The city of Starkville now has its very own vinyl record store.
This is exciting news for music lovers, because the people of Starkville finally have a store all to themselves, solely to appease their music needs.
The store, Scooter’s Records, opened their doors on Wednesday at 519 University Drive. For the time being, the prices start out at $5, although owner Scott Thomas said he anticipates a $1 bin in the record store’s future.
Scooter’s Records is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesdays through Saturday, and from 1 to 8 p.m. on Sundays.
As customers enter the bright yellow building, they are greeted by classic rock music playing throughout the store. Records are everywhere, covering walls and filling bins, and wherever they are not, there are posters displaying albums and bands.
Thomas said while the store mostly sells records, he is selling “anything that’s kind of in the ballpark of a record store.”
Scooter’s has everything from t-shirts, to posters and turn-tables. While the merchandise is diverse, the records themselves include many different genres across the board. Thomas said because everyone’s tastes in music range so greatly, he tries to keep a good variety in stock.
“David Bowie is big,” Thomas said. “If I get a copy of Fleetwood Mac’s album, Rumors, it’s not going to stay. Everybody loves Queen, too. Radiohead, I’ve sold a bunch of copies of all of their stuff. Country? Dolly Parton. It’s pretty diverse. I’ve sold stuff I wouldn’t have imagined I would sell.”
To keep up with the public interest, he has a suggestion sheet, so people can write down what they want to see in the record store in the future.
“I’m not quite as in-tune with the cutting-edge stuff, so I’m learning as I go,” Thomas said. “People come in and make recommendations, and I’ll start listening to it. I’ve ordered some stuff I’ve never heard before.”
Thomas is willing to suggest new albums to people based on their musical taste. Thomas said he holds a strong belief of vinyl being essential to the music industry.
“I never liked CDs at all,” Thomas said. “Then the internet came and killed CDs, and I think that the whole resurgence of records was a whole reaction to that, which is great.”
Thomas said due to the involvement records force people to have with the music, they are more inclined to appreciate the music.
“Records are something that you can pick up and look at, you have to deal with it,” Thomas said. “You have to pay attention to it, you’ve got to flip the record when it gets to the end.”
Thomas said he decided to open a record store after he retired about three years ago.
Thomas said he had always wanted to own a record store, and now since records are coming back into style, he decided this was the perfect time.
“If records hadn’t gone away,” Thomas said. “I would have been doing this for 20 years.”
While owning a record store is Thomas’ dream job, he said he ultimately decided to open Scooter’s Records because the town needed it.
“Starkville is the only college town around that doesn’t have a record store,” Thomas said. “Oxford, Tuscaloosa, Southern, everybody’s got one.”
Now, Starkville has a record store too.
Rachael Weems said because it is nearing Christmas, she had the idea to buy some records for her family as gifts.
“I sadly don’t own a record player here in Starkville, but my family has one back home, and we love to play old records and listen to them,” Weems said.
Valentina Piedrahita said after visiting the store, she is excited to purchase a record player.
“I was very impressed by this record store, and I am looking for a turn table to buy sometime soon,” Piedrahita said.