Vinyl lovers and music aficionados waited in lines hours before Baton Rouge’s three record stores opened on Saturday morning in hopes of getting their hands on exclusive releases as part of Record Store Day, an annual global celebration of independent music shops and vinyl records.
Capital City Records owner Dana Labat says he had a line of around 40 customers before opening his shop at 9 a.m. Labat’s store is the newest of the area’s three record stores at around five months old, and is located at 4641 Perkins Road. It was the store’s first Record Store Day event, and Labat says traffic was “non-stop” throughout the day.
“It was my best day by far as far as transactions and the amount of people coming into the store,” he says. “For us, being fairly new, you see a lot of new faces. On days like that, [the customers] go to every record store and check out what each one has.”
Tess Brunet, co-owner of Lagniappe Records at 705 St. Joseph St., was celebrating her second Record Store Day and fourth overall event with the organization, which also has Black Friday sales with independent stores. Like Labat, Brunet says she saw a line about 40-people deep before opening at 10 a.m. The exclusive releases that came with the special day were almost all sold out, too.
“We had somewhere over 200 Record Store Day exclusive titles,” Brunet says. “We sold most of them. I’d say 90%. It was by far our biggest sale day. We tripled what we did on our first Record Store Day.”
Throughout the day, Lagniappe Records had sales and giveaways as well as partnerships with The Radio Bar, City Pork Deli & Charcuterie, Love at Phirst Bite and Pure Delight Coffee for food and drink.
“It was packed the entire day,” she says. “We had so many people out there, talking, buying records and hanging out. There was a great community vibe out there. On a day like that, it’s nice to have fellow businesses be a part of that and share that experience with us.”
Kerry Beary, owner of Atomic Pop Shop at 2963 Government St., says Saturday was her best and most profitable Record Store Day yet. It was her fourth time hosting special releases and sales.
“We sold out of 80% of the limited edition, special and exclusive titles,” she says. “Our first customers were in line at 2 a.m.”
—Matthew Sigur
