In the heart of the Grand Ole Opry, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Country Music Television lies Grimey's. A Independent Record Store in Dollywood's neck of the woods? Blasphemy!! Yet any Record Store that looks like your Grandmother's old house is a *good* thing. I have not had the pleasure of going to Grimey's yet, but with Third Man Records being down the street, my appearance in Nashville will be soon. Hey, there are worse things than having a Record Store with a concert venue in the basement, that has featured many famous bands and have had a few released....most recently the CD/2x10" of Metallica's set there.
1) How long has your store been in business?
Grimey’s New & Preloved Music is 11 years old this year. We go to “11” in 2011!
2) Why did you choose the city you are in to start your business versus another city?
Well we’re from here. Nashville is where I went to high school and my business partner, Mike Grimes, moved here in the mid-‘80s. And Nashville is a fantastic city to have a record store in. One of the reasons we built Grimey’s was there wasn’t a full-service indie record store in the city. All the indies were strictly used product or tiny shops with very limited selections that the owner was passionate about and would try to turn you onto, which is cool, but if you wanted to just browse the new releases or get anything remotely above the underground you’d have to special order it. So Nashville needed this store. I was shocked when we started getting accounts with ADA and EMI and Warners that the sales reps were ecstatic and they all helped out in the store in the early days. My EMI rep helped me set up my office and a filing system! They told me they all talked at NARM every year and other industry gatherings about why Nashville didn’t have an indie record store and how strange that was. This is such a music town and we have been very warmly embraced here. I love my city.
3) Are you the sole owner, or do you have a partner(s)?
I guess I just answered that. 2 owners, equal partners.
4) Where did you get your inventory to start the store with?
My partner Mike started the store in 1999 with his own record collection to get going. Grimey’s was a strictly used record store those first 2 years. I managed a small mom-and-pop chain of used record stores and comic shops called The Great Escape. I’d known Mike for 15 years at this point and he asked me if I would consider quitting my job and going in with him to build the kind of indie record store we used to talk about when we’d drink beer and wonder why Nashville didn’t have one. I agreed and bought half the business in early 2002. I also contributed lots of my own records and we got accounts with a few distributors and started stocking new releases on vinyl and CD and, over time, adding more and more catalog to the mix.
5) Why music? Why vinyl? Is this what you thought you’d do when you were in 6thgrade?
Actually, yes to some degree. I’ve been a record junkie my whole life. When I was a kid and my grandmother would come visit she would buy me a record anytime we went out shopping. I got cut-outs from Montgomery Wards and Sears and when my parents finally let me ride my bike to the local mall, I started going to my first indie record shop – Soundza Music – in Jackson, TN. I began my lifelong habit of hanging around record stores at the age of 10. I would go in every tuesday just to see the new releases and talk to the uber-cool and worldly (to me anyway) clerks who worked there to get suggestions on what to buy. And I worked in record stores throughout my life, mostly part-time, until I eventually realized that’s really what I wanted to be doing. I went for the promotion to manager at The Great Escape and eventually ended up as general manager of their whole organization and that quit being fun because I was setting policy and advising store managers more than getting my hands dirty on the vinyl. When Mike suggested we go in together and build the store of our dreams I was ready to take the leap.
6) Is your store part of the AIMS/CIMS group? If not, why? If so, what advantages does it afford you?
We are a proud member of AIMS. The number one advantage it affords is access to the brilliance and experience of my fellow store owners. Anything I’m not sure how to do or what to do or where to get some esoteric record or anything at all really from merchant services fees to where to get some LP browsers... I can ask the group and get that answer from someone who’s had experience with the situation I’m investigating. That’s invaluable. When AIMS first formed Grimey’s was the youngest store in the group and we’d only been in business in our current incarnation (new releases, catalog and new vinyl along with used, er... Preloved) for 6 months. I was overwhelmed with all that it would entail to handle the programs and doing the returns and tracking sales. We were “pen & paper” and didn’t have a POS system and didn’t report to soundscan. AIMS got me going with soundscan and I went up to Cincinnati to visit Darren, owner of AIMS store Shake-It, who also was pen-and-paper and was doing over a million in business annually. I assumed he had it figured out and he showed me everything he did, from ordering to inventory management and even lots of merchandising tips, over 8 hours. Where else could you go to what might even be considered a competitor and have him show you all his secrets? Being a member of AIMS taught me how to run my record store. I gained years of experience in a few short months and have been growing from there ever since.
7) Does your store have an online webstore? Has it been successful (please provide link)?
We only have a website with info and photos, updated weekly with all the upcoming events and reviews of new releases. No online commerce. www.grimeys.com Everything we do as far as marketing and promotion is designed to get the customer to walk into the store.
8) Do you sell on Ebay? If not, why? If so, do you feel it helps supplement your income?
We use ebay a little bit. We sell mostly new, unreturnable vinyl that has not sold in the store even after sale pricing. we usually at least get our money back and sometimes they go for lots more than we expected. It’s a supplement but we don’t depend on it for cash flow. I want to offer any great piece that comes to us to my regular customers who patronize this place week-in and week-out. If it doesn’t sell in the store, we’ll try to move it online.
9) Did your store sign the RSD pledge this year? If not, why? If so, why?
Of course we did! We want to be the good guys. We wear the white hats at Grimey’s. I believe in everything the pledge demands. We played by the rules even before there was a pledge.
10) Do you think that having nearly 300+ items for Record Store Day diminishes from the day somewhat? How was your store able to afford to get most of the items this year?
I think it does. I’d like to see cool, limited edition pieces – primarily vinyl – all year long. We can’t afford to stock everything in quantity but we try to cover it all to some degree. We buy in heavily on items where we see we have a sales history with that artist. If my customers have shown me they care about a band and we’ve sold that band well then I want to have a lot on hand for RSD of their special piece. Lots of the other stuff we just get 1-3 copies to cover it. And our customers can’t afford everything either so some impulse sales are lost. Last year the vast majority of it sold through so I guess that speaks well for us doing it right. This may be stupid but I didn’t even budget it this year. I just ordered what we thought we needed and I’m hoping it all works out! We have more years of experience under our belts now and I know I’m going to sell through everything that I ordered heavy on so the accounting should work where I can pay the bill.
11) What are 1 or 2 things you would suggest to help make RSD even better?
Fewer releases would help. I think 100 things is plenty to get excited about and much easier to handle from our end. And I wish there was more coordination between the UK and US releases. My customers are so bummed out that they won’t get a crack at the Radiohead 12” this year. We’ve had tons of calls about that. And personally, I would prefer if RSD were on a different day than the 3rd Saturday in April. That’s always the same weekend as Coachella and that takes a whole lot of bands who could potentially play our RSD events out of the mix. It seems like every bigtime band we have a relationship with that we asked to play this year and last was committed to Coachella. I lost potential sets from The Black Keys and The National due to that.
12) What is the rarest item you have ever had in your store and sold? How much did it sell for?
Wow. That’s a tough one. I’ve sold a lot of very rare records in my years working in record stores but in the Grimey’s era it was probably the first-edition original pressing of the Supremes’ first Motown album. It’s very rare and has a different cover and even the Motown logo is different that what they changed it to. I’ve only seen a few in my life and one day there was one in a collection I was buying. It wasn’t even in good shape, maybe VG- at best but the cover and label were in good shape. It goes for thousands in mint so I figured I’d slap $500 on it and throw it up on the wall and it would be nice to see there every day. After it was up like 2 days some guy comes in and walks right to it, takes it down and brings it to the register. He didn’t even ask about it or discover it by browsing. Someone must have told him it was here or something. So I probably could have gotten more but who cares? He was very happy and I made a very nice profit on the sale.
13) What do you see as the biggest challenge facing Record Stores in a “digital age”?
To get potential customers in the door. They think they can do it all online and there’s no real reason to NEED to go to a record store. But a free live show? and they’re all ages? It’s one reason we do so many in-store events. Once a kid comes in and has a nice experience at Grimey’s or bonds with a staffer over a band or just has a good time I’ve got a shot at gaining a new regular customer. Some kids even “ooh” and “aah” when they come in for the first time. We had a performance from Cold War Kids this past Monday that drew 200 kids. I overheard a couple of them saying “I’ve never been to a record store before” in the crowd and it brought a big smile to my face. Also getting record labels to continue to make us compelling tangible releases but I see that’s your next question.
14) What are record labels doing, that could potentially hinder the rapid resurgence in vinyl records that we’ve seen the past few years?
They need to GET IT. They are starting to not even include the digital component (MP3 download) in vinyl releases. I’m looking at you, Sony! Mainly I’m talking about major labels. Sub Pop and Matador and Merge get it. Make a great record, press it on vinyl, include a download or CD, keep pressing it and keep it in print. We’ll keep selling it, thank you. The first question I get about a new vinyl release from a customer, the VERY FIRST QUESTION, is “does it include a download?” Every time. Not “is it 180 grams?” NO. It’s “does it have a download?” So there’s no sticker, we check the one-sheet, no mention there either. So I email my sales rep and the usual response is “that hasn’t come up, I’ll find out”. When the last Coldplay album came out, it included a CD! We had no idea. There was no sticker, no mention in the initial solicitation... If I had known that I would’ve ordered more and recommended them to Coldplay fans. It’s pretty easy to sell the vinyl + CD. Even if they don’t have a turntable they can enjoy the expanded art and the CD and most of them want a turntable anyway so now they’ll have a few records to play when they finally take the plunge. But unfortunately that outcome is rare. Usually there’s no download or CD when we ask that question. I realize that vinyl is niche to the big labels but it’s growing exponentially and it’s for real. It’s not just a fad. So I’m baffled that some labels seem to act like they have no interest in growing that business. It’s the only thing they’ve got that’s really increasing in sales annually. I’ve even had a label guy say to my face “hey don’t get me wrong, I love vinyl myself. I just hate having to make it.” WTF?!
15) What is the “holy grail” in your personal collection, how did you acquire it, and how long did it take?
Oh man, my collection is full of holy grails! It’s almost impossible to pick one record. Is it the original US pressing of Can’s “Ege Bamyasi”? The pristine UK pressing of Amon Duul II’s “Yeti”? an original UK pressing of Sgt Pepper? most likely it’s my original mint copies of all 3 Josie LPs by the Meters that I had to trade for. The guy wouldn’t “sell” them to me. He said he didn’t need the money. What he wanted was records! They were all sealed originals and super hard to find (and had never been reissued at the time). I did a trade for blues LPs with him and immediately tore off the shrink wrap and played all 3 while dancing around my living room. The pride and joy of my collection are all the rare funk, soul and soul jazz LPs and 45s I’ve amassed over a lifetime of crate digging and DJ’ing.
16) Finish this sentence…..If I didn’t own this Record Store, I’d be __doing something involving music in some capacity, maybe owning a record label__
17) A lot of press for RSD is about how stores have “had their best sales day ever!!”. But how do you try to make everyday RSD for your customers and keep them coming back to your store?
By keeping the passion alive. The day I wake up and don’t want to go in is the day I should think about hanging it up. But I don’t think that day is coming. Again, do the basics and do them well. Super-serve your customers. Help them grow their passion for music. Be nice. Recommend things you really love. Listen to them. Try to figure out what inspires them and try to find them their new favorite record. We ask people all the time what the last 3 records they bought were. What’s the last record that blew your mind? And go from there. Have TONS of events. There’s always something fun going on in the record store, you should come hang out. Give them free beer! If that works in your city or state. Use twitter and facebook to keep the conversation going when they’re not in the store. Give them valuable information they want to know. We tweet what we’re unpacking in the boxes we’re receiving. Just got in a big order of Afrobeat and Turkish psych! We tweet new releases each Tuesday. We tweet when we get in a fresh selection of used vinyl from buying a killer collection. We announce the latest in-store booking and it gets re-tweeted like crazy. I love the idea of using new digital media and social networking to get folks to come into our old-school brick and mortar emporium of tangible art forms.
18) If you could get one artist to do an in-store performance, who would you select?
Um... We already had Metallica, Brian Wilson, David Byrne, Elvis Costello and Robert Plant shops here so it’s already beyond my wildest dreams. Personally for me I’d love to have REM. They were a gateway band for me getting into indie music back in ’81-83. Peter Buck has shopped here many times and I’ve had some great conversations with him so maybe I’ll make that happen someday.
19) If you could re-issue or re-release an album on vinyl, what album would you choose?
It may not be the hippest choice but I would love to put out Los Lobos’ “Kiko” on vinyl. It never came out in the states, ever. And the UK import was a small pressing and is very hard to find and goes for hundreds of dollars when it does show up on ebay. It’s their best album and I’ve never heard it on vinyl. They are one of my favorite bands of all time and are responsible for some of my favorite live show memories so yeah, I’m going with that.
20) Where do you see your store 3-5 years from now?
I’d love to find a larger location but still maintain the relationship with a live music venue such as we have with the Basement now and a nice big parking lot for throwing the outdoor parties like we do on Record Store Day, with an all-day free live concert festival. Otherwise I’d like to see us doing what we do now only bigger and better. We might be all vinyl by then. I like the idea of only having one format to stock and the loyalty that vinyl breeds is incredible. I’m kind of jealous of some of the newer stores that have just opened in the last couple of years who are doing that. CDs are still too important in our product mix to abandon them and some music fans just aren’t vinyl people but still love tangible, physical formats.
21) Finally, if you were to mentor someone who was wanting to open their own record store, what advice would you give them that you know now, that you didn’t know when you first started?
Honestly I feel like I’ve already answered this in some of the questions above but I would add the advice to take baby steps in growing your business. Build it and they will come. Get to know them and find out what they want and anticipate their needs but don’t go hog wild stocking every cool thing under the sun. Experiment with new genres or artists by bringing in a small amount or covering with ones. If it sells, restock it. Don’t go into huge debt if you can help it. And own your own building. I still haven’t managed that and it’s on the agenda. It’s good to be in the real estate business too if you want to survive in the record store business. Most of the stores that have closed over the years have closed due to lease issues. It’s harder than ever to keep everything going and when an owner is looking at committing to 5-10 more years or the rent is going up, some of them decide to just stop. If you own the building you don’t have that problem and the value of your property will likely only increase over time.
Thanks again to Doyle for taking time to answer these questions. If you are in Nashville for Record Store Day, stop by and see them! They are having the guys from the United Record Pressing (probably the largest LP pressing plant that manufactured most of the RSD releases) cooking BBQ in their parking lot. So not only will URP make the records you'll be buying, they will be feeding you too!! Also, MATT & KIM will be in-store to sign their RSD 7" too!! All of it starts at 10:00am, so be sure to get there early!
WP
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