Record Store Visit: Holy Cow Records
Pike Place Market in Seattle is famous. We've all seen images of mongers tossing fish behind the counter. Down the hall is the gum wall where people partake in the most disgusting of traditions, resulting in a multi-colored, living collage. Tourist swarm everywhere up top, but in the depths of the market, down a few darkened stairwells, lies a little gem minding its own business.
Holy Cow Records is on the 3rd floor (below ground) of the market where the foot traffic isn't as claustrophobic. It's a small shop with a lot of possibilities with genres such as 80's, Jazz, Blues, Meta, Punk, and 60's-80's rock. Not a lot from the 90's and 00's and they don't sell new, so there's nothing current. With its windows looking out onto Puget sound, this is probably one of the most scenic record stores around.
After walking in, the first thing you'll see is the stuff that's the most popular. It's not surprising that they put their Beatles collection front and center as a hook to get people in the store. To your immediate left is the blues section as well as boxes of 45s. There's DVDs and CDs strewn about. Near the window is a pretty great selection of 80s music, considering the size of the store.
I got the sense that the store is there to serve the curious customer and the collector looking for something specific. Most of the people I saw walk in seemed to be casual shoppers, smilingwhen they saw records they used to own. The store's distance from the main corridor is probably a benefit because there's not a lot of room to maneuver. While I was in the store, boxes of records sat on the perhiphery, taking up valuable floor space.
Everything above waist level in the racks is sheathed in plastic, though some of the bins are a little too tight. Flipping through the inventory in some sections was nearly impossible because of too many records while others were a joy to peruse. Below the main shelves are less interesting records and duplicates, pretty standard.
I'm from Illinois and had flown to Seattle for a week before embarking on an Alaskan cruise. This is only relevant because my ability to actually purchase records was stunted. I didn't have enough room in my luggage for the clothes I had let alone a stack of records. I'm sure the store gets a lot of people in this situation, so they offered to ship my records home. On that note, the staff (of which may only be a single person) was super helpful and kind.
By the time I got back from the trip, a box was held at the post office and I was itching to tear into it. As far as the shipping goes, they took the records out of the sleeves to keep them from tearing them. However, the box that the records came in felt under-padded. Everything arrived okay, but I got the sense that I got lucky.
At home, I finally had a chance to check what I paid vs. what the albums go for online. Imagine the Titanic-sized sinking feeling I got when I discovered that the 1994 "Spoonman" import single I bought for $42.99 could be had for under $15 on Discogs. I'm not a walking database of used record prices and Vinyl Deals only tracks new record prices, so I was dismayed at the massive price difference.
Frankly, I feel like a dick standing in the store checking the prices on my phone so I end up taking chances. At Holy Cow, I felt that I had overpaid for 3 out of my 4 selections. Given the prevalence of Discogs, its unlikely that a store owner will mistakenly price something low, so the assumption should be that the price is high. People need to make a profit, and that's fine as long as it's fair. But is it fair to price something almost triple what it's worth? Nope.
In a discussion about Holy Cow on reddit, user dylanrush had this to say about the store:
"Holy Cow has a cool selection but they really rip you off. I got a Floyd vinyl promo from the 90's for $35 there, thought I owned something sorta unique, but the f___r is like $3.50 on the internet in mint condition."
While in the store, I overheard the clerk telling a customer that there are some consignment items in the store. I can't tell for sure, but it's possible those items are marked with a different color price tag. In my case, the extremely over-priced items had a yellow price tag, so perhaps those were prices jacked up by a third-party. Either way, be careful when shopping.
Speaking of price tags, the ones used by this store are a bit too sticky. Most stores uses ones that feel like they're made of plastic and come off easily. How Cow used paper price tags that not only didn't come off, but left behind residue.
I also learned my lesson when it comes to checking the quality of a record. If it's a small store, I like to give the owner the benefit of the doubt that they have checked the quality of records and priced them accordingly. It wasn't until I tried to play the copy of B.B. King's "In London" I bought that I discovered a warp so bad that the first two tracks on both sides are unplayable. The warp bounces my needle around so quickly that it just can't stay in the groove. Was it like that in the store or did it happen in shipping? I can't say for sure since I never checked it in the store, but my gut feeling is that it was like that before the cross-country voyage.
Getting to Holy Cow is challenging mostly because it's in the market. Parking isn't exactly plentiful and even if it were, dealing with the pedestrian masses would make you want to give up. Do what I did: park in a garage a few blocks away and hoof it. Even better, take the public transportation.
Recommendation
If you're in the Pike Place Market area and looking for something specific, give Holy Cow a look. Be careful of the prices and follow standard operating procedures: pull the record out and give it a look before committing to a purchase. If you're in the Seattle area, but not downtown, give it a pass.
Holy Cow Records 1501 Pike Pl Ste 325, Seattle, WA 9810 (206) 405-4200
Editors Note: This is the first in the Record Store Visit series. In this series, we travel to record stores around the country (world?), post pictures, and provide some info on the store.
