Eric Levin, founder of Record Store Day and Criminal Records, a record store in Atlanta USA, has announced that unless he’s able to find an investor to help pay off debts he’ll be closing his store on 1st November.
Record Store Day now attracts participation from over 1,000 stores worldwide every April and Levin is well aware of the symbolic importance should he be forced to close this store. In an interview with Spin, Levin said ‘”We bit off more than we could chew and we got too big,”, stressing to point out that his store is suffering from bad business decisions and not due to failings of record stores in general.
Criminal Records sells new and used CDs, vinyl records, comic books, and graphic novels, along with DVDs, magazines, art, candy, and T-shirts. Levin moved the store from a 2,500-square-foot location to a 6,000-square-foot store in 2008, just ahead of the global financial crisis and a strong contraction of consumer spending and the ability to borrow from the bank.
According to Levin this relocation tripled the store’s overhead, add that to damage from an ice storm in January and the fact that Levin offers his employees health insurance and it’s not hard to see why he is in serious trouble.
On Tuesday afternoon Levin jumped on Twitter saying “OK, y’all, please hold off on the RIPs and the farewells, We’re not dead and gone yet. We are going to try and #SaveCriminalRecords.” A Facebook page, Save Criminal Records Atlanta, already has more than 2,000 likes.
Watch The Gossip perform at Criminal Records for Record Store Day
