Whenever customers walk into Verbena Vinyl, they’d better have enough time to browse the record crates, sit and listen to some tracks and banter about recordings and concerts with owner Victoria “Vicki” Scott.
Scott, who opened the vintage record store at 419 Division St. S. in early January, said she’s pleased that Northfield once again has a record store downtown. Before the pandemic, the city, home to around 5,000 college students nine months of the year, had always supported a couple of independent record stores.
“Currently, I’m it,” said Scott. “Except, of course, for some of the antique stores that sell old records and album covers.”
In her two months of business, Scott said the weekday traffic has been a bit slow, but the weekend shoppers have more than made up for that.
“I love that Northfield has a record store again,” said Katie Kes-Pick, a Northfield customer. “I’ve always had a small collection of vinyl that is now growing again.”
Verbena Vinyl occupies a large commercial space that had previously housed Coldwell Bankers Realtors. Stretching from Division Street, Scott said she instantly saw so much potential in the vast emptiness.
Behind the curtained off sales area is a warren of small cubicles Scott is considering turning into individual listening rooms. Currently, there is a space for her to clean and repair the records and jackets; a postal niche; a rear conference room; and a wide stairway up to the free city parking lot.
For now, customers walk through the front doors into a listening area decorated with vintage furniture on the south side and two rooms filled with milk carton crates of vintage albums from dozens of music genres on the north side.
As a fan of singer-songwriters, pop and hip hop, Scott said her true passion is listening to Indie artists. “This is why I opened a record store,” she said. The most expensive album she currently has for sale is a 1961 record by jazz musician Robert Johnson priced at $222.
What immediately sets Scott’s store apart is her attention to detail. If a record or an album jacket comes in damaged, she cleans and restores it to playing condition. “I recently fixed the jacket of a “Mary Poppins” record and it immediately sold,” she said.
Scott sorts her vintage vinyl into crates marked at $5.55, $8.88, $11.11 and $22.22. Other albums are individually priced and placed upon wall racks around the store.
Some Facebook comments
Brandon Otte said in a Facebook post, that he and his sons had a great time shopping at Verbena recently. “I’ve had a record collection for years but I just got my son his own turntable,” said Otte. “It was their first time shopping for records and we ended up with quite the haul — from Bob Dylan to David Bowie to a Motown collection.”
Angie Gustafson said in a Facebook post that she recently found two gems while shopping at Verbena Vinyl — two seperate albums featuring Diana Ross & The Supremes singing with The Temptations.
“I am so glad Verbena Vinyl is part of this community,” said Gustafson. “It is important to have a place where music lovers and collections find connection and discovery.”
After browsing at Verbena Vinyl, Ruthie Nowak said in a Facebook post, “So fun to see a Judee Sill album.”
Scott said she can trace her own love of vintage music equipment to growing up with a mother who collected CDs, 8-tracks and cassette tapes. “She even had a reel-to-reel player,” she explained.
Today, Scott uses the digital resource discgos.com to price her inventory and determine rarity and popularity.
She said she looks for personal collections and albums pressed with serial numbers. Now that she has a walk-in business rather than one that simply handles mail orders, Scott said she prefers being a loyal member of the Northfield business community to keep the money and her business local.
“I made a commitment to Northfield,” she said. “Instead of mailing orders to the highest bidder, which isn’t reducing the carbon footprint, I would rather help people locally.”
She’s even considering setting up a swap session inside her store where music owners can connect with each other.
As a lifelong music enthusiast, Scott said she grew up playing the recorder, clarinet and guitar. For awhile her goal was to become a singer, but she didn’t keep up with her voice training.
Instead, Scott majored in English at a small, liberal arts college near Lake Tahoe, California. That’s where she met her wife Aubrey, who was a computer science major. The pair moved to Northfield in 2016.
Scott, who has two masters of arts degrees, one in education and another in fiction writing, said she wants to continue to show her support locally by giving back to the Northfield community. She is donating silent auction items for the Pints of Pride fundraiser at the Grand Event Center of Northfield on April 6 and on Friday, March 22, she will be one of three local djs for River Flow Yoga’s Dance Party.
Practically the only days customers will see a “Closed” sign on Verbena Vinyl’s door is when Scott takes days off to watch professional women’s hockey league games. “I’m a huge fan,” she said.
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