San Francisco is My Home

18
Mar

Tuesday profile: Amoeba Music

Author: kris, Category: Shopping

I went to Amoeba yesterday. This indie music store opened in 1990 in Berkeley and now has three locations, including the Haight Street store I visited yesterday, and the Hollywood store, the self-proclaimed “world’s largest independent music store.”

Having Amoeba and Rasputin in the area, I might be a little spoiled. I haven’t been in a big music chain store since I was a tweeny little thing buying Vanilla Ice singles on cassettes at the mall. Maybe it’s normal now to have a warehouse-sized store full of used music and movies at good prices. Maybe it’s normal that it’s seemingly staffed by a cast of thousands, all of whom are ready to talk shop with you, none of whom are obnoxious teenagers. Amoeba is kind of like the store in High Fidelity, if that store were ten times the size and none of the employees had an interest in hurting your feelings.

Also, they buy your used stuff. I get some rather low-ranking CDs from time to time through another writing gig of mine, but Amoeba will take pretty much anything that’s not scratched up. They don’t usually pay huge amounts for it of course, but I discovered yesterday that it’s possible to charm your way into getting a bit more money than your CDs deserve by being witty with the counter staff. Ladies, make a note.

This place is one of those rare city spots that’s good for locals and tourists. It’s right beside GG Park, in the thick of the Haight Street vibe, and is a genuinely local spot that appeals to a wide audience. You can browse around for hours or go straight to what you’re looking for. And if what you’re looking for is romance, those counter boys are really quite something.

Important note: Though this is an independent music store, it does not necessarily have any indie street cred. I’m pretty sure it’s too well-known; hipsters prefer their music stores, like their music, to be obscure. No doubt you can find plenty of cool, off-the-beaten-track albums here, but you should probably tell people you got it at that tiny record store on Valencia.