People's Records — Local services in Arcata

Went into this record store and bought a brand new vinyl. I am playing this record on a brand new $300 Sony turntable player and I already own this exact vinyl record in a different color variant so I was surprised to hear half of the songs on side B had warp Issues, static and didn't play right. I take this record back into Peoples Records the next day and the owner tells me that he will listen to it on his record player and see if there is an issue. The speakers in this store are so old and so burned out that you can barely hear anything so I ask him to turn it up he tells me that 80% of the time there is an issue with one of his vinyls it comes from the customer buying and using a cheap record player. At this point I am irritated and tell him that doesn't make sense and I'm sure he gets new vinyls that just don't play right on occasion and the owner again said it's very rare. So then guess what? The record did the same warped thing on his player! So I told him he was wrong and he told me he would give me my money back but I had to leave the store and not come back. So I told him he could take his $35 Midnights album and stick it up his a$$. Better to avoid this guy at People's Records and just shop online.

The Owner has responded below and I was nothing close to unhinged. He was assuming I was less than smart and had a cheap record player. I was not yelling at him what would I be mad about I got my $35 back. There was only one person in the store. If anything the owner was yelling and couldn't even tell me why he was so mad. He had zero argument and it killed him to have to refund me my money. His cheap a$$ didn't even give me my tax back as he tossed $35 on the counter. And he indeed heard the album defect because once I told him to turn it up it was obvious to everyone. At first he didn't turn it loud enough because he DID NOT WANT TO HEAR THE ISSUE PLAY BACK so he could tell me I was wrong and reject my $35 return. He also heard the issue clearly because I said, "Well there is your once in a lifetime occurrence of a bad new sealed vinyl sold at your store sir." He then said he would give me my money back only if I left the store??? I said believe me I was never coming back, and I did tell him he would be getting a bad review. The record selling buisness...

I am an life long vinyl collector and am very discerning about where I purchase records and what I purchase. I have lived in the area for nearly 20 years (Humboldt County) and only went into People's when I first moved here and at the time I was not really impressed with the stock (new or used) with respect to what I wanted at this point in my life (I pretty much have everything I want and don't really get moved to purchase anything new). In the recent couple years I have gone back and found it not only vastly improved but so much so that it is my main reason for visiting Arcata (I live in Eureka). When pondering why the store had become so great I found out that the ownership had changed hands since I had moved here and started visiting local shops, recognizing that the present owner's passion for music, people that love music (and particularly on vinyl, among other formats) and the quality of the types of things that he stocks makes it feel like the record stores that I knew and loved in my formative years. He staffs his store with friendly, passionate people; he is very kind to all of his customers and he holds very high standards for the stuff that passes through his store into the hands of his fellow vinyl music lovers.

The owner is extremely amicable and his hired staff replicate this. He is open to suggestions about music and has even turned me on to things that have become some of my favorites (which is rare after all this time).

One of my favorite turn ons from owner: Los Saicos

Favorite reciprocated turn on: first feedtime lp.

favorite recent purchase: RSD 50th Anniversary...

I'll be honest by saying that I came here mostly after reading another person's review about warped vinyl and their terrible experience ( love me some tea) and wanted to see first hand if that could be the case.

Lemme just say that is FAR from the case. I Absolutely loved this record store in every way. From building, to the layout, and to the attitude of the shop overall. It's just such a rad place.

I came yesterday and although the place was packed, I still had room to dig, explore, and find all sorts of hidden gems that I never expected to find. And the prices were great (I use discogs to check prices as I dig) And aside from a few high dollar albums behind the counter, most of what I found and wanted to get was reasonably priced and up to par on its condition.

Look, I don't leave reviews because who really cares, if you're gonna go somewhere you're gonna go no matter what. But get this.

So as I was checking out and I asked the owner behind the counter about the warped record story and if there was really something wrong. Being really candid here. He goes and brings the album from behind the counter ( A Taylor Swift album I might add) and let's me check out what might be wrong with the album and what the customer had been upset about. I checked it out, ended up BUYING it off of him (major discount, my daughter was stoked) and came here to say that it plays 100% perfect. Dunno about the other guys $300 record player he's raving about. Because if it can't play Swifty, you need a new one dude 💁

Check this shop out, it's...