Business notebook: Vinyl records store coming to West Park Mall

A new haunt for Cape Girardeau vinyl hunters is coming to the West Park Mall next month in the form of music store Hard Copies.

Joe Smith, founder of Joe's Records -- which is in the process of a rebranding campaign to become Hard Copies -- said the vinyl boom was a welcome surprise years ago, and one that's proved to be more than a passing fad.

"If you would have told me 15 years ago that vinyl would have come back and saved our company, I would have told you you were high," he joked. "But I'm telling you it's unique. ... We're really pleased and thrilled with the recent resurgence that's been going on for seven years now. It just keeps getting bigger and better and bigger and better."

He opened his first store in Evansville, Indiana, in 2004 and has expanded to five stores across several states in the Midwest.

"[We're] looking forward to being in Cape," he said. "We think that mall's a real opportunity for us. We think that with Hastings leaving town ... there's a real hole or void left we think we can fill."

Hard Copies' storefront is seen in Carbondale, Illinois.Submitted

Hard Copies will offer a wide array of music in vinyl, CDs and cassettes, as well as video games and movies.

"We have a pretty serious apparel presence as well, with about 350 different rock T-shirt titles, so we do a lot of that," he said. "[But] our big thing right now is, quite frankly, vinyl. Vinyl records."

The new store will fill the roughly 35,000-square-foot space that once housed PacSun and will employ about five people, Smith said.

Smith said he's excited to be part of West Park Mall going forward.

He said while the internet has taken a toll on many retailers, retailers have found ways to adapt.

"I think you're seeing malls being more flexible. Anyone who has their foot in retail, it's a different game now," he said. "I guess you just have to try harder."

One way his industry has learned to work harder, he said, is the introduction of National Record Store Day, an unofficial holiday held in April each year. The day is for record collectors to score "extra loot," he said.

"The labels press up all these limited-edition vinyls. There's a few CDs, too, and cassettes. There was a Run the Jewels tote bag this year," he said. "But basically all this product is manufactured by the labels ... live albums, reissues, weird cuts, whatever ... very limited supplies. And they offer these items on this one day, and only independent stores get them."

Smith said the reaction he's noticed since announcing the store's arrival has been another welcome surprise.

"Coming into a new market where none of us has ever been before, the enthusiasm, at least on the surface, appears to be pretty substantial," he said. "We're excited."

Business licenses

• Pat McCurren applied for a license to operate Campbell Sleep LLC, a mattress manufacturer at 100 S. Minnesota St. in Cape Girardeau.
• Huong T. Mai applied for a license to operate Le's Nails, a nail salon at 97 N. Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau.
• Ahmed Raza applied for a license to operate Cape Corp, a convenience store at 341 S. Sprigg St. in Cape Girardeau.
• Todd Anthony Marchi applied for a license to operate Shield Concrete Systems LLC, a concrete installation business at 824 S. Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau.
• Pajco Inc. applied for a license to operate Imo's Pizza at 1201 Broadway in Cape Girardeau.

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627