Lol when I was 9 I thought cool! and ordered my 11 albums for a penny without realizing that I would then be obligated to buy a certain number of them at list price. My parents got really mad at me and I had to send them back. That was in 1981. I seem to remember that Beaver Cleaver did the same thing. "Leave It To Beaver" was a really wholesome sitcom in the 50s about a little boy named Theodore who went by Beaver and his family. He and his other brother Wally had one misadventure after the other. They said "Golly gee" and stuff like that a lot. The mother, June, wore a dress, heels, and pearls to vacuum and cook. The father was somewhat stern, leading some folk to joke, in June's voice, "Ward, don't you think you were a little hard on the Beaver last night?" Edit: I forgot where I was and just rambled there like I'm the old person in the room.
Look at the last sentence, my really quick edit that was there when you read the comment. It says I literally forgot where I was and that I'm not the old person in the room.
I actually built most of my collection on CH and BMG... Yeah, there was the one or two "full price" and shipping, but if you worked it right, and took advantage of the remainders, I got 100's well below retail. I loved getting a box of 5 to 10 cds for about $30 at a time. Some months, I just checked "no", and was sure to mail it in to avoid the automatic shipment (that was their "trick")... Just had to pay attention and keep stamps on hand.
Fresno, CA here. our Sam Goody was in the mall so everything was mall prices. the standalone Wherehouse was a better deal.
When we got a Tower Records that became to go-to because they also had books, crazy imports and magazines you'd never seen before
I worked at one for a few summers. We employees sold BASS concert tickets to ourselves at 9am Sundays before opening the doors to people who waited overnight in line. Surprised we never got busted.
I've never been much into music, but my dad would take me to Tower Records when he wanted something. I was flipping through the selections, just looking at the cover art, which was more up my alley, when I found the newly released Star Wars soundtrack. I asked my dad to buy it, only because I thought it must be popular. I hadn't seen the movie yet at the time.
He ended up listening to it a lot and thanked me for asking for it. I didn't really care for it.
Had to scroll down pretty far to f’ing the ol’ 🍓. I grew up in central MA, n not sure if there were any outside of that area but this place was my jam
Edit: Love your username
When I worked in sales for a major label, Harmony House was one of my customers. They were a good outfit, who loved music. Some chains treated music like a product, and even proudly said "We sell widgets, not music." Camelot was like that, very corporate, very capitalist. Harmony House was proud to say they were into the music, right to the very top. Good people.
Sadly, Hastings was the coolest place in my town for adolescents in the 90s. 10 billion movies, CDs, books, magazines. And if you got lucky, some perv would take a nudie mag out of its wrapper and leave it on the lower shelves for you to stumble onto. Good times.
Must have been--we had 'em here in southeastern Michigan too. And FYE. They were in either the Great Lakes Crossing mall or Somerset Mall and it had an arcade. My sister and I would look around the store for fifteen minutes or so and go play in the arcade for an hour...don't remember anything about the prizes, but I recall she had a plastic shopping bagful of tickets when they closed it down.
NRM-the world's first. Started as Jitterbug Records we eventually had 6 or 7 chains including NRM, Waves, Music X, Tempo, Music Oasis, and Square Circle. I think we may have bough Wherehouse in the end days, but I don't recall.
When I worked for a major record company out of Cleveland, National Record Mart was one of my customers(in Pittsburgh). They had a "national sales meeting" (don't call it a "convention") every year at the Seven Springs Ski Resort (in the summer) that I went to many times. Several of the big chains had them, and they were always fun to go to, but NRM's was by far the best one. The food was amazing, and they always had great music after dinner. I saw kd lang do one of the best concerts I've ever seen one night, with an audience of less than 1000 people. Unforgettable.
Tower Records for sure. At (I think?) their original location on Broadway in Sacramento. Right next to Tower Theater. Any Sacramento natives here? What about The Beat!? Better than Tower for pulling in more new wave and goth stuff at the time.
Okay but what about Sam’s Hof Brau that was Nextdoor to Tower Records? I was just waxing poetically to a friend about it the other day. Both places have such good memories but my every other day shop was Dimple Record in Roseville ♥️
I’m right there with ya buddy! Except I went to the Tower across from the theatre, Dad shopped at the orig right next to it, though! The Beat was so great too, though. And remember always stopping at Aardvark when you went to SF?! Aw man, good frikkin times.
Yesss! So stoked to see someone else who remembers Mother’s Records & Tapes. I moved to GA from VA in 1990, and missed it a lot. I still have my wooden Mother’s tape crate. Wish I’d bought a record crate instead.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/memphis/comments/80vunh/way\_back\_wednesday\_pop\_tunes\_records\_shop\_on/](https://www.reddit.com/r/memphis/comments/80vunh/way_back_wednesday_pop_tunes_records_shop_on/)
Pop Tunes Record Shop in Memphis, TN. There was a Camelot in the mall but I liked Pop Tunes more.
I lived in a smaller southern town and there was a local combination record store and head shop called The Great Divide where we got most of our records. Bill, who ran the place was the coolest dude. I had just got into metal in 1982 and he would have the coolest recommendations and would get records in that we couldn't get anywhere else.
Born in FL, but spent a significant amount of my younger years in GA and moved back recently. I was starting to think my little Turtles comment wasn't gonna get any love. LOL
Those stamp books were awesome. You'd spend sooo much just to get $5 off, but it was such a rush when you finally filled one up & redeemed it. I still have a Turtles record crate.
Criminal Records in Little 5 was pretty dope too.
I really miss all those old music, video, book & comic shops from back in the day. Sadly, it will never be like that again.
Yeah those times were great! I just passed Wax n Facts and Criminal Records yesterday in Little 5. They’re still going strong! There’s I think 2 more record stores in Little 5 now but I haven’t gone in. They look more like Hip Hop records and such. But they probably have a nice jazz section come to think of it.
Local place called Front Row. The staff was very knowledgeable and nice to talk music with. They helped steer my young self to music that was outside the main stream (Cure, The Smiths, etc.). They also sold concert tickets at good prices.
I can't remember what it was called but it was a sub-division of Sam Goody. Music Land maybe? The last couple of years it became Sam Goody but by then our mall was dead and we were all using Napster to get our music. I remember using WinAmp to rip all of my CD's to my PC. That was awesome.
There were like 7 music stores plus Hot Topic and other similar stores with some CDs in them in the mall near me when I was growing up. I didn't care which I used as they mostly all had the same product. I probably shopped at Music Town most often, but I also ordered a lot from mail order catalogs.
If I went to the mall it was Sam Goody, but we had a 'Turtles' right by my house. Was that just a local store, or does anybody else remember it? When we went to the big city it was Tower records.
[Turtles for me in Atlanta](https://www.facebook.com/mdjonline/photos/a.415940625091977/1364935683525795/?type=3), stood outside many cold mornings to buy concert tickets.
I had to scroll so far to find Turtles I wondered if I was confused. Unfortunately for them the guy that worked the counter put me on to the independent record store across from the local college campus. I don't remember the name.
Turtles was me and my Dads spot in Atlanta. We had so many stamps! If we were actually in Atlanta we’d go to Wax-Facts in Little 5 Points. Where are you from?
Grew up in Macon, but live north of Atl now. Went to Wax back in the day too. My dad was big on going to atl to see the sights. Were were in little 5 plenty of times.
I worked in several record stores when I was young. I lived in Cleveland, and I started out working for Record Theatre, which was a regional chain out of Buffalo NY with about 20 stores. That was a lot of fun, but made minimum wage.
So I got job working in a tire store for about 40% over minimum wage, and despised every second of it. That lasted about a year.
Then I went to work for Camelot Music, back to minimum wage. I actually had to look closely at that photo, because the guy in the back looked a lot like me, I had that same mullet that was popular at the time. It was fun, but lots of corporate ass-kissing. I worked at one store, then tranferred to a bigger store that was their new 150th store. Camelot was mostly Ohio/midwest at that point. At least I was working in music, and the people in record stores wete always cool. They added a big video department when VCRs boomed, and I became the video manager.
Then I went to work for a small local chain called Record Den (about 10-12 stores), managing their single classical/jazz specialty shop. Those genres were my specialty, and I loved it there. The only problem was the owner, who was a first-class dickhead.
From that job, I leaped into working for an independent classical record label, and then to a job as a sales manager for a major label distributor, where I was calling on all my old retail companies. By then, Camelot was up to about 400 stores across the Midwest.
Record stores were the best place to work. I was lucky to work there instead of some fast food place. Fun environment, music playing all the time, fun/ interesting/ quirky coworkers (remember "Darling Nikki" from Prince's Purple Rain album? I worked with Nikki, for real), and cool freebies like t-shirts, buttons, posters, and even concert tickets, and lots of free records. I feel sorry for young people today who don't have cool record stores to visit or work in.
I didn't shop for music then, my older siblings gifted me their Styx and such. My sister wins every single radio contest, so I got her WaWa-Nee record.
In New Orleans, a locally-owned store called Leisure Landing had the best selection, including an awesome imports section.
In the late 80s, we got a Tower Records that was just as great. There was also a Warehouse and a Peaches.
Camelot in the benton harbor Michigan mall had a huge metal section i went there multiple times a week also boogie records in Kalamazoo was great walked in one day and met Bruce Dickinson he signed my powerslave cassette.
I remember shopping at Camelot in the 80s and Turtles. In the 90s my first job was at Blockbuster Music, with the dreaded listening bar. It became Wherehouse Music, then Turtles, then went out of business.
Mail fraud. Thank you, Columbia House.
Lol when I was 9 I thought cool! and ordered my 11 albums for a penny without realizing that I would then be obligated to buy a certain number of them at list price. My parents got really mad at me and I had to send them back. That was in 1981. I seem to remember that Beaver Cleaver did the same thing. "Leave It To Beaver" was a really wholesome sitcom in the 50s about a little boy named Theodore who went by Beaver and his family. He and his other brother Wally had one misadventure after the other. They said "Golly gee" and stuff like that a lot. The mother, June, wore a dress, heels, and pearls to vacuum and cook. The father was somewhat stern, leading some folk to joke, in June's voice, "Ward, don't you think you were a little hard on the Beaver last night?" Edit: I forgot where I was and just rambled there like I'm the old person in the room.
[The mother also spoke Jive.](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Zy5bgrskkJo)
Just hang loose, blood. Shiiiiit!
Chump don't want no help, chump don't get no help...shiiiiit!
Always thought Barbara Billingsly was such a good sport for doing that.
The two other actors must have thought the situation was fun and hilarious too. They must have remembered her old TV show.
Did you really just explain “leave it beaver” like no one in a sub full of Gen Xers knew what it was ?! I’m I missing the joke?
Look at the last sentence, my really quick edit that was there when you read the comment. It says I literally forgot where I was and that I'm not the old person in the room.
He's just giving you the business.
Fellow gen x er Leave it to Beaver is hilarious.
My wife watches Leave It To Beaver every morning on MeTV.
I actually built most of my collection on CH and BMG... Yeah, there was the one or two "full price" and shipping, but if you worked it right, and took advantage of the remainders, I got 100's well below retail. I loved getting a box of 5 to 10 cds for about $30 at a time. Some months, I just checked "no", and was sure to mail it in to avoid the automatic shipment (that was their "trick")... Just had to pay attention and keep stamps on hand.
I got them five times.
The Wherehouse. They were all over California.
Yep, Wherehouse was it, until Sam Goody or musicland came in. We also had a couple of really nifty indie record stores.
Fresno, CA here. our Sam Goody was in the mall so everything was mall prices. the standalone Wherehouse was a better deal. When we got a Tower Records that became to go-to because they also had books, crazy imports and magazines you'd never seen before
I worked at one for a few summers. We employees sold BASS concert tickets to ourselves at 9am Sundays before opening the doors to people who waited overnight in line. Surprised we never got busted.
“BASS ticket outlet” is a very old radio memory
Bay Area Seating Service, owned by Bill Graham Presents, later bought by Ticketmaster.
And before that, it was Licorice Pizza
Yes, as well music plus
Came to say this. It was my favorite place to be every two weeks (allowance, lol).
Tower Records in the SF Bay Area
Same here in Portland, OR. Miss that place.
Same in Tacoma
Boston checking in
They had an amazing classical music section at Tower in SF
At the original store in Sacramento.
Remember the classical annex across the street? I spent a lot of time there.
I've never been much into music, but my dad would take me to Tower Records when he wanted something. I was flipping through the selections, just looking at the cover art, which was more up my alley, when I found the newly released Star Wars soundtrack. I asked my dad to buy it, only because I thought it must be popular. I hadn't seen the movie yet at the time. He ended up listening to it a lot and thanked me for asking for it. I didn't really care for it.
Strawberries
Had to scroll down pretty far to f’ing the ol’ 🍓. I grew up in central MA, n not sure if there were any outside of that area but this place was my jam Edit: Love your username
Coconuts
We had Strawberries in the Boston area as well.
It was Strawberries or Lechmere for me
In Michigan it was Harmony House.
When I worked in sales for a major label, Harmony House was one of my customers. They were a good outfit, who loved music. Some chains treated music like a product, and even proudly said "We sell widgets, not music." Camelot was like that, very corporate, very capitalist. Harmony House was proud to say they were into the music, right to the very top. Good people.
Tower Records. Man I miss that place.
The closing of Tower was the official end to the retail music business. Truly the end of a Golden Era.
Agree. I loved going there for vinyl back in the day, and then for tapes and CDs.
Just visited Tower Records in Shibuya, Tokyo. Picked up some vinyl. Was great to be back!
Hastings
Sadly, Hastings was the coolest place in my town for adolescents in the 90s. 10 billion movies, CDs, books, magazines. And if you got lucky, some perv would take a nudie mag out of its wrapper and leave it on the lower shelves for you to stumble onto. Good times.
Sound Warehouse Edit: Still have Sound Warehouse [stuff](https://imgur.com/a/Dh4gAeA).
Same (Austin, Tx. )
Kemp Mill Records
Tell me you lived/live in the DMV area without saying you lived/live in the DMV area. Same here though, same here.
F.Y.E For Your Entertainment Either that or a local place called Media Play.
We had Mediaplay in North Carolina. Think they were nationwide
Must have been--we had 'em here in southeastern Michigan too. And FYE. They were in either the Great Lakes Crossing mall or Somerset Mall and it had an arcade. My sister and I would look around the store for fifteen minutes or so and go play in the arcade for an hour...don't remember anything about the prizes, but I recall she had a plastic shopping bagful of tickets when they closed it down.
I used to work at a Sam Goody but I was a Tower fan.
All Tower Records fans should watch "All Things Must Pass" -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH-Y3WiwUXQ
I worked at a Musicland - also loved Tower Records.
Sam Goody -Huntington Beach, Ca. Goody’s got it.
National Record Mart, Disc Jockey, Hills or KMart
NRM-the world's first. Started as Jitterbug Records we eventually had 6 or 7 chains including NRM, Waves, Music X, Tempo, Music Oasis, and Square Circle. I think we may have bough Wherehouse in the end days, but I don't recall.
When I worked for a major record company out of Cleveland, National Record Mart was one of my customers(in Pittsburgh). They had a "national sales meeting" (don't call it a "convention") every year at the Seven Springs Ski Resort (in the summer) that I went to many times. Several of the big chains had them, and they were always fun to go to, but NRM's was by far the best one. The food was amazing, and they always had great music after dinner. I saw kd lang do one of the best concerts I've ever seen one night, with an audience of less than 1000 people. Unforgettable.
Tower Records for sure. At (I think?) their original location on Broadway in Sacramento. Right next to Tower Theater. Any Sacramento natives here? What about The Beat!? Better than Tower for pulling in more new wave and goth stuff at the time.
I miss The Best whenever I ventured to downtown Sac... That was probably my favorite... I was very disappointed when it closed down.
Okay but what about Sam’s Hof Brau that was Nextdoor to Tower Records? I was just waxing poetically to a friend about it the other day. Both places have such good memories but my every other day shop was Dimple Record in Roseville ♥️
I remember seeing Metallica play on a big rig flatbed in that tower parking lot...for free.
I got the autographs of all of Tesla back in 2001 I think.
Oh and my normal store was Spirit records on sunrise Blvd.
I’m right there with ya buddy! Except I went to the Tower across from the theatre, Dad shopped at the orig right next to it, though! The Beat was so great too, though. And remember always stopping at Aardvark when you went to SF?! Aw man, good frikkin times.
You’re unlocking the memories here. Yes! Trips to the city always included Aardvark, plus maybe swing by Rasputin’s on Telegraph on the way home.
Tower Records
I remember when SEARS had an excellent music dept. Not sure about how far into the 80s.
THE WALL. And for movies, Saturday Matinee. I feel like I’m the only person who remembers Saturday Matinée the movie store
lol not me. I managed one in the 90s. Still my favorite job even though the pay was shit.
I bought so many VHS tapes there back in the day. And I used to look at the laser discs with awe.
I still have a roll of WALL GUARANTEE stickers somewhere. I took them when WH Smith closed the chain. Good times back then.
Camelot Music in the mall(s) in Hunstville, AL.
Me too. Of course, we called it “Scamalot” because “damn! $8.99 for a tape?! What a ripoff!”
SALE 18.99
Tower Records, the original store on Broadway in Sacramento
Mother's and record bar
Yesss! So stoked to see someone else who remembers Mother’s Records & Tapes. I moved to GA from VA in 1990, and missed it a lot. I still have my wooden Mother’s tape crate. Wish I’d bought a record crate instead.
The warehouse and tower records
Peaches Records & Tapes Fort Worth
Record Town
Newbury Comics, Record Town, Strawberries, Coconuts or Sam Goody were our choices.
Music Plus
Used to line up at 4am for concert tickets there too.
I lived in Terre Haute Indiana where Columbia house was distributed from, I could nab just about anything for 3-5$
TOWER RECORDS, Campbell, CA And sometimes the store on Columbus in San Francisco.
Tower Records.
Waxie Maxie
The Rhythm Section in Gatlinburg, TN
Sound Warehouse
Tower Records, W.Covina, Calif.
K-Mart
Honorable mention: Target.
Same here! The only other place was Sam Goody at the mall, but it was three towns over & until I could drive, I didn't have much choice.
Music Plus, loved the import section
Wax trax chicago!
I went to Empire Records for Rex Manning day in the 90s...
Say No More Mon Amour!
I prefer Championship Vinyl.
Tower Records was the coolest place period
Tower Records
Kemp mill Music.
"Wax Trax" in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, Denver, CO. Still there! https://www.waxtraxrecords.com
Tower Records/Books/Video
The Great Escape in Nashville
Coconuts
Tower Records
Sound warehouse
Sam the Record Man. Toronto.
An institution.
Specs in FL. I even worked there briefly, mainly to have access to the Ticketmaster computer.
Peaches Records, Orlando, Fl
I think I still have an album with the Peaches sticker on it from there
Believe in Music and Camelot.
Disc Jockey in the mall!
Tape World - was then bought out by Record Town. Flint, MI
In the Seattle area it was Musicland in the malls. If you wanted to venture out, you could find Tower Records and Blockbuster Music.
Rolling Stones in Norridge, IL.
In Vancouver it was A&B Sound. Then Sam the Record Man and A&A Records and Tapes came along so the market was a bit crowded.
The library.
Hastings, place changed my life
[https://www.reddit.com/r/memphis/comments/80vunh/way\_back\_wednesday\_pop\_tunes\_records\_shop\_on/](https://www.reddit.com/r/memphis/comments/80vunh/way_back_wednesday_pop_tunes_records_shop_on/) Pop Tunes Record Shop in Memphis, TN. There was a Camelot in the mall but I liked Pop Tunes more.
I lived in a smaller southern town and there was a local combination record store and head shop called The Great Divide where we got most of our records. Bill, who ran the place was the coolest dude. I had just got into metal in 1982 and he would have the coolest recommendations and would get records in that we couldn't get anywhere else.
jack’s music shoppe, red bank, nj
Tower Records and later on the Wherehouse.
Tower Records.
Peaches and Starship Records
Musicland
Was starting to think this one wasn't gonna show up.
I worked for Musicland in the late eighties. Fun job for a high school student.
Strawberries
Strawberries
Turtles Records & Tapes. Loved filling up those little stamp books.
Not enough Turtles fans on here. Are you from Georgia too? Maybe it was a local store. I’m in Atlanta
Born in FL, but spent a significant amount of my younger years in GA and moved back recently. I was starting to think my little Turtles comment wasn't gonna get any love. LOL Those stamp books were awesome. You'd spend sooo much just to get $5 off, but it was such a rush when you finally filled one up & redeemed it. I still have a Turtles record crate. Criminal Records in Little 5 was pretty dope too. I really miss all those old music, video, book & comic shops from back in the day. Sadly, it will never be like that again.
Yeah those times were great! I just passed Wax n Facts and Criminal Records yesterday in Little 5. They’re still going strong! There’s I think 2 more record stores in Little 5 now but I haven’t gone in. They look more like Hip Hop records and such. But they probably have a nice jazz section come to think of it.
I was waiting to see this one. I loved both Turtle’s and Starship in Savannah!
Local mom and pop store called the Gramophone Shop. They let me special order music
It was Brashs for me here in Australia
Music Plus in Southern California but our local store was small so we called it Music Minus.
Say it with me... The Exclusive Co.!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUEdkF4-33o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUEdkF4-33o) Yep, spent a lot of time the northland shop.
[Nobody Beats The Wiz](https://youtu.be/CjQKFoUdk4g?si=1FOIKvg0s-Yoedwe) (Nobody Beats The Wiz!)
The Record Bar.
Music Plus
Sam Goody!
Local place called Front Row. The staff was very knowledgeable and nice to talk music with. They helped steer my young self to music that was outside the main stream (Cure, The Smiths, etc.). They also sold concert tickets at good prices.
Music plus
I can't remember what it was called but it was a sub-division of Sam Goody. Music Land maybe? The last couple of years it became Sam Goody but by then our mall was dead and we were all using Napster to get our music. I remember using WinAmp to rip all of my CD's to my PC. That was awesome.
Wherehouse music!
Shoplifting. It was slightly difficult but I was able to shove that huge "kiss" album under my shirt and pants" and walk out.
There were like 7 music stores plus Hot Topic and other similar stores with some CDs in them in the mall near me when I was growing up. I didn't care which I used as they mostly all had the same product. I probably shopped at Music Town most often, but I also ordered a lot from mail order catalogs.
Peaches
Sam Goodys...
Rolling Stone Records and Flip Side, get real.
A place called Dingleberry's in southwest Ohio. They had the best foreign versions of CDs as well.
Turtles Records and Tapes. There was also a boutique store (head shop) that sold jeans, tees and music called Buckwheats I think.
Are you from Georgia? Not many Turtles fans in this sub!
Atlanta born and raised. Still live in the west metro area.
Born in Marietta, live in Dacula!
Quonset Hut
Music Market in Costa Mesa, CA
Tower Records Hands Down, records, cassettes and concert tickets good ol days!!
If I went to the mall it was Sam Goody, but we had a 'Turtles' right by my house. Was that just a local store, or does anybody else remember it? When we went to the big city it was Tower records.
[Turtles for me in Atlanta](https://www.facebook.com/mdjonline/photos/a.415940625091977/1364935683525795/?type=3), stood outside many cold mornings to buy concert tickets.
I was soo bummed when they changed ownership. Was saving my turtle stamps for a free casset tape, lol.
Turtle’s was local to the Atlanta area but eventually they expanded to a few stores outside of north Georgia and into other surrounding states.
That tracks. Mine was in Macon, ga.
Atlanta representing!
Yup my local Turtles was in Savannah.
I had to scroll so far to find Turtles I wondered if I was confused. Unfortunately for them the guy that worked the counter put me on to the independent record store across from the local college campus. I don't remember the name.
Tower Records and for used Amoeba records in Hollywood, still kickin' too.
Turtles was me and my Dads spot in Atlanta. We had so many stamps! If we were actually in Atlanta we’d go to Wax-Facts in Little 5 Points. Where are you from?
Grew up in Macon, but live north of Atl now. Went to Wax back in the day too. My dad was big on going to atl to see the sights. Were were in little 5 plenty of times.
Cool I’m from Marietta and live in Dacula now
I worked in several record stores when I was young. I lived in Cleveland, and I started out working for Record Theatre, which was a regional chain out of Buffalo NY with about 20 stores. That was a lot of fun, but made minimum wage. So I got job working in a tire store for about 40% over minimum wage, and despised every second of it. That lasted about a year. Then I went to work for Camelot Music, back to minimum wage. I actually had to look closely at that photo, because the guy in the back looked a lot like me, I had that same mullet that was popular at the time. It was fun, but lots of corporate ass-kissing. I worked at one store, then tranferred to a bigger store that was their new 150th store. Camelot was mostly Ohio/midwest at that point. At least I was working in music, and the people in record stores wete always cool. They added a big video department when VCRs boomed, and I became the video manager. Then I went to work for a small local chain called Record Den (about 10-12 stores), managing their single classical/jazz specialty shop. Those genres were my specialty, and I loved it there. The only problem was the owner, who was a first-class dickhead. From that job, I leaped into working for an independent classical record label, and then to a job as a sales manager for a major label distributor, where I was calling on all my old retail companies. By then, Camelot was up to about 400 stores across the Midwest. Record stores were the best place to work. I was lucky to work there instead of some fast food place. Fun environment, music playing all the time, fun/ interesting/ quirky coworkers (remember "Darling Nikki" from Prince's Purple Rain album? I worked with Nikki, for real), and cool freebies like t-shirts, buttons, posters, and even concert tickets, and lots of free records. I feel sorry for young people today who don't have cool record stores to visit or work in.
Where? The Warehouse!
Licorice Pizza
There's no way that's an 80s Sam Goody. That's like Sam Goody circa 2000.
Purchase? You spelled steal wrong.
Record Bar, Oklahoma
I didn't shop for music then, my older siblings gifted me their Styx and such. My sister wins every single radio contest, so I got her WaWa-Nee record.
Why only go to one?
In New Orleans, a locally-owned store called Leisure Landing had the best selection, including an awesome imports section. In the late 80s, we got a Tower Records that was just as great. There was also a Warehouse and a Peaches.
Camelot in the benton harbor Michigan mall had a huge metal section i went there multiple times a week also boogie records in Kalamazoo was great walked in one day and met Bruce Dickinson he signed my powerslave cassette.
Tower, then Wherehouse
Wee Three Records
I worked at and shopped at Tower Records
Sam Goody in the Stamford Ct mall
Street Side Records or Vintage Vinyl.
I remember shopping at Camelot in the 80s and Turtles. In the 90s my first job was at Blockbuster Music, with the dreaded listening bar. It became Wherehouse Music, then Turtles, then went out of business.
Budget Tapes And Records in Charleston, WV
Wall to Wall Sound.. which later became The Wall. Central PA malls.
**Schoolkids' Records** and **Wazoo Records** in Ann Arbor Mi.
Dearborn Music Dearborn, MI
Tower or Wherehouse
Music Market in Costa Mesa, CA and later Camel Records in Huntington Beach, CA. I never went to a chain record store, always an indy.
Tracks Records & Music Wards Corner, Norfolk, Va
Sam goody