5 Best Record Stores near UNW

Written By: Jesse Tasa

In this article, I’ll be walking you through and ranking some of the best spots to go disc-hunting around the Twin Cities, and all of them are 25 minutes or less away from campus!

The year 2010 pretty much marked the beginning of the end for physical music. 2010 began the 10-year sales decline in CDs, vinyl, and other physical forms. CDs were the dominant physical music medium at the time, but even they couldn’t rival the shiny new streaming services taking over the world. With Spotify and Apple Music on the rise, why would you possibly bother with clunky discs and packaging when you could simply switch on an iPod or iPhone, tap a button, and get the song rolling without all of the extra steps that listening to physical music takes? Music consumers agreed, and the year 2010 marked the first time ever that streaming downloads had been larger than physical sales. Sad, right?

Thankfully, the story has a happy ending, and we’re currently living in that happy ending. In the later part of the 2010s, a renewed interest (and a worldwide bite from the nostalgia bug) in physical music (mainly vinyl) was beginning to boil all around the world, and the United States was no exception. Between 2017 and 2019, vinyl sales appeared to once again begin to slightly creep upwards, but they hadn’t quite hit stride yet. And then 2020 rolled around, and the undisputed “Queen of Vinyl” came out with her ninth album, Evermore.

Taylor Swift struck vinyl gold at the exact right time. For the past three years, vinyl had been on an upturn in sales slightly, but the dam still hadn’t quite broken back open. And then Evermore came around. In June 2021, Swift sold 102,000 records in a single week, which was the most sold in a week since that metric began being tracked in 1991. When Midnights was released in 2022, the album sold almost a million records between November and December of 2022.

Ever since Evermore’s sales, you won’t find an artist today releases a new album and doesn’t have some kind of vinyl version to go along with it. Fifteen years ago, this was not the case at all. And now with the newfound excitement around vinyl only becoming more and more prominent, the art of visiting a brick-and-mortar record store to buy physical music has made a drastic turnaround as well.

5. Mr. Zero’s (12 minutes away)

1744 Lexington Ave N, Roseville

Mr. Zero’s is less of an organized, shiny LP store with neat shelves and sorted products and is more like your favorite thrift store that makes you earn it by digging for the treasures. Zero’s is a full-size store’s inventory of video games, books, TONS of records, and other collectible oddities and trinkets packed into maybe half of what the store size should be. If you’re feeling adventurous and ready to dig, roll on up to Zero’s for the most thrift-shop feeling record store experience.

“Mr. Zero’s, Roseville”

4. Barely Brothers Records (13 minutes away)

783 Raymond Ave, St. Paul

There’s a lot to love about this Saint Paul record store staple that’s called this Raymond Avenue building home for 85 years. This visually stripped-down record store eliminates the need for flashiness and focuses on what’s important: the records. And boy do they have those in spades. If you’ve been lucky enough to discover the beauty of the 7-inch single record, the massive wall stocked with thousands of 7-inch boxes is sure to keep you searching for hours. It’s a simple store with a broad selection, and sometimes that’s all you need after a long day of schoolwork.

3. Cheapo Records (multiple locations)

71 Snelling Ave, St. Paul (16 minutes away)

170 89^th Ave NE, Blaine (17 minutes away)

2600 Nicollet Ave, Minneapolis (19 minutes away)

Self-described as the “Last Authentic Music Store”, Cheapo boasts an absurd supply of new but mostly used merchandise for prices college students can bear to spend. The Minneapolis and Blaine locations could practically be considered depots with the amount of stock they have, and the Snelling location is no small fry either. A drive and visit to Cheapo will cause time to stand still for just a little while as you flip through their miles of discs and get the record shop feel as the employees play their vinyl of choice over the store speakers. The records are all sorted extremely well too, every artist has their own divider card, and this makes for efficient and easy shopping.

“Cheapo Records, Minneapolis”

2. Down In The Valley (24 minutes away)

8020 Olson Memorial Highway, Golden Valley

Sitting second to only the mighty Electric Fetus on the podium of Minnesota record stores, Down in the Valley is an absolute treasure trove of music. Specializing in more rock, punk and metal music while still having a healthy selection of anything else you could think of, the store has a fun atmosphere and a knack for having some rarer records if you know what to look for (check out the glass case towards the back of the store and thank me later).

1. Electric Fetus (17 minutes away)

2000 4^th Ave S, Minneapolis

Electric Fetus is Minnesota’s record store, period. The longstanding brick and mortar building that doubles as a massive music shop and variety gift store has been a Minnesota staple since 1968. You truly won’t find a more genuine and iconic record shopping experience at any of these other stores. Any store that would attract the great Prince as much as it did (he visited the store 5 days before his death) has to be worth your while, and minutes truly become hours at a store like this. At any given point, the store is estimated to house over 50,000 titles across many formats. The massive vinyl selection is what you see at first glance, but upon closer inspection, the store boasts a hefty CD stock as well as some cool signed music, lots of record players, speakers, and tons of other accessories, and just about anything else you might need to get your physical music addiction up and running or to get yourself an upgrade or two. Do yourself a favor and take a trip to Minnesota’s record mecca.