When Schoolkids Records closes at the end of the year, it will be the first time in decades that Chapel Hill will be without a record store.
That's especially notable because college towns are generally a place where record stores thrive. Once the Chapel Hill location of Schoolkids closes, the closest record store to UNC’s campus will be All Day Records in Carrboro, which opened in 2010.
Schoolkids opened in 1974 and had become a Triangle institution. Glenn Dicker, co-founder of Hillsborough based Yep Roc Records and Red Eye Distribution, recalled his first time at the store.
“The first time we came to Chapel Hill was in the early 90's with our band, and one of the guys at the store put us up as we didn't have a place to stay," he said. "That vibe was one of the things that we took to heart about Chapel Hill and the folks in the music scene that made the Triangle such an attractive place to us.”
Dicker also talked about how important their partnership with Schoolkids has been throughout the years.
"I remember one (event) where we did an in-store with one of our Yep Roc artists and in addition to having beer, we also had a guy giving away free hot dogs to folks that showed up," he said. "The store was always top of mind to us as our whole business was primarily focused on the music of the Southeast (both for Yep Roc and Redeye) in the early days.”
On Aug. 19, Stephen Judge, owner of Schoolkids Records since 2012, announced that he would be closing the Chapel Hill location of the iconic record store at the end of the year. Judge cites inflation, specifically regarding the cost of vinyl records released on major labels, and rising real estate prices as the main issues he was facing that led to the decision.
While the Chapel Hill location of Schoolkids will be closing soon, the Raleigh store will remain open. Located in Mission Valley, the Raleigh store is doing well, Judge said.
“We’ve been in our Mission Valley location for 11 or 12 years now," he said "We have 400 parking spaces there. When people come to Chapel Hill they’re like, 'Parking spaces?! What are those?'"
Over the years, both locations of Schoolkids have hosted in-store performances from both touring and local bands. Judge promised that will continue at the Raleigh location. He added that the store will keep hosting special events like book signings and midnight release parties, where fans can come out to the store at midnight and buy their favorite artist's new record the second it’s released.
“Tonight we’re doing one of those for the new Sabrina Carpenter record. We’ve got all kinds of exclusive stuff to give out that you’re not going to get anywhere else for her fans," Judge said.
The Raleigh location also features a beer bar which has helped to boost sales and bring people in.
Another thing Judge will be focusing more on when the Chapel Hill location closes is the store’s website. Like a lot of other businesses, Schoolkids relied heavily on website sales during the pandemic. This forced Judge to spend a lot of time and money beefing up their website.
“I’m going to spend more time trying to market that so the community is aware," he said. "I know, especially in this community, people want to support local businesses. Just because we’re not in this space you can walk in anymore, I want people to know they can still support us.”
One other important aspect to Schoolkids that Judge launched is the store’s in-house record label. In the past few years, the label has released music from North Carolina artists like Chris Stamey, and The Veldt, plus music from non-locals such as Dublin-based Naoise Roo, and Cleveland, Ohio-based Wish Queen. They’ve also released and assisted other labels with reissues of records that are out of print, from New Zealand’s The Verlaines to Chapel Hill’s Metal Flake Mother.
“I was just involved with the Metal Flake Mother reissue and I’m very proud of that,” said Judge.
He added that not having to run the Chapel Hill store will free up more time for him to focus on the label and to help local artists get their music out into the world.
