By VANDA DOBRITOIU
Encore Records has been in business for 31 years and continues to eke out an existence despite the industry’s move to online sales.
The store was originally located on King Street in Kitchener, across from the Farmer’s Market, but was moved to its current location in 1989.
Terry Brown, the original owner, died shortly after opening the store. His friend and co-worker, Mark Logan, took over the business.
The 48-year-old Kitchener man is still the owner today.
As a child Logan spent a lot of time and money in music stores, loving what they had to offer.
“Soon enough, it became my dream. It sure beats a lot of other options,” laughed Logan.
Although it was hard at first, the music business was thriving at the time and it was a good time to buy the store, Logan said.
The music industry today, however, is not as kind to local music store owners.
“There’s hardly any left, maybe a third of us are still hanging on,” Logan said.
The store offers something for everyone, including new and used CDs, DVDs, LPs and merchandise.
The only thing that can’t be found on the shelves is chart pop music.
The music is brought in from wholesalers, major labels and from all over the world.
They also sell tickets to local shows, independent artists’ CDs and even promote shows.
As a part of the community, they offer a great hangout spot by just being located in the heart of the city.
After being open for 30 years, Logan feels that they can’t get much slower than they already are.
A typical day would include him and his two part-time employees receiving new products, ordering new ones, filing them away and maintaining the store.
One of his employees, Chris Boynd, who has worked there for eight years, said the store is very familiar, since he has shopped there since he was 12.
