Independent music stores holding their own in a world of corporate chains

By Doug Sams
doug.sams@gwinnettdailypost.com

Gwinnett Daily Post/Nicole Finley
Eat More Records customer Mike Neill browses through CDs Friday afternoon. The store, after 14 years at its Norcross location off Jimmy Carter Boulevard, recently moved to Lawrenceville on Sugarloaf Parkway.

LAWRENCEVILLE
or 14 years, Craig Freireich has run his small, independent music store in the shadow of massive corporate chains.
While crowds went to all-in-one discount stores where microwaves are shelved a few aisles from compact discs, the vinyl-junkies, college students and rare music collectors found Eat More Records in a Jimmy Carter Boulevard strip mall, where Freireich chose to operate his business.
Like other independent music stores in Atlanta, such as Wuxtry Records, Wax N Facts and Criminal Records, Eat More Records has withstood pressures from the spread of big-box retailers. Such corporate chains can often sell CDs at less than wholesale costs — an obstacle that several other independent music stores across the United States failed to overcome.
Charles Nelson, a more than 20-year music industry veteran, said the independents in the Atlanta market were among the first in the nation to encounter big-box chains, such as Best Buy. In recent years, Internet music downloading, and the decline in U.S. music sales,  brought more challenges to independent retailers.
 “They’ve had an uphill battle,” said Nelson, a sales and marketing manager with AEC One Stop, a large U.S. wholesaler of music and movies. “Most have stuck around in the Atlanta market. Their selling point is customer service. The people who work in these stores know a lot about music. It’s their life.”
 Eat More Records, which recently moved to Sugarloaf Parkway in Lawrenceville, is a rarity in the Gwinnett retail landscape dominated by Best Buy, Circuit City and discounters such as Target and Wal-Mart.
Freireich said the best part of his business has always been talking to his customers. Recently, they included a 12-year-old looking for the quirky 80s alternative band They Might be Giants. The other day it was a father widening his two young daughters’ musical perspective and appreciation.
“He wanted to show them what a record is,” Freireich said.
Eat More Records is filled with vinyl — new releases, imports, jazz and blues classics, even a Beatles album or two that might be worth at least $300. But Freireich also carries CDs, including new releases, imports and box sets.
Independent music stores are where to find artists perhaps on the cusp of wider popularity, experts say. 
At Eat More Records, customers won’t hear the latest blockbuster movie soundtrack or top 10 hits. They’ll hear alternative pop from Francis Dunnery, gospel blues from The Sisters and Brothers, or rockabilly from The Blasters.
“Independent retailers are the stomping grounds for the stuff that flies under the radar,” Nelson said. “They have the music you just won’t find at Best Buy or Target.”
Freireich holds no grudges against the corporate giants. He even thinks they play a valuable role in the U.S. economy. His advantage is his staff, their expertise and their love of music.
Wesley Mallard, a 24-year-old newcomer to Eat More Records, was fond of independent record stores long before he found at job at one. “You are surrounded by music here,” Mallard said. “A true music fan is a good person. If music is in your heart, then you probably have a good one.”