Being the owner of an independent record store in this day and age is not easy, but George Reynoso is still fighting the good fight.

His is All That Music, out of El Paso, Texas. And like all small business owners, market forces create a myriad of challenges that make it difficult for them to just survive. Competing with the big-box chains like Wal-Mart and Best Buy is like swimming against a strong tide, and the whole downloading phenomenon has only exacerbated the problem for the mom-and-pop record shops.





Smartly, Reynoso, a former television journalist, has decided against going head-to-head with the Goliaths.

"Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target all sell what I call the 'no-brainer easy business' — that is, mostly the Top 50 Billboard chart CDs," explains Reynoso. "Although we stock these chart hits, we conceded the easy business to the giants long ago. Now, as the giants are allocating less space to deep catalog and the big chain stores are all but gone, we're realizing the increased traffic of customers who require and enjoy a good record store. Serious music buyers are left with the 'last man standing,' which is usually the local independent. That works for me!"

That enthusiasm isn't just false bravado. Reynoso sees a future for small record stores like his. They just have to work hard and figure out what their customers really want, and that extends to employees as well.

"The future will be service and collectibles for serious music enthusiasts," says Reynoso. "Today's record store employee must bring something to the table. Young clerks fulfilling cash-register duties and generally hanging out and acting cool are gone. Thank God! With today's bleak economy, we are all doing more with less. So slackers quickly find themselves unemployed. Today's employee needs to bring a depth of knowledge in any particular genre of music. Strong retail, marketing and merchandising skills are a must. Computer, database and Web site expertise is a bonus. In general, with Google, YouTube and hundreds of Web site resources, I tell prospective employees that logic, common sense and a desire to provide service to a customers is all that's necessary. We can teach the new hires the resources and steps for great customer service. Finding employees with charisma, values, good attitude and a strong work ethic is the challenge."

But there is more to it than that. These days, record-store employees have another role: That of an educator.

"We spend a lot of time educating people about the collectibility of records," says Reynoso. "Most are good sports, but some don't understand and get offended when we reject common, low-demand items in poor condition. With advance notice, I'll direct sellers to allthatmusic.com to read our guidelines for selling CDs, LPs & DVDs."

Having to take a tough stance in negotiations is just part of the business, which has benefitted from a boom in vinyl sales.

"In part, credit today's 15- to 30-year-olds for spearheading the return of the LP," says Reynoso. "They grew up knowing music by file trading, computers and ear buds. Eventually, these consumers mature and realize you can't beat first-edition, physical, hands-on product. In the end, whether for full, complete liner notes and a high-quality (non-MP3) sound, physical product will be sought out by the true hard-core fans. Sure, the volume of product sold is less, but remaining copies in the marketplace are worth more, especially if the condition of the LP or CD is like new. We sell lots of product in the $20-to-$75 range. This is our new marketplace. We've spent the last 30 years learning what's in and what's not and we use that knowledge to buy and sell fairly and strategically."