Battle of Stockton Ca independent Record Stores
Retail chains, Internet threaten existence of locally owned record stores

Ian Hill
Record Staff Writer
Published Thursday, Apr 20, 2006

Willie Hines prepares some albums for sale at his store, Northern California Replay Records, near the intersection of Pacific Avenue and Hammer Lane in Stockton.
Credit: DOUGLAS RIDER/The Record

Stockton - Willie Hines brought the large, old poster out of the back of Northern California Replay Records and unrolled it on the counter, revealing a portrait of The Beatles in all their mop-top glory.

For a moment, Beatles fan Rick Muniz of Stockton was taken aback. It was a find that would impress most music collectors.

He took the poster home as a gift from Hines, the store's owner, along with a rare Australian Beatles greatest hits LP he had purchased.

Muniz, 53, said it's that type of service that keeps him coming back to Replay, a Stockton institution and one of the area's few locally owned record stores.
 

But record-store patrons such as Muniz are becoming rare across the country. Studies show that more consumers are buying their music from big retailers such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart as opposed to small, independent stores such as Replay. The number of consumers who buy music on the Internet also is increasing.

Hines, 51, said he's not sure how the national trends will affect Replay, which offers used CDs and LPs. The store recently began selling used DVDs in an effort to stay competitive, and Hines continues to try to offer albums and customer service that can be difficult to find at the bigger stores.
 
Bins of records are available for browsing at Northern California Replay Records.
Credit: DOUGLAS RIDER/The Record
Replay, which moved to a plaza near the Hammer Lane-Pacific Avenue intersection in 2004 after about 18 years in Lincoln Center, remains busy, Hines said.

So does C4 Records, according to owner Carlos Talamantes, 32. The Market Street store was located in Manteca until last year. It sells urban LPs and CDs, including albums by independent and local artists - tunes patrons can't find in Wal-Mart.

"People are still coming in because you can't find the underground stuff" at the bigger stores, Talamantes said.
 
Willie Hines rings up a purchase for Steve Cort at Northern California Replay Records in Stockton. The music store sells used CDs and LPs.
Credit: DOUGLAS RIDER/The Record
"You find things that other stores don't carry," said C4 shopper Adrian Tellez, 27, of Stockton. "I come here two or three times a month, and every time I come, I find something different."

A study by the Recording Industry Association of America shoWed the percentage of consumers who bought their music at record stores dropped from 52 percent in 1995 to 32.5 percent in 2004. Over the same period, the percentage of consumers who bought music at other stores such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart grew from 28.2 percent to 53.8 percent.

The percentage of Internet music consumers grew from 0.3 percent in 1997 to 5.9 percent in 2004.

Keith Hatschek, director of the music management program at University of the Pacific, said the Internet is especially threatening to small stores. Music fans can seeking albums online that in the past only record stores carried, he said.

"I can go on the Internet and I can find used vinyl, I can find used CDs, I can find import CDs," Hatschek said.
 
Carlos Talamantes haves CDs at his store, C4 Records on Market Street in downtown Stockton.
Credit: CLIFFORD OTO/The Record
Hines also can't compete with bigger stores when it comes to the cost of the most popular albums. Bigger stores can afford e a "loss leader" sales strategy, in which chart-topping CDs are sold below wholesale cost in an effort to attract consumers to purchase more-expensive products, Hines said.

Replay does not sell chart toppers because it cannot compete with the loss-leader strategy, he said. C4 keeps its prices down by finding wholesalers who offer CDs for less than they're sold at the bigger stores, Talamantes said.

Independent record stores typically do better in larger cities than Stockton, where there's a greater number of potential customers, or in college towns such as Berkeley that are home to students Find rare music, Hatschek said. Amoeba Music, which is among the best-known independent stores in the country, has one of its three stores in Berkeley.

Even though Stockton isn't the ideal market for independent record stores, there are still enough dedicated shoppers here to keep Replay going, Hines said.
 

"The minute I open my door, they're in here shopping," he said.

Contact reporter Ian Hill at (209) 943-8571 or ihill@recordnet.com