When we heard that King Records had recently moved to a new location in Archdale, we knew we needed to make time to take the trip up to the Western Edge of the NC Triad and pay the owner Jerry a visit.
His new store location is just a couple minutes off I-85 and in a small shopping center alongside quite a few other nice retail establishments and a really nice bar that we feasted at for lunch beforehand so that we would have plenty of energy for crate digging!
When you enter the store, there is a nice small lounge area to the right and front center you’ll find turntables for sale and a small selection of used cds. He said they often have people bringing in cds to trade for store credit for vinyl, so there should be a constant flow of sweet deals on those. On the other side of that area you’ll find a selection of more rare items, picture discs and other specialty items. Definitely take time to check thru those!
There are 2 rows of vinyl bins, which apparently Jerry custom built himself (We need him to build some for our music room!). Along the bottom is where you’ll find the “Dollar bins”, with the rest being the used vinyl alphabetized. The used vinyl isn’t separated by genre.
One thing we loved is nothing was crammed & cramped. The bins and shelves weren’t overloaded, so it was very easy to browse through all of them without needing a shoe horn and astroglide to see the covers.
Along the walls is where you’ll find the new stock. Front-facing and mostly 1-deep…making for a great display. They were generally grouped by genre making it simple to pinpoint areas to check for what you’d be more interested in.
Want to take a minute to mention the owner again. Jerry is one of the nicest store owners we’ve met in awhile. It’s SO obvious how much he is loving what he is doing right now with the store. He really seems like someone you could sit around with for hours just talking shop.
Selection: The used bins had a very good selection of the “Main” genres. Didn’t see much jazz/blues, but plenty of hard rock, classic rock, pop, etc. ..including quite a bit of heavy metal and hard rock titles that you don’t usually see “in the wild”. The new stock included a strong variety including a lot of quality jazz/blues reissues. Again there were hard rock/heavy metal new titles that don’t always make it to physical stores and that was awesome to see.
With the location being new and larger than the previous, they have room to increase inventory quite a bit, which will be great to see. We didn’t ask about special orders but we’re 100% sure they do.
Prices: We were very impressed with the prices. Used were very fairly priced. New stock was in-line if not a little under what we have seen elsewhere. We also noticed that they are marking down stock after it sits awhile, including substantial markdowns on RSD. We saw an RSD title that we spent $10 more on just last month at another store.
Bottom Line:Â If you live in the High Point/Triad area, this store should absolutely be one of your goto spots. With it being so close to I-85, this should also be a stop-in for those passing through!
Located in Archdale Commons on Main St. Suite F.