woodward
05-24-2017, 01:05 PM
Jerry's Records owner retiring, but store will remain open
Scott Mervis
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
First the good news: As the sign outside the Squirrel Hill store says, Jerry’s Ain’t Closin’.
The bad news is that after more than 40 years in the record business, beloved owner Jerry Weber is stepping away from the vinyl store that brought him international fame.
Citing the need for another round of knee surgery, Mr. Weber has sold Jerry’s Records to employee Chris Grauzer for an undisclosed price, and his last day at Jerry’s will be July 31.
“I sold him the store, the store name, the phone number. He’s going to be the face of Jerry’s Records,” Mr. Weber says.
Now, some more good news: “I’m walking away, but I’m not stepping off the face of the Earth,” he adds.
Once he recovers from the surgery, he will be reborn as “Vinyl-Man” and will be selling off pieces of his own 20,000-record collection online and at record shows.
“Does a 69-year-old man need 20,000 records in his own collection?” he says. “I walk past my wall and there’s like 2½ feet of Billie Holiday records. I only need about a foot of Billie Holiday records!”
Whistlin’ Willie’s, a 78 rpm vinyl store within Jerry’s run by his son Willie, will close July 31, and he will move his operation to the warehouse. Galaxy Electronics, the turntable store housed inside Jerry’s, will stay in business.
The 33-year-old Grauzer, a Minnesota native who moved to Pittsburgh 10 years ago, says that buying a Pittsburgh institution like Jerry’s is a dream come true.
“I was going to open my own store, and when this came up, I decided to do everyone a favor and keep this one going.”
He plans to use the former Willie’s space for a room of “other antiquated media” but less antiquated than 78s.
“So, basically, cassettes, maybe CDs, 8-tracks, VHS and DVDs,” he says. “I’ve been collecting VHS for years and have tens of thousands mostly out-of-print stuff.”
As for the vinyl stock, he’s not planning any major changes, other than, “I might thin down, like, Easy Listening,” he says with a laugh. “I like this store because you can find everything, and I think people appreciate that. You can come here and find common stuff that other stores don’t stock.”
Mr. Weber opened Record Graveyard in ’78 with Jim Petruzzi, making it one of the first independent record stores in Oakland. Three years later, he ventured out on his own with Garbage Records before renaming it Jerry’s a few years later. In 1994, he sold that store, which had a mix of vinyl and CDs, to an employee and opened the vinyl-only store in Squirrel Hill. His collection grew so large, up to a million pieces, that he ended up on an episode of A&E’s “Hoarders,” which was a little ridiculous considering that was the business he was in.
In 2010, Rolling Stone ranked Jerry’s as one of the Best Record Stores in the USA. It also has been ranked among the top national stores by Thrillest, USA Today and Paste magazine. Throughout his run, Mr. Weber made it his policy to keep the prices low, many between $1 and $5, so that records actually got into people’s hands.
He’s also been an advocate of saving every record possible, which, in part, accounts for the massive room of 100,000 slow-selling classical albums.
“That gives me cold chills, thinking about good classical music going in the dumpster,” Mr. Weber told the Post-Gazette in 2014.
After all these years, “I’m a little overwhelmed by records,” he says with a laugh. “It’s getting a little hard to fake sincerity. When some lady comes in and tells me about her great Osmond Brothers collection, I can’t talk to her anymore. I just kind of zone out and go to Planet Vinyl-Man or something.”
Scott Mervis
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
First the good news: As the sign outside the Squirrel Hill store says, Jerry’s Ain’t Closin’.
The bad news is that after more than 40 years in the record business, beloved owner Jerry Weber is stepping away from the vinyl store that brought him international fame.
Citing the need for another round of knee surgery, Mr. Weber has sold Jerry’s Records to employee Chris Grauzer for an undisclosed price, and his last day at Jerry’s will be July 31.
“I sold him the store, the store name, the phone number. He’s going to be the face of Jerry’s Records,” Mr. Weber says.
Now, some more good news: “I’m walking away, but I’m not stepping off the face of the Earth,” he adds.
Once he recovers from the surgery, he will be reborn as “Vinyl-Man” and will be selling off pieces of his own 20,000-record collection online and at record shows.
“Does a 69-year-old man need 20,000 records in his own collection?” he says. “I walk past my wall and there’s like 2½ feet of Billie Holiday records. I only need about a foot of Billie Holiday records!”
Whistlin’ Willie’s, a 78 rpm vinyl store within Jerry’s run by his son Willie, will close July 31, and he will move his operation to the warehouse. Galaxy Electronics, the turntable store housed inside Jerry’s, will stay in business.
The 33-year-old Grauzer, a Minnesota native who moved to Pittsburgh 10 years ago, says that buying a Pittsburgh institution like Jerry’s is a dream come true.
“I was going to open my own store, and when this came up, I decided to do everyone a favor and keep this one going.”
He plans to use the former Willie’s space for a room of “other antiquated media” but less antiquated than 78s.
“So, basically, cassettes, maybe CDs, 8-tracks, VHS and DVDs,” he says. “I’ve been collecting VHS for years and have tens of thousands mostly out-of-print stuff.”
As for the vinyl stock, he’s not planning any major changes, other than, “I might thin down, like, Easy Listening,” he says with a laugh. “I like this store because you can find everything, and I think people appreciate that. You can come here and find common stuff that other stores don’t stock.”
Mr. Weber opened Record Graveyard in ’78 with Jim Petruzzi, making it one of the first independent record stores in Oakland. Three years later, he ventured out on his own with Garbage Records before renaming it Jerry’s a few years later. In 1994, he sold that store, which had a mix of vinyl and CDs, to an employee and opened the vinyl-only store in Squirrel Hill. His collection grew so large, up to a million pieces, that he ended up on an episode of A&E’s “Hoarders,” which was a little ridiculous considering that was the business he was in.
In 2010, Rolling Stone ranked Jerry’s as one of the Best Record Stores in the USA. It also has been ranked among the top national stores by Thrillest, USA Today and Paste magazine. Throughout his run, Mr. Weber made it his policy to keep the prices low, many between $1 and $5, so that records actually got into people’s hands.
He’s also been an advocate of saving every record possible, which, in part, accounts for the massive room of 100,000 slow-selling classical albums.
“That gives me cold chills, thinking about good classical music going in the dumpster,” Mr. Weber told the Post-Gazette in 2014.
After all these years, “I’m a little overwhelmed by records,” he says with a laugh. “It’s getting a little hard to fake sincerity. When some lady comes in and tells me about her great Osmond Brothers collection, I can’t talk to her anymore. I just kind of zone out and go to Planet Vinyl-Man or something.”