Grooveyard rocks
An iconic shop in downtown Penticton celebrates 30 years in business this month.
The Grooveyard started as a music store selling vinyl records, and has come full circle as LPs are once again a popular commodity.
“Back in 1987 after being the music department assistant manager at Kelly’s Stereo Mart, they closed and an opportunity came up for me to start my own business,” said founder LeAnne Jakubeit.
“It was a little scary because I was a single mother with two kids and had never ventured out on my own. I started sub-letting a small space within a stereo shop and after two years moved to my own stand-alone store.
“Being a store within a store was the inspiration for the name — The Grooveyard. I also considered SoundGarden but there was a band by that name starting to get popular.”
She would soon start up a partnership with her now-husband, Andrew Jakubeit, who had a music distribution company. The business would venture into wholesale and mail order, but always circle back to retail.
Over the years, the store would be forced to adapt or re-invent itself to address fluctuating demands and trends.
“The music industry has changed over the years along with the way people acquire their music; however, nothing replaces having a physical copy of your favorite artist’s record or the natural, warm sound of a record,” noted LeAnne.
Over the past 30 years, the Grooveyard has always been located downtown and offered a vast array of music and movies, plus funky novelty goods and rock merchandise. Whether it is a classic rock CD, T-shirt or poster, there is always something for the avid music and pop culture lover.
“We’ve been fortunate to have customers that were kids when we started now coming back as adults with kids of their own,” added LeAnne, who credits great staff and a supportive customer base with enabling her to be one of the few independent record stores still operating.
“We used to sell a lot online but then moved away from it; however now we have relaunched our website and online presence as that is part of staying relevant into the future,” said LeAnne. “Lots of people enjoy the store when they come in for a visit so hopefully that can transpire into an online experience as we are more than just a record store.”
To celebrate 30 years in business there will be storewide savings of up to 30% off with different categories on sale at various times throughout the month of September.
For details, visit: www.grooveyard.ca