Durango is down to one record store entering the new year with the closure of Random Records, 3102 Main Ave, just south of City Market north, on Thursday.
Owner Kristian Luce said he’s shutting down the music store after landing a full-time job at Chinook Medical Gear, a locally owned medical supplier located in Bodo Park.
But for the past two years, Luce has been the sole owner of Random Records. The store’s first location was at 1111 Camino del Rio for a year before moving to its current spot last year.
“Its been well worth doing,” Luce said Thursday. “I love music and will always love it, but I moved here for other life reasons.”
Luce owned his first record store in 1997 in Tempe, Arizona, after graduating from Arizona State University. About three years ago, he and his wife decided to move to Durango, and he brought his collection with him.
“I didn’t see anyone just focusing on records solely,” Luce said. “Since I didn’t have a job lined up, I decided to dive into that here, and it was well worth it. It was a great way to get involved in the community.”
Luce was hired part time at Chinook Medical Gear in the fall, and he tried to juggle the two jobs. Recently offered a full-time position, he decided to go all-in with the medical supplier, which, according to its website, provides “custom medical solutions for the harshest environments on Earth.”
Bryant Liggett, station manager for KDUR-FM, the radio station at Fort Lewis College, lamented the loss of a place where music lovers could gather.
“I’m bummed out about it,” he said. “Record stores are great community gathering places, and a place for people who like music to learn about different genres. They’re like a library. It’s a drag.”
Over at Durango’s only remaining music store at 922 Main Avenue, even Southwest Sound owner Robert Stapleton was sorry to hear about Random Records shutting its doors on News Year’s Eve.
“I was actually there about a half an hour ago,” Stapleton said Thursday, just before Random Records closed for good that evening.
Stapleton said instead of breeding competition, having another record store in town actually created a sense of camaraderie.
“We complemented each other,” he said. “It was great to have him here. It’s always great to have more than one place to go. I’m a record collector, and when I used to collect, I hit every store in town.”
Stapleton said there’s not a huge amount of record collectors in Durango, but he does see a core of music aficionados come in to his store regularly. He said the vinyl swap held in October at the Veterans of Foreign Wars building on Main Avenue drew almost 200 people, and organizers plan to hold another in the spring.
All across the country, vinyl sales have skyrocketed in recent years, reaching a new high in the first half of 2015 with nine million records sold, compared with 14 million throughout the entire year of 2014, according to The Recording Industry Association of America.
Though living in an age dominated by the Internet and the convenience of streaming music, Liggett said owning an actual physical copy of a record will never lose its value for music lovers.
“Everyone listens to music, but not everybody collects it,” he said. “It’s not only the music on them. There’s the artwork and the packaging to hold in your hand and look at. It’s more than something that just comes out of your iPod.”
Luce, entering the new year with a little more free time on his hands, said he harbors no bittersweet feelings on his last day at Random Records.
“I’ve been in the music industry since college, and there’s not much of an industry left,” he said. “Everything sort of got leveled out with the Internet.”
It’s important to note that record collectors can always go to Durango’s many thrift stores on the hunt for vinyl, where you’re seemingly predestined to find tattered copies of Herb Albert & The Tijuana Brass Band albums and The Very Best of Peter, Paul & Mary.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
An earlier version of this story included a headline that misstated the number of years Random Records operated. The error was made in editing.