I would say
nothing cool about buying online......I'm struggling to think if I have ever done it.
And I listen to very little new music as a result. When the business model changed, the entire industry lost me as a customer. It wasn't a deliberate choice on my part, and no great loss to them. I just don't see the appeal of scrolling through a list of titles and doing "file management" of my entertainment. I'll flip through stacks, and admire cover art all day long, though. But I consume a lot less new music, and am further out of mainstream pop culture than I would like....And more than can be accounted for by simple age.
Vinyl is certainly making a comeback, but it's different. Where it used to be essential as a format, now it is more of a "lifestyle choice", so the environment in the record stores around here is different as a result.
Not to stereotype, but a store full of middle age, white, affluent hipsters.
It's impossible to imagine a chain of dedicated record stores, but the most enjoyable establishments are invariably Mom and Pop stores, attracting a wide variety of people, with a wide variety of requirements. IMHO.
Again, not to stereotype, but I can't imagine a "record themed" nostalgia store having a large section of classical music, and Sesame Street recordings, for instance; Hard to replicate the true experience you remember.
Whether record, video, hobby shop, video arcade........The ones that always had some real character felt like a repurposed old building (perhaps the shell of the last failed venture) which one man or woman turned into their labor of love, shared their enthusiasm with the community,
and hoped to make a few bucks in the process.
Nostalgia is a full sensory experience when it is at its best.
To really capture the experience, you would need to replicate the ride to the store in the '66 ford Falcon, listening to the AM radio, smelling like Coppertone, with sand in your shorts. Little kids making noise on the other side of the shop, the bigger kids smelling like those funny little cigarettes, the sound of the price sticker gun firing away as you are exposed to Ska for the very first time. (For instance.)
Thanks, Bobby. I needed this thread to show up today.