Water ruined his vinyl, but store owner gets by with a little help from his friends
Water ruined his vinyl, but store owner gets by with a little help from his friends
For Phillip Rollins, who owns the record and comic store OffBeat in Jackson, Mississippi, the last month has been all about recovery after a fire broke out in a neighboring building.
“We had a lot of flood damage due to that fire, so we lost a lot of our used records,” Rollins said.
Rollins relocated his store in Jackson, Mississippi, to the city’s downtown area last fall. Selling used records is his main source of income, and while the flood damage was painful, his family and community have helped him recover.
“We’ve acquired a lot of new collections to replace the stuff that got water damaged,” Rollins said. “We’ve gotten some good stuff in due to people seeing me on the news and just really supporting the shop, and helped clean up and dry stuff off.”
While Rollins and his wife are still assessing the damage, he’s also looking ahead to the summer. In particular, Rollins is hoping to bring customers to the shop with album listening parties.
“We did listening parties for Melanie Martinez, Fallout Boy, Paramore,” he said. “We’ve had people come from as far as Arkansas and Chattanooga, Tennessee, for this. People drive three, four, five hours away just just to come to listen to an album and hang out at a record store,” he added. “Which is just insane to me.”
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