Central Square Records — Local services in Santa Rosa Beach

Decent prices, amazing employees.

For being independent and in the area it is, it has decent prices. On average, the records were around 30-40 dollars. If you are running on a budget, though, there is a section in the back for used vinyl and a 5 dollar deal for records. The 5 dollar stuff, however, is mostly older bands. Amazingly, the store sells lesser-seen records, such as The Pixies, The Melvins, Alex G, etc.

There are also a ton of CDs for sale, but I didn't look at them long enough to see their average prices.

The band t-shirts were about 30-35 dollars. The shirts are somewhat rare, but still golden, versions of what you'd usually find anywhere else.

The store also sells a few guitars (acoustic, acoustic-electric, electric, ukelele) and equipment such as amps, strings, etc. Guitars average from $200-300.

Band posters are also sold for 10 dollars. They also sell prints for a cheaper price if you don't have enough room or a high enough budget.

Staff is friendly and patient, and especially peaceful.

Definitely at least stop by and at least check it out. It's a very clean, calm, and overall great place to just browse around, at least. Even walking in blindly, you never know what...

After browsing Central Records, I was on my way downstairs to check out the attached bookstore when Mark (an employee at Central Records) stormed in front of me and prevented me from going any further after the detector went off. Mind you, I have no bags with me so there is no way I could’ve stolen anything…not that I wanted to anyways but that’s besides the point. What I didn’t appreciate was the way he handled the situation. He was very aggressive and blocked me and another women from going downstairs. He then rushed us to go back up the stairs. I then went to talk with the manager about the situation and while talking to the manager, Mark came up and became super defensive. He then walked away when the detector went off again to stop other guests from leaving and had a smile on his face all while being a lot more gentle with them. This happened in front of the manager as well. I definitely won’t be back...

Since I'm not a huge rock fan I wasn't very familiar with a lot of their catalog, but I still managed to find two albums that I very much wanted to own on vinyl and left satisfied. The staff were very friendly and knowledgeable and made sure to let customers browse freely until they were approached for help. They had some great jazz playing in the background, and I was able to discover some new bands I think I'll like just by using Shazam as I perused the shelves. The electronic music section was tiny but well-curated with albums by artists such as Aphex Twin and Com Truise on display. When I arrived on a Friday night there were seven or eight other customers of all ages present. As I entered the store a teen boy passed by me with a brown paper album sleeve, telling his sibling "I can't wait to take this home and put it on mom's turntable." It feels good to see local shops like this keeping...