Barely Brothers Records – St. Paul MN

Barely Brothers Records has been in business about 6 months. Today was my first visit and I was very impressed.  This is a vinyl only record store.

About 1/3 of the inventory is new at prices comparable to other retailers. Their used was appropriately priced to grade. Not over priced, but not discounted either. It was a deep inventory with a broad selection in several genres. They had a generous selection of $1 titles in good to very good condition. They had a big pile of $.50 LPs – this was for me either uninteresting titles or in dubious condition. But hey for half a buck what do you expect (my daughter who happened to be there today was able to find a handful of appealing titles in the $.50 crates)? The overall inventory was interesting enough that I had to limit myself to stay within budget.

I’m not a 45 guy, but it looked like they had a great supply (and it appeared well-organized). They had a nice selection of used turntables too.

The overall vibe of the place was cool. They had a nice performance space in the back. They had great lightning that facilitated both crate digging and examining titles for condition. My only complaint was that the crates were too full – it was hard to browse certain sections. But I will take that over too thin an inventory. Staff was friendly and helpful. There was plenty of street parking (however this was a Sunday).  They had some chairs too – a necessary accessory when crate digging with your lovely wife who is more than tolerant (supportive) of your vinyl obsession.

In summary this is a nice addition to the Twin Cities record store landscape and I will be back. Look forward to some reviews in the near future of my crate digger’s gold from Barely Brothers.