was it like on the other end of the madness?
You may be thinking that with us being open from 8am at our Capitol Hill shop, it would have slowed down by the time I got in at 1pm… but that’s where you’re wrong. It was still packed, even five hours after doors opened! Lines of customers stood at three separate registers, with upbeat music playing throughout the store, and a rich mix of warm rays of sunshine and a cool spring breeze flooding through our front door. It was exhilarating! We didn’t see a noticeable slow down until two hours before we closed, and even then it was still fairly busy.
It’s also worth mentioning that I was lucky enough to not only work RSD, but also perform an outdoor set as Rex Winnfield later in the afternoon (huge thank you to everybody who shared any kind words with me regarding the performance as well, we had a blast).
[Above photo is credited to Maddy Holmberg @maddy_works]
I got asked a handful of times that day if Record Store Day was a hell shift of sorts. The short answer? No! But I will say a lot of hard work goes into preparing for it. The one misconception I had beforehand was that the participating record stores just had to price and put out the RSD-provided records… and boy was I wrong. It’s much more than that! It truly does take every single member of the staff to prepare for RSD — getting items ready to put online for the day after, organizing live music, promoting the event, ordering the vinyl, getting it all put into our inventory, and much more. And the chaos doesn’t stop once the actual day is over. A second surge of sales occurs once the leftover RSD inventory hits our website the following morning. Then from there, it’s another group effort to make sure records are sent out in an efficient and timely manner. These were all things I had never really taken into account before working at a record store. But in terms of the day itself, there’s a certain pride that radiates behind the counter when we get to see our hard work pay off on the big day.
One thing I never really expected when working at a record store was how often you feel the sense of community we build around music/vinyl. I mean sure, I always knew there was a community there, but it’s much different to feel it in person rather than through a screen. One of my favorite parts of the job has been getting to hear customer stories about their favorite records and why they mean so much to them. Record Store Day is special for those same reasons. It’s a brief window where anybody can feel that same sense of community that I’m lucky enough to experience daily. For me, it’s never just about getting the vinyl you want; it’s also about the shared experience with a large group of people that love the same music you do. Even when someone snags that last copy before you do, it’s a cool shared experience because you both share the love of that band.
In a world that feels more and more divided each and every day, it warms my heart to see new friendships made in RSD lines, or stories being swapped by people who would’ve never crossed paths in their regular day-to-day. So whether you’re the person waiting in line, or the person that’s ringing people up, I’m proud to report that the magic of Record Store Day is alive and well on both sides of the coin. And for those of you that missed out on it this year, I hope to see you for the next one!
[Editor’s note – we didn’t pay Ethan extra for all the RSD plugs in this article, he’s just a ridiculously nice guy that loves records and we believe he authentically means all of it. We actually had to remove about 13 exclamation points just to make it possible to maintain our ambience of Wax Traxian cynicism.]
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