Been to Anita's a few times. Marine City has developed their downtown to something special. Was a ghost town in the 70's-80's
Favorite Detroit Area Record Stores
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Been to Anita's a few times. Marine City has developed their downtown to something special. Was a ghost town in the 70's-80's
Audio stores...
Pecar's on Morang. Actually lived a few blocks away from there in the early 90s...and lived, surprisingly. They opened another location on Orchard Lake at some point? Absolute Sound had a location on Morang closer to Kelly for a few years but I don't think that lasted very long.
Buddy and I would spend a day driving up Woodward in the 80s. Almas, The Gramophone, Tech HiFi, and our favorite was Absolute Sound (which at their peak had four locations), as they were the friendliest no-pressure audio salon. Audio Dimensions I won't mention; the less said, the better. Sony used to have a store on 8 Mile near the Lodge Fwy.--bought a rear projection TV there, in fact. There was also a place on Mack Ave. in GPW that specialized in Sony (bought the D5 there when it came out and supplies were scarce, and because I worked about a mile up the avenue) but I can't remember the name. It might have been Pointe Electronics?
I tended to buy components and portables online, often from J&R Music World, and another I can't remember the name of that hasn't existed for at least 30 years now. Bought every cartridge and stylus replacement from Lyle Cartridges, as they had good prices and shipped quickly.
Record stores...
I grew up near Harmony House at Hoover-11 plaza; just over a mile's bike ride away. They used to have a large store on Woodward, about a mile away from a smaller, older location that I'd heard they converted to sell mainly classical. There was also one on Mack between Moross and Vernier, as I worked not far away.
Peaches was up on Masonic and Groesbeck, and that was an experience. Record Town (?) was in Eastgate (Gratiot south of 11 Mile). Discount Music (part of Musicland at the time) had a store on Van Dyke at Martin, across from TACOM and General Dynamics, for a few years. Despite the higher prices, they'd have a few good sales, and it was about a mile from the house.
I didn't get into used record stores until the mid 80s--worked close to Car City Classics and spent many post-work hours there, but also visited a few up Woodward like Solo Records back in the green building on the edge of Birmingham. Sam's Jams, though, that was my hangout for years, either on Friday evenings for a while, or Saturday afternoons.
In Dearborn, I'd occasionally make a trip out there to Repeat the Beat. I still have little use for Dearborn Music, so I rarely bother going.
Ann Arbor had a lot of good stores. Encore was kind of the king of E. Liberty, but we spent more time at Schoolkids Records, and there was a Discount Records I believe on State St., which wasn't part of the Musicland chain. That was where I bought the hard-to-find Brothers in Arms on CD when all the other stores were sold out of it for weeks. There's one other I'm probably thinking of but can't remember from the 80s.
I just can't do Saturdays with my schedule and on the verge of working two jobs in this shit economy, so unfortunately it's rare if I'll ever be able to get to a meet.
