Working at a record store in the early-to-mid 2000s gave me a firsthand look at how the internet was damaging small businesses. It also afforded me an intimate view of how some small businesses combatted the internet and found new and creative ways to thrive.
I worked at Easy Street’s Queen Anne location for 10 years—about eight of them serving as the “local consignment guy.” If you or your band made an album and pressed vinyl, CDs, or cassettes, I determined if it was worth shelf space.
“Why not just take everything everyone brings in and try selling it?” you may ask. We tried that. There are so many people making albums, and even a store the size of Easy Street lacked the space to stock them all. Plus, nobody was buying any of these homemade, cracked-jewel-case, bedroom-recorded CD-Rs.