Its been more than two decades since James “Hymie” Peterson and Kent Hazen first opened a record shop on East Lake Street but our shop has always lived up to Hymie’s modest goal: “I’m not interested in making a lot of money,” he is remembered saying. “I’m interested in having a good store, a store people like coming to.”
This spring we relocated the record store five blocks east to a bigger and better location. We are now located next door to the Blue Moon Coffee Cafe and also share a building with local label and distributor, Mill City Music.
You’ll find us here, along with our one employee Jill, our children Gus and Nova, and our little dog Irene. You’ll also find an enormous selection of records in all formats and categories: Thousands of things you won’t find anywhere else in the Twin Cities, and things you certainly won’t find on CDs. What’s more, unlike some record shops, we’re not selling our best finds online – we’re selling them direct to collectors right here in the community. Our attitude is that its about time record collecting was a fun and social activity again, and the only thing you need from the computer is directions to the record store.
Everything in the shop is well-organized and browsable (We’re working on those over-full shelves, but its hard when you have so many great records and so little extra space!). Even 45s are categorized and easy to thumb through – Where else are you going to find that? Our shop has a listening station where you can play records before you buy them and a reasonable return policy, so there’s no worries.
For us, a good day isn’t measured by how much money we make in sales, its in the number of regulars we see and the number of new customers who visit and say, “Wow, what a great shop you have here!”
- Laura and Dave Hoenack
