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Zia Records embraces change as it hits 40 years
Brad Singer opened his first record store in 1980, a tiny shop at 19th Avenue and Indian School Road in Phoenix called Zia Used Records and Incidentals, selling off the contents of his own collection to get the ball rolling. ● At the time of Singer’s death in 1998, The Arizona Republic summed up the charm of that first “little hole in the wall” from which he’d gone on to build a thriving chain of independent record stores. ● “There were picture discs, oddball music magazines and fliers for shows that seemed vaguely intimidating, especially if you were a high school kid skipping English to hang out in the store.”
By that point, there were eight locations in the state. Singer’s empire included the launching of his own wholesale distributor as well as Epiphany Records, a label devoted to Arizona music. That label launched the Refreshments and put out a really cool Wallace and Ladmo compilation.
Since then, Zia Records has continued to adapt to changing trends.
For its 20th anniversary, it launched a website, ziarecords.com. In 2005, it expanded its reach into a new state with the first of two Las Vegas stores.
Zia has managed to survive the rise of streaming and the drop in CD sales that followed by continuing to adjust its business model as new challenges arise, while taking full advantage of the resurgence of interest in a music format whose death had been greatly exaggerated — vinyl.
How Zia became more than just a record store
In 2013, Zia moved its Phoenix store a 19th Avenue and Indian School a second time, this time to an even larger space on Camelback Road. The move allowed it to introduce a whole new line of merchandise.
As Erik Killion, who’s been with Zia since 2011, recalled, “We suddenly had twice the space, so we could fill the store with more stuff, basically, and started taking in more ‘Why not?’ items at the trade counter — like action figures, collectibles, musical instruments, electronics.”
That influx of new items played a major role in getting Zia through the downturn in CD sales.
As Killion explained, “Since we buy every day at all times, you never know what we’re gonna have. It might be a cardboard cutout of Reba McEntire, an arcade stand, a signed guitar or vintage action figures from the ‘80s.”
Jarrett Hankinson, the current CEO, has been with Zia since he started working at the Tucson Speedway store in 2002 when he was 18.
Hankinson said flexibility, listening to customers and staying humble has been the key to not only surviving but thriving.
“If something isn’t gonna work,” he said, “we need to be able to either do something different or add other elements to the business.”
Turning 40 in a ‘roller coaster year’
That adaptability has helped the business not just make it through a year defined by COVID-19, social unrest and a deepening political divide but celebrate its anniversary in meaningful ways.
“It’s been a roller coaster year,” said Hankinson. “But we’re trying to stay as positive as we can in this volatile industry, even though we weren’t able to do some of the things we had been looking forward to.”
They had big plans for 2020. “There was talk of a small-scale festival in downtown Phoenix,” General Manager Brett Zimmerman said. “We had been working with True North and Roosevelt Row, trying to plan something special.”
Other plans included Punk Rock Bowling, Tucson Comicon, Psycho Las Vegas (a three-day festival in Las Vegas) and assorted in-stores appearances by bands (a Zia tradition).
In true Zia fashion, they managed to roll with the changes as COVID-19 started laying waste to all of those plans.
“We’ve been able to put the resources we had into keeping the business going but also doing fun stuff with the website,” Zimmerman said.
Zia launched a fully revamped website the day the store was forced to close its doors for the pandemic.
“Our website in the past was functional, but it wasn’t a really great browsing experience,” Zimmerman said. “In fact, it was kind of clunky. And the sales reflected that. So we launched a brand new website. Looks entirely different if you put them side by side.”
Zia thought about pushing the launch date back a bit to do more testing on the site.
“But we decided no, we’ve gotta go for it,” Zimmerman said. “And thankfully, we saw a great response.”
He figured online sales would get a boost with the stores being closed, but not to this extreme.
“At the beginning of 2020, if you had
told me we’d be in this position with the way our website’s performing, I’m not sure I would’ve believed you,” he said. “So it’s kind of provided some unique, not advantages, but circumstances that have pushed our business in a new way.”
Zia exclusives, RSD drops and curbside pickup
An extremely successful series of Zia exclusives has included sold-out runs of colored-vinyl pressings for classic albums by Nirvana, Operation Ivy, Elliott Smith, the Shins and more.
“We’ve had tons of exclusives,” Killion said. “We’re constantly introducing new merchandise, new shirt designs and stickers, and still celebrating what we do here, just a little differently than you normally would.”
Once Zia staffers got past the initial disappointment over the industry’s annual Records Store Day celebration, originally scheduled for April 18, being pushed back, they split the celebration into three separate weekends of RSD drops with strict social distancing guidelines. Even that turned out much better than expected.
“They were excellent,” Hankinson said of the drops.
“I mean, it’s hard to say that that would be how I would want to do them moving forward. But Record Store Day did a very good job of spreading out the exclusives and allowing customers to really try and engage as much as they could in the safest way possible .”
Shutting down due to COVID-19
Zia closed all physical locations on March 18, implementing curbside pickup on March 31 and finally reopening at limited capacity with masks required on May 8 in Arizona and May 15 in Nevada.
“Just the scale of our business with eight locations and 200 employees, I’m not sure we would’ve been able to survive if we’d had to stay closed for six months,” said Zimmerman. “I mean, I say that, but I’m sure we would have figured something out. We’ve done that for 40 years.”
As it stands, they’ve been able to “weather the storm,” he said.
“We’re still very much in it. I don’t want to say, ‘ We’ve made it through. We’re on the other side.’ But we’re able to tackle every day and not have to worry about our employees or keeping the lights on.”
How Zia has outlasted the national chains
Bernadette Hankinson, whose husband is the CEO, has been working at Zia since 1994.
“When I first started at the Speedway location in Tucson, it was just cassettes and vinyl and CDs with some random accessories and things like that,” she said.
“Just to see it completely expand and evolve through all these years is pretty interesting. Especially being that I’ve loved going to record stores since I was a kid.”
Zia opened its first Tucson branch in 1992.
Before then, Hankinson would do her record shopping at Hollywood Records, Sam Goody or Musicland.
“Then Zia came and that was the end
of it,” she said. “I really didn’t go anywhere else.”
What drew her to Zia were the people.
“The people at Zia are there for a love of the music,” she said. “You can always find someone to talk about the type of music you like for great recommendations. It’s a place that’s very comforting and feels like home. And I’ve just always felt that way.”
‘It was just somewhere I saw myself working’
The people are what drew Brianna Lin to Zia decades later. She applied six times before she landed a position and now manages the Tempe store.
“It was just somewhere I saw myself working,” she said.
“I wanted to be able to help customers the way the employees at Zia had helped me. We create a very welcoming, embracing environment for everyone. That’s why you see every type of customer you can imagine.”
The best part of working at Zia, she said, is that it was her dream job at the time and it still feels that way every day when she shows up to work.
“I get to work with a bunch of cool people and interact with some really cool customers,” she said.
“And I love meeting first-time customers. It’s awesome to be part of that, to make sure that experience was the best so they keep coming back. And usually they do.”
Brad Singer gathered a crew of misfits
Zak Frankel started at Zia in 1995, a very different time in Zia history.
“I couldn’t work for Zia the way it was then as a 46-year-old,” Frankel said, with a laugh.
“There’s no way. It was too extra. There was a lot of ... I don’t wanna say debauchery but more of a party, for sure. There’s no way I could keep up.”
It was fun, though, Frankel said. And part of that was Singer’s personality.
“But he was a hard-core dude,” Frankel said.
“He was all about Zia and making sure it was the best it could possibly be. And part of that was gathering misfits up. Like me. I was a kid and he took a chance and made me manager of a de
partment. He was good at piecing people together that he knew would get along.”
When Singer died, Frankel said, “it scared the (expletive) out us. We were in Tucson together days before it happened. So It was a shock, like how are we gonna do this? It all went through Brad.”
Zia in transition
At that point, Singer’s ex-wife, Sandra, took over the business, which she sold to a group of investors two years later.
“I think she really helped with the transition,” Frankel said.
In 2003, Zia welcomed another major player in its story, Brian Faber, who helped the business navigate the age of dwindling CD sales and a recession by expanding its product line and opening its first Las Vegas store.
At the time of Faber’s death in 2016, he was Zia’s owner and vice president.
A year later, Hankinson became the CEO.
“I’ve had to grow with the company and listen and learn from a lot of great people,” Hankinson said. “But ultimately, this is what I know. I grew up in the record store. So I’ve been very lucky to be able to not only maintain my employment with Zia but have the position that I’m in today.”
What’s next for the company
For now, the chain has eight locations — five in metro Phoenix, one in Tucson and two in Las Vegas.
“We had some plans this year to start throwing a couple things together and see what we could do that obviously got delayed or sidetracked,” Hankinson said when asked if he sees more expansion in Zia’s immediate future.
“The west side of Phoenix is still an opportunity we feel is strong. As far west as we go is the I-17. There’s a whole other world if we want to be able to have a presence out there. We have a lot of customers who drive all the way from Surprise. That shows me that if we can get a store out there, it would be beneficial.”