Meet Mark Carter | Founder, Music Record Shop

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mark Carter and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mark, Let’s talk about principles and values – what matters to you most?
The principle that matters most to us as an organization is a high level of customer service and the overall experience the customer has interacting with Music Record Shop.

The experience our customer has when they are exposed to any facet of our business is consistently expressed as critically important to our employees and is something that we focus on every day as owners. This goes for website experience, in store experience and after purchase experience.

We know there is a lot of competition within the music sales industry and the best way we can differentiate ourselves from the rest of the physical retail market is extras that we offer to create a unique customer experience. We have a stage for live music and invested in a professional sound system, also last year we added a bar and obtained our liquor license. The store is aesthetically interesting and our staff spends a lot of time making changes and arranging the store to make it a unique environment that customers want to return to and not your typical record store. The staff personally connects with each customer upon arrival and is on stand by to assist with finding products, offering a beverage or making them comfortable for a show.

For the online experience we have a full time web designer and graphic designer who are always making changes, fixing issues and ensuring that while the customer is on our site they have all the information they need an can easily navigate through it to find items and check out promptly. We know the web is even more competitive especially dealing with the likes of Amazon, eBay and other music selling online stores. The website in in need of constant attention even more so than the physical store. It is sometimes the first impression/experience of our business, whether the consumer buys online or makes their way to our retail store. It’s a huge marketing banner for our business in general.

It is sometimes not the lowest price that gets the sale online and we have a definite advantage with our after sale customer service. This is often more critical than the sale itself. Shipments are picked and packed within 48 hours but the true measure of a successful sale is getting the product to the customer undamaged. To combat damage, we created a custom vinyl shipping box for all of our online shipments. Vinyl is extremely fragile and easily damaged through the mailing services. Using our custom box, we have virtually no damage reported. This is a huge thing to the vinyl collector. Additionally we manage customer service via email and phone with a response time to an issue or question within 24 hours or less. These two experiences have created a very loyal and satisfied customer base.

Overall the importance and focus on a positive and unique customer experience is what we will most assuredly contribute to continued succession in the future.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Our current business structure consists of 3 divisions:

– Retail and online sales of music and music related accessories (vinyl record sleeves) including sales through 3rd party online selling platforms (eBay, Amazon, Walmart, Discogs) as well as wholesale sales to other record stores and large sellers.

– Live music venue with a small bar attached attracting local artists and also touring bands seeking a small intimate venue to play in. Associated with this is our Charity Autograph Series of signed vinyl vinyl and CDs from large touring bands. We have an average of 2-3 signings per week. We sell the signed vinyl to collectors either within the retail store or online and a portion of the proceeds from the sale go to a charity, Kids Rock Caner.

– Manufacturing vinyl accessory products. These are accessory products to help protect albums. We manufacture these directly in the United States and sell them in store and online.

All of this sets us apart from the competition. We are not just a retail record store but are offering intimate live shows for fans plus the ability to get autographed records from their favorite bands. In addition we are manufacturing products and in 2022 will be pressing vinyl to assist bands in the production of their music.

Nothing is easy about being and entrepreneur. The last 2 years have magnified that immensely. The best practice we have found is to just keep your eye on the customer and what they need. If you hit a roadblock just move in a different direction but most importantly keep moving.

What we want the world to know about our brand is that we are much more than a record store. With all said above, we see ourselves as a business that is creating a unique music experience for the consumer.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Brunch – Polite Society (Lafayette Square) bottomless mimosas and osso buco hash in a renovated flat on the edge of the city of St. Louis.

Walk through the Missouri Botanical Garden followed with drinks at Sasha’s Wine Bar on Shaw Avenue.

Ballpark Village and Busch Stadium for a St. Louis Cardinal game.

After game drinks and appetizers at 360 STL 40 stories above the city of St. Louis.

Brewery Tour at Anheuser Busch. followed by a haunted walking tour of the Lemp neighborhood and brewery.

Afternoon at the City Museum. www.citymuseum.org

Dinner at Tony’s in Clayton. www.tonysstlouis.com

Diner and show at the Jazz St. Louis in Midtown. Great local jazz scene. www.jazzstl.org

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My wife, Chris. Without her support professionally and personally the business nor I would be anywhere today. It is truly a team effort and neither of us could do it without the other and I would not want to be in this business with anyone else but her.

Website: www.musicrecordshop.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/musicrecordshop

Facebook: www.facebook.com/musicrecordshop