Everyone has their own ways to escape the daily grind – mine is record shopping. Spending a few hours flipping through rows of 12”s, 10”s, and 7”s is relaxing to me. I do not need to spend a dime to enjoy myself, but often I find a hidden gem I had been looking for or forgot I was looking for. My wish list of records is so long I could spend a small fortune and get online and take care of a chunk of it today… but that would take the fun out of the search. So not only is there a search for records, but there’s also a search for the perfect place to find records.
One place to easily spend an afternoon flipping through vinyl is River Records in Memphis, TN. Located at the corner of S. Highland & Marion, the store is a train wreck that only a record lover could appreciate… or walk into for that matter. There are piles upon piles, stacks upon stacks of mostly 12” records. Hundreds… more like thousands of records. There are signs for sections, but there’s no order at all. The plus side to places like this is the idea that they might contain hundreds of hidden treasures. The negative side is that you have to go through hundreds of copies of Captain & Tennille, Leo Sayer, and Frampton Comes Alive to possibly find something worthwhile.
The downsides of River Record are numerous. The added baseball cards, comic books, CDs, and posters add nothing to this store, and actually take something away from it. The record prices are purely by the book and there never seems to be any room to negotiate, which just leads to a back in forth bickering revolving around condition. The last time I was there I found a Brady Bunch record I had been looking for and they wanted $50 for it – really. The condition was fair at best, yet the owner was trying the sell me on the conclusion that the condition was VG+.
The first time I went to River Records was in the late 90’s and I was mesmerized by the volume of records they had. I purchased a few Stax 12”s that I paid way too much for, but felt it was only polite after being there for four hours. Each visit after that I realized that it’s just a good place to waste some time on a rainy (or hot) day, not a shop to find that hidden gem. River Records seems like it never adds to its stock, and the collection it does offer has been picked well-over. It’s a good visit, but no need to bring any money.
River Records
822 South Highland St
Memphis, TN
(901) 324-1757
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[...] replenishes daily. (They actually had that Brady Bunch record for $6, the one I wrote about in my review of River [...]