At the counter at Big B's, one of the clerks helps a lady figure out which White Stripes song she heard on the radio by singing every track on the disc until the customer nods in recognition. Another clerk helps a man special-order old releases by Ray "Ghostbusters" Parker, Jr.
"We are a specialized store. We know what we do. We love what we do and it shows," manager Alex Vaughn says. But unlike the famously snobby clerks in High Fidelity, the employees at Big B's do not demean customers for their lack of knowledge or taste. No one is ordered to listen to the Beta Band.
According to Vaughn: "I remember growing up in LA, I would always feel intimidated by record-store employees. They were always so elitist. So, I am looking for people who are personable, who like to interact with the public, who are enthusiastic and excited about music. The mechanics of the job are really not that hard. You can train anyone to do it. It is more about being on the floor, talking to people, sharing musical knowledge."
Here is a shock: There is a place in the music business where justice really exists. It is at 4761 S. Maryland Parkway, the location of the tiny independent store, Big B's CDs & Records. The implosion of the recording industry generally over the past few years has been hell on the major retailers. Locally we lost Tower Records on Maryland Parkway, Odyssey (part of the Wherehouse chain) on Las Vegas Boulevard, and in two weeks the Virgin Megastore at the Forum Shops is to close. But where the big guys have faltered, on a recent weekday morning at Big B's there is a satisfyingly large group of customers perusing the new releases, rummaging the used discs (the clank of the plastic boxes smacking each other as a browser works through each row) and checking out the DVD stock. A customer at the counter has headphones on and is previewing a stack of discs he selected. There are even two girls going through the stashes of vinyl records. Business, in short, is good.
"We could even use a bigger store," says Alex Vaughn, manager of Big B's. Vaughn has worked at the store since it opened almost seven years ago. Before that he once worked at a chain store, so Vaughn has a strong sense of why Big B's has managed to defy the industry trend. "One of the reasons I resigned from the chain store is that they were eliminating the in-store buyer position. They were going to a national buyer using a statistical model for inventory instead of buying based on your clientele. That doesn't work because two stores in the same city can have totally different customers with totally different tastes. We don't have a lot of space here so we have a really refined quality of stock where we can pretty much cover exactly what people want."
To illustrate Big B's smart stocking approach to inventory he goes to the AC/DC section and flips through the selection. "We have 'Highway to Hell,' 'Back in Black,' 'High Voltage,' the ones people want. A chain would just have a greatest-hits package and the latest release, and they would sit there. Our inventory moves. We know the market for people who want more than the top 200, mainstream hits or whatever MTV plays. We are here for people who love music. We have people who come in here every two to three days because we are constantly restocking and so every few days there are tons of new things to look at."
I should have listened, and grabbed the used copy of "Absolutely Free," a Mothers of Invention disc from 1967, the moment I spied it. Instead, I made a mental note and when I went back for it an hour later it was already sold.
So, how many albums does Vaughn have in his own collection?
"I have over 10,000 discs and records in my collection. Sadly, I have to keep about 6,000 records in a storage unit; there just isn't enough room where I live right now." And that is not stopping him from acquiring more. "I probably buy between 10 to 20 discs a week."