Posted Nov 8, 2017, 1:41 AM
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New Brunswick Urbanite
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Saint John, NB
Posts: 785
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Our most prominent local record shop is Backstreet Records, on Germain Street. This article gives a good overview.
Quote:
Record setter: Backstreet Records founder still feelin' groovy
Running your own business means a lot of sacrifices, industry veteran says after 36 years
By Julia Wright, CBC News Posted: Nov 14, 2016 6:00 AM AT
It was 1979 when Gordie Tufts first thought about opening a record store.
"Record prices were creeping up to — get this — like $8.98, and people were complaining that was too pricey," said Tufts, the owner of Backstreet Records in Saint John and Fredericton.
On a trip to Halifax,Tufts noticed two stores dealing in used records and collectibles. He came back to Saint John with a novel idea: a used record store in the uptown.
The first Backstreet Records shop opened in 1980 in the Ritchie Building, a few doors from O'Leary's Pub on Princess Street.
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Things were rocky at first: there was a rash of break-ins. Then the store was destroyed by arson on Christmas Eve 1982.
Two months later, Backstreet relocated to a compact 600-square-foot storefront at 124 Germain St.
It's been there ever since.
Backstreet's in-store shows by local acts like Bad People, Motherhood, and Little You Little Me, as well as bigger regional stars like Joel Plaskett and Rose Cousins, can attract attendees ranging from teenagers to senior citizens.
Recently, both Dave Cousins of U.K. rock veterans the Strawbs and Jay Ferguson of Sloan were in the store.
"The age difference between them is probably 40 years," said Tufts, "and they were chatting about the business and what it's like to be on the road. It was interesting to see."
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Plain "stubbornness," Tufts says, has allowed Backstreet to stay open while others, including big chains like Sam the Record Man, Radioland, and CD Plus, have long been relegated to the dustbin of recorded music history.
"We never stopped selling vinyl," said Tufts, adding the store simply added cassettes and CDs to the shelves when those formats were in their heyday, rather than tossing out vinyl, as many other retailers did in the '90s.
"We've always been there and catered to a collector's market."
The rise of digital music has contributed to "down periods in the 36 years we've been hanging out," Tufts said.
"But we kept going. It's "customers that keep the doors open.
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"It's a knowledge of the local scene, and keeping an eye on the shows and CD releases that allows us to rely mainly on word-of-mouth."
Saint John is known as an industrial hub that lives and dies on major projects; however, small businesses, just as much as multibillion-dollar industries, have shaped fabric of the 231-year-old city.
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“The street is the river of life of the city, the place where we come together, the pathway to the center.” –William H. Whyte
“Forget the damned motor car and build the cities for lovers and friends.” –Lewis Mumford
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