“Fascination” by David Bowie reverberates through the room as customers wander through the aisles of the downtown Evanston store Animal Records, sifting through vinyl records from artists like Janet Jackson to the Grateful Dead.

The walls of the room are adorned in pink and yellow stripes with stuffed animals perched everywhere the eye can see.

Animal Records owner Greg Allen waves to people as they enter his store, greeting regulars every so often with a casual, “How you doing?”

“We’re just trying to keep it a happy, positive place,” he said. “If some people are interested in records, that’s great. But we don’t really care if somebody comes in, even if they don’t buy anything. If they just want to come in and hang out and talk, that’s good too.”

Record stores, once a fixture of the past, have had a resurgence in the greater Chicago area in recent years. Not only are these stores a place to shop, but also a place of community for music lovers.

Helping others search for the perfect sound

Owning a record store is an aspiration for many music lovers, yet only a few dare to take the jump. Allen was one of the few who decided to take a chance on his dream.

Since Allen was a teenager, he had been collecting records, storing about 40,000 records in his house before opening the store.

“It was getting to the point where there were entire rooms where it looked like a hoarder kind of situation,” he said.

Allen opened his store in September, ready to share his love and knowledge of vinyls with the world. The store is mainly composed of used vinyls, many of which he said he collected before opening the shop.

For Allen, the experience of being in the record store and browsing through hundreds of different albums sets the independent record store experience apart from big box stores like Target or an online marketplace like Amazon.

He said that customers can most likely go on Amazon and find a specific record. But independent record stores let customers hold and look at the record, while also offering alternative vinyl.

“You decide you don’t want that one, but you want one of these other (records),” Allen said.

Allen said the deep inventory each independent record store has offers something different to each shopper. This diversity in records sold between stores has established a “the more the merrier” attitude among vinyl shops, Allen said.

Specifically, Allen said independent record stores in the Chicago area have established an almost antiquing-like system where they carry a unique collection of records, with only an overlap between the most popular albums, such as The Beatles’ “Abbey Road,” he said.

“One antique shop might have one kind of desk, another antique shop might have a different kind of desk,” said Allen, drawing a comparison between record shops and antique stores. “Are they competing? Maybe not, because the person who wanted the one kind of desk might not be interested in the other kind of desk, right? So that’s the thing.”

Given the wide variety of records, some specific vinyls are particularly challenging to find, according to Evanston’s Squeezebox Books & Music owner Tim Peterson.

At one of his earlier record stores, Peterson said a man came in searching for a 12-inch by First Choice on Salsoul.

“People asked about (the record) from time to time. We never had it in. That moment in time, I had it. I pull it out and show it to the guy. He literally screamed at the top of his lungs, and he just ran out of the store,” Peterson said. “Two minutes later, I saw him running down the street on the other side. And then two more minutes after that, he busted in the door again, and he pulled out his money and bought the record.”

Before Squeezebox, Peterson had owned multiple other record stores since 1996. He said these independent shops are the places that truly excel at helping customers find what they have been after.

Record stores’ staff have a passion for music that can help newer customers who are curious about the varieties of vinyl, or advise the record collector on what album they should try next, Peterson said.

Since Peterson opened his latest record store in Evanston, Squeezebox, back in 2011, he said he has seen a surge in vinyl demand, crediting the COVID-19 pandemic for spurring this spike.

“During the pandemic, things went kind of bananas because everyone was trapped at home,” he said. “Nothing else going on, and they’re like, ‘I’m going to start buying records.’”

Vinyl sets itself apart from the crowd

In recent years, there has been a surge in the number of young vinyl collectors. While some buy vinyls for the aesthetic and novelty, most buyers enjoy the vinyl listening experience, Peterson said.

“My experience is that a handful of young people will have it for the novelty factor,” he said. “For the most part, I would say 98% of our customers are buying because they want to listen.”

Peterson said he saw streaming services as having their own distinct function: guiding music lovers to new artists and albums so they can figure out what they enjoy. With vinyl, however, listeners can fully “settle in” with the music, he said.

Andersonville store Rattleback Records owner Paul Ruffino described vinyl as an intentional process compared to the passive nature of algorithms.

“Part of the experience is having a physical piece of media to hold in your hand and to read the lyrics, which is like reading poetry, or to look and see who are the people playing on the record,” Ruffino said.

Catering to the customers

Ruffino’s intentionality with vinyl is similar to the curated vibe of his store. Sunlight gently streams through the front window of Rattleback, creating a homey, welcoming atmosphere, which was one of the reasons why he said he bought the location in 2018.

Ruffino describes his store best as “fun and full service,” seeking to provide a taste of all genres for its customers.

“We want to make sure that we create a space for people (where) they feel safe and comfortable just asking us questions, because there’s a lot,” Ruffino said. “In some ways, it’s a very simple format. It’s a vinyl record that you put onto a machine and it plays music. But in other ways, there are some nuances to it.”

Ruffino said cultivating the store also entails creating a community where people can learn and explore music.

For Record Store Day, a semi-annual celebration of independent record stores on April 12, crowds of people flocked to Rattleback Records to celebrate. Ruffino said people lined up at 8 p.m. the night before, setting up camp with folding chairs in front of the store; during the day, he watched a line stretch around the block with people eager to experience all the store had to offer.

“The initial people were here, they were here because they were looking for a very specific release,” Ruffino said. “But over the course of the day … a lot of people just (came) in to support independent record shops and to look for things that weren’t necessarily stuff that was released for Record Store Day.”

These stores have become more than just a vinyl shop, according to both Allen and Ruffino. Vinyl stores have transformed into a forum for music lovers to share their love for albums and artists with each other, Allen said.

“I think (people) come here for the expertise, and also for the experience of just being able to interact with another person who is also here because they enjoy music,” Ruffino said.

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