Deep in the heart of Pennsylvania, an area of the state mostly reserved for college football, there is a record shop that has morphed into a cultural epicenter for the area. Young Ones Records has withstood the test of time for over three decades and continues to expand and grow. Bursting with a wide variety of records, CDs, Cassettes, and just about any other form of media you can think of, Young Ones has established itself as a must-visit for frantic collectors and newcomers all the same. Their store contains mountains of gems to add to your collection with a team of enthusiastic music-lovers to point you in the right direction.
Glide had the pleasure of speaking with Mark Goodwin, a manager at Young Ones Records. We discussed the history of the shop, its massive catalog, and much more. Check out our full conversation below:
2,000 square feet seems huge for a record shop, what is it like managing it all? What is your curation process like overall and does the size of your shop have an influence on the process at all?
2000 square feet was our second location in Kutztown. In the current, third, location, the main floor is around 4500 square feet, and sometimes it even feels like we are outgrowing this space! Managing can at times be challenging. Everything in the store is alphabetical and we only have one copy of most items on the racks, meaning customers aren’t digging through 20 copies of the same item. There is a portion of the building that is dedicated to storage and backstock with thousands of items, so it gets pretty involved. We try to keep racks and shelves full at all times. We also bring in multiple titles of CD and vinyl new releases every week. We also price hundreds of used items every week so our inventory is always revolving and changing. Employees rarely have anything to do. Over the years, with our space, we have been able to expand all of our common sections, vinyl, CDs, movies, video games, and also bring in other music and media-related products, such as turntables and other stereo equipment. Our large floor space also enables us to give plenty of personal space for our customers. Chances are that our customers won’t be rubbing elbows with each other.
Our curation process has always been the same. We buy used from customers in-store and new from different distributors. We bring new releases of vinyl, CDs, and movies every week. We also make sure we have important back catalog titles in the store at all times, i.e. Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, etc.
Young Ones opened in 1990, what do you credit the shop’s longevity to? What was the shop like prior to this vinyl boom we’ve seen over the past ten years?
Adaptation and listening to the customer’s wants. As we grew into a larger store, we’ve been able to branch out and bring in different types of music and media-related products. For example, we are a satellite store for a guitar shop from a neighboring city, so we now have some guitars and musical accessories. Early on, at our first location, we decided to bring in video games and movies. We still do. If we think our customers will want the product, we will try it. Covid, of course, affected many businesses. We were shut down for three months, like many other stores around the country. This forced us to adapt and focus on expanding our online presence. 10 -15 years ago, the vinyl section was much smaller. But the store wasn’t much different from how it looks now. We now just have a much larger vinyl section. We still sell CDs well. And yes, we still have a cassette section!
It has been an odd journey though. In the 2000s the internet was quickly changing and there were fears that sites, such as Napster, would destroy the physical market. You had people getting rid of their entire CD collections and transferring the music to digital files. And then the oddest thing happened…Vinyl made its comeback.
How has Young Ones been involved in the local music scene and do you feel any bands or artists got their tastes from picking up tunes at your place?
Our area has an eclectic local music scene. Bluegrass to metal and everything in between. We have always been here to help local artists as much as we can. We have had live shows featuring local artists. We also have live music on Record Store Day where we feature local music. Any artist is more than welcome to sell their merchandise here on consignment. There are many local artists that have been customers of ours for decades. We would hope that we have helped them along on their musical journey.
You guys have some exclusive merch going on, who designs your logos and t-shirts? Where did the idea for limited-run designs come from?
We don’t use anyone in particular. Our latest design for Record Store Day was done by artist Yenna Hill. She designed the mural on our building and is the niece of Keith Haring. One T-shirt design, in the past, was created by a customer. We had customers submit their designs for the shirt and we picked our favorite one. Our current logo was created by the cousin of an employee.
Were there any shops you frequented as a kid? What does your personal collection look like?
I grew up in Wales, UK. My earliest memory is at the age of 8. In 1980, Adam and the Ants released “Prince Charming”. I pleaded with my mom to take me to the record shop in the nearest town. She was nice enough to take me and I went home with my record. As a teen, I visited larger stores, such as Listening Booth, until I learned the magic of smaller independent record stores. I discovered Young Ones a couple of years after it opened. It quickly became my favorite record store. Shortly after that, I became an employee and I’ve been working here for over 30 years!
In the ’80s, I preferred to listen to rock and metal. Then I heard “ Master Of Puppets” and everything changed. I then got into metal, death metal, and hardcore. The heavier the better. I got into punk. Then the ’90s came along with the Seattle scene. After that, the genres just kept coming. Over the years, I have owned cassettes, CDs, and some vinyl. My collection is now mostly vinyl and I own around 1200 records. A majority of it is movie scores, jazz, and metal. But I also own country, bluegrass, alternative, classic rock, and more. I have plenty of Frank Sinatra and Tom Jones records.
I see that you guys host in-store events, what sort of stuff do you guys have coming up and what are some of your favorite memories from these events?
We do have a local-ish band named Airspace that will soon be playing. They are releasing a series of CD singles throughout the year and we will host their CD release show. We will be hosting a “Listening Party” for the Barbie movie soundtrack in August. Record labels have been putting together “listening parties” for many artists. This year we’ve held parties for Metallica, Melanie Martinez, Ed Sheeran, and Fall Out Boy. There are always exclusive giveaways and for the Ed Sheeran party, we gave away a couple of pairs of tickets for a live concert! We enjoy holding them and the fans love it. Everyone has a great time! So, cheers to the labels for doing that.
As for memories, we have had plenty of good ones. One that stands out is we had The Front Bottoms play a show at the store in 2015. We held it on a Sunday when we are normally closed. Attendees pre-paid for the band’s new record that was coming out and that was their ticket into the show. 150+ fans sang along with the band and then the band signed stuff and took pics with fans after the performance. Really nice guys. We have also hosted other touring artists such as Chuck Mosley, Black Crown Initiate, Frank Turner, JD Simo, Left Lane Cruiser, Dead By Wednesday, Sevendust, and Bad Brains.
Going way back, two “Midnight Release” events come to mind. We had a line of 75+ fans waiting to purchase Pearl Jam’s second album VS. Alice In Chains, Dirt, was another big event. We had an enormous sub from Subway to feed everyone.
You guys also buy used record collections, have you found anything rare in one of these batches?
Oddly enough, one of the rarest records we’ve had was found by accident. We were cleaning up and going through some old donated records. In there was a 45 from a 60’s garage band called The Pentagons. We figured it was something we would give away but we decided to research it. We found out it was a $300 single.
You guys just participated in the 2023 Record Store Day, how important is a day like this to an independent record shop? What sort of behind-the-scenes semantics do you guys look forward to the most on RSD?
RSD is incredibly important to us. We have participated in every single RSD. Every year it seems to get busier. There’s always a line of people down the block before we open. Customers are excited about their records and to experience a day devoted to independent stores. It is easily the busiest day of the year. We always make the day a celebration. We feature live music in the afternoon. This past RSD we had a few local acts but also featured 3 national acts, Tuk Smith, Gibson guitar ambassador Jared James Nichols, and Brandon Yeagley from the band Crobot. We also had shirts and posters designed by Yenna Hill and she was here to sign the posters.
Being that it has been over 30 years since Young Ones opened its doors, how has it changed the most in its three decades? Can you give us a brief history of the shop?
The store was opened in 1990 by Chris Holt. It started in a small (750 sq ft) location near Kutztown University and over the decades, we have remained in the town of Kutztown. It started off with CDs, cassettes, and a small vinyl section. A couple of years later, the store had the opportunity to rent the space next door. That allowed the expansion of the vinyl and we started selling video games, VHS, and apparel. Meanwhile, around 1992, a second Young Ones store was opened in Millersville, Pa. That store was open for approximately 8 years until the co-owner wanted to move on to law school.
At the end of 1999, we moved into a larger location which was approximately 2500 square feet. This allowed us to really expand all of the products we sell. We started to bring in DVDs, and more video games. In September 2013, we relocated to our current location, which is now owned by Chris. The main floor has approx 4800 square feet of music shopping pleasure. (In all, including our storage, break room, office, etc, our building runs around 9000 square feet.)
One Response
“Employees rarely have anything to do” has to be a misquote