For The Record- 31. May. 2025

On finding community in the crates.

I chose today to resurface this essay from 2023 for a couple of reasons.

Community, small-scale connection, and creativity have been a focus here of late, and it felt like the next logical step in the series. Those are all cute buzzwords and are very much at risk of becoming meme fodder (if they haven't already), but they matter, and they are resonating right now.

Some of this is fueled by being turned off by always being on. The frenetic pace of online life has short-circuited our relationships and cooked our brains, just as many of us are entering the second half of our lives (gulp).

We've seen both the analog world and the digital one. We know what we want and don't want and are okay with saying so. When you're closing in on 50, keeping up appearances and going along to get along doesn't seem nearly as important.

And sure, some of this is, fueled by nostalgia; I don't think I'm going out on too far of a limb to say that many of us have fond memories of the late 80s/early '90s and the tidal wave of creativity that we were swept up in. Youth is wasted on the young. At this stage, time—and how we spend it—is paramount.

It seems weird to say a return to the recent past is now having a moment, but here we are. Blogs are back, baby. Vinyl too. Third spaces are prioritized- actual ones, not the ersatz ones Starbucks tried to co-opt before deciding we all spent too much time and not enough money there.

And maybe that's the larger allure of the record store. It's a place where you can still linger. Time is squishy enough as it is, but it's especially slippery once you start digging through the stacks. The store below occupies a relatively small chunk of real estate, and even there, it's not unusual to look up and see that 60 or 90 minutes have whizzed by.

Can you do that at Target? Maybe, but why would you?

Can you do it at, say, the closest restaurant? Ideally, yes, but odds are good that you can't- or will be made to feel like you shouldn't.

Even parks tend to discourage it. Loitering laws exist.

Crate digging is, of course, time well spent. There's nowhere to sit here, but even if there were, I doubt you'd see spikes or other deterrents installed. Make no mistake; this is a business and traffic matter. But the pace is slow; the focus is deeper. Interactions are measured in words and exchanges, not sterile KPIs and metrics.

Yes, someone, somewhere, is closely monitoring sales and other metrics. But that's not happening inside the place. You're never made to feel like you need to get out of the way so they can wring cash out of the next customer.

Some of the cafes on the same block should take note.

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Some updates are in order: