Northampton vintage record shop reopens in new antiques centre on the day retail returns

While many shops reopened their doors after months of lockdown on Monday (June 15), a vintage record store in Northampton welcomed customers for the very first time.

Record Junkies moved between antiques centres across the town during the coronavirus lockdown ahead of its first day of trading this week.

Owner Tim Long said the new home for his record collection is bigger, lighter and much more accessible as it is all on one floor.

"I think it's a risk opening a new business in a new building anyway but to open a record shop on the day the lockdown was released was a big risk," he said.

"But I think it was a risk worth taking and I'm glad I did as I've had lots of positive comments and feedback from customers."

Record Junkies started off as his vintage record collection had started to outgrow Tim's garage so he decided to sell them off.

He began at an antiques centre on an industrial estate in Wootton, where the business stayed for two years before he moved to Click Antiques and Vintage on Moore Street, Kingsley.

"I found it hard to not buy vinyls if I saw them at antiques centres or auctions and I ended up with too many so I took a risk and it's grown and pays for itself," he said.

Tim said the opening day on Monday went well with a queue of people at one point waiting to flick through his collection in search for a hidden gem or the missing piece of their own collections.

His vinyls range in genre but are all 'vintage' - so no modern music - but apparently ska and reggae music is the most popular request.

"The thing is you never know what people will want when they come through the door," he said.

"Some weeks people dig around for Dolly Parton and other weeks it's two-tone ska."

Record Junkies is open from 10am to 5pm on Monday to Saturday and until 4pm on Sundays. For more information, visit facebook.com/pg/recordjunkies