Timothy C.
Yelp
This place is fantastic and I absolutely LOVE that we still have a true music store.
I used to work at a music shop in Scottsdale and then we moved to downtown Phoenix. Talk about two different worlds lol. That's a story for a rainy day tho.
Record Exchange is an old school shop too like the one I worked at. I have a soft spot for stores like this. Music is such a big part of my life and always has been, so again, makes me incredibly happy we have this store here.
Not many music stores left anywhere...obviously:( thanks to downloading. There will always be something special and definitely more unique and wonderful about going to a store to get new music. Download, sure is convenient, but it's sad so many people will never understand how exciting it is to go to a store when you know a new album is about to drop, or how fun it was to camp out at stores like this back in the day for concert tickets. I camped out for so many great shows like Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, LIVE, so many incredible bands:
Now Ticketmaster sucks lol. The lottery nonsense etc etc. boring.
Anyway, if I had one complaint(s) about Record Exchange is 1) they make you wear masks and that's weird to me because there are literally no other businesses that force people to wear them. It should be an option in my opinion. I'm not talking shit about people who live by the mask and rules, im just saying, it should be a choice to wear one.
Aside from that, the kid who rang me up was kind of a d-bag. No hello, nothing like that. I mean, it's a record store, can't expect them to roll out the red carpet or anything, but "hey! How are u?!" should always be something they said even if they hate you for being there hahahaha!
And aside from that, the 5 stars is still deserved because I honestly can't see myself giving this place a bad rating.
They have a great CD collection, I was there to buy the new ABBA album. I figured I had to buy the cd lol. Their vinyl section is beautiful! I love how popular vinyl is again.
When I worked at Circles in Phx, we sold a TON of vinyl! Then digital started and vinyl sales sadly dropped dramatically almost to nothing.
It gained back a little steam after the initial digital download high started to come down lol and was pretty steady until we ended up closing the store. It's not a high-rise luxury apartment building. They kept the bottom floor facade tho...back in the 50s my music store was a studebaker dealership. Our dj booth was the rotating platform they used back then to display the cars. They kept that after public uproar when they started to demolish that beautiful historic building. Cities like Phx and now even Boise, love to destroy history to build tacky, ugly, track homes/buildings or ... parking lots.
Anyway, got off topic there lol. Record Exchange is very nostalgic for me. It's always so great to go in there.
Attached to the music store is a little type knickknack area, stuff that tourists would like or little old ladies who collect weird figurines or hipster chicks who like cutesy little knickknacks lol...OR guys! Lol
There's a coffee counter too, at least I'm pretty sure that's what that was. Coffee tastes like ass to me, I hate it lol. I know, I know, to most that's "sociopathic behavior" hahaha but sorry, it's liquid dirt to me lol.
Either way, RX having this is very cool, very clever business-wise and very convenient for the coffee lovers.
One last thing about vinyl I forgot to mention, the store was paaacked when I was there! Again, that made me happy, made my heart smile, but majority of customers had vinyl in their hands which was so wonderful to see.
The more I talk about it, makes me miss working in a music store. I basically ran the store in Phx lol and for almost 10 years. Worked at a Hastings in Flagstaff too with my sights on their music section. Again, getting sidetracked! This is what music stores do to me! Make me happy, bring tons of wonderful memories back etc.
If you live in Boise, I know you've been! If you're GenX, I know most of y'all still love going to a music store and yeah, we all download, but nothing will ever beat how great going to the music store is!
Record Exchange, thank you for still existing! Thank you for having one FANTASTIC fn store with a great selection and reasonable prices as well! You're very important to Boise and we must hold on to you as long as humanly possible!
Thanks for reading, Yelpieeriees! Thanks for reading my sidetracked parts too haha! It's happens! And with me...a lot lol.
Cheers!