RICHMOND, Va. -- Chet Bland and Eugene Henry were some of the few retail workers still clocked in as the sun set on Carytown in Richmond on Friday evening.
“Christmas Eve from start to finish so far has been excellent,” Bland said. “We are floored. It’s been super busy.”
Bland’s father started Plan 9 Music on Cary Street where he is a used-music buyer and front desk worker.
Within the last decade, a resurgent in vinyl’s popularity has kept customers coming back.
“Last Saturday, before Christmas we counted I think tops 60 people in the store at once which is definitely a peak over the last year,” Bland explained.
But, like many industries right now, records are in short supply.
“There’s not enough! There’s not enough copy ever around right now. On one hand is a great problem to have for us,” Bland stated. “The pressing plants are really trying to keep up with the amount of people who want that record.”
Bob Broomfield across the street at Bits + Pixels wrapped up another successful selling season on Christmas Eve.
“We are done! We made it to the finish line,” Broomfield said.
Thanks to the pandemic, much of his business has moved online but he still welcomes shoppers to his brick-and-mortar store of 14 years.
Americans will spend $886 billion in holiday retail sales ahead of December 25, according to statista.com
Like vinyl, video game players young and old are investing and purchasing retro games and consoles again.
“This is empty because we have literally been wiped out of all our consoles,” Broomfield said as he showed a glass case where consoles used to sit.
Despite a pandemic that has disrupted so much these last two years, the holidays appear bright for business owners in Carytown.
The Christmas sales may be wrapping up but that doesn’t mean the end of good savings, according to business owners. Bits + Pixels is gearing up for yet another end-of-year sale ahead of 2022.
