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Couple give record store another spin after hiatus |
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 27 February 2007 |
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/business/article/0,1406,KNS_376_5374798,00.html
Couple give record store another spin after hiatus
By ED MARCUM,
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February 24, 2007
Lost & Found Records is a business that is taking a couple of bold steps backward.
While everyone seems to be going from CDs to iPods or downloading digital music online, Lost & Found deals mainly in vinyl record albums and singles.
While merchants of all kinds are giving up on stores and turning to the Internet to sell products, the owners of Lost & Found Records are going in the opposite direction.
Maria Armstrong, along with her husband, Michael Armstrong, first opened Lost & Found Records in 1990 in West Knoxville and closed it in 2001, a few years after moving it to Cumberland Avenue in the University of Tennessee area.
They continued to sell records out of antique malls and over the Internet, but Maria Armstrong said it just wasn't the same as having a store.
"I missed it so very much. I never dreamed I would miss it," she said.
"I was still very fortunate to be able to sell out of antique malls, but other people were selling my records for me and I would see the tickets from sales and say 'I wonder who bought this? I wonder who bought that?' I missed the interaction with customers," she said.
So in August she and her husband resurrected Lost & Found Records in a small storefront in a strip commercial center behind Fisher Tire Co. on Broadway.
"We've been really well received by reopening," Maria Armstrong said.
The business began through her husband, a guitarist who has played with several bands around Knoxville and who has an extensive record collection, but Michael Armstrong said the store really became his wife's passion.
The small size of the store is deceptive. Michael Armstrong said the records on display in the shop are just a fraction of the 50,000-60,000 records he and his wife have in storage. Needless to say, if you don't see what you are looking for at Lost & Found Records, you should ask, he said.
The merchandise covers eras from the 1940s to present.
It may not be common knowledge, but independent rock performers are still releasing material on vinyl, and there is a market for reissues of classic albums, such as those by Pink Floyd or the Grateful Dead, on high-grade vinyl. Otherwise, Lost & Found owners say rock albums from the late 1960s to early 1970s seem to be in the most demand at the store.
"The lesser-known pop or psychedelic rock from the '60s is always in demand," Mark Armstrong said.
The store also sells a lot of jazz from the 1950s-1960s, he said.
The shop gets customers who like albums for the nostalgic appeal and some who are more interested in albums for the covers, but most of the customers are audiophiles, who consider vinyl the preferred medium for recorded music.
"We get customers who would prefer an album on vinyl even if it's available on CD," Maria Armstrong said.
CD fans are not totally neglected, however, and the store does maintain a section of CDs.
The store also buys used albums and singles, but because its customers are particular, it insists on ones that are in good condition.
Not all customers at Lost & Found Records are people who love vinyl records because they grew up with them, Maria Armstrong said.
"What's surprising is the number of young customers," she said. "I've had kids come in here as young as 13, 14 years old. They've found their parents' turntables in their attics and they are fascinated with them," she said.
Lost & Found Records is open 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays and 1-6 p.m. Sundays.
Ed Marcum may be reached at 865-342-6267.
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