It started with rock ‘n’ roll.
Then came blues. Jazz soon followed.
Little by little, Ted Sharpe’s love for music grew. Eventually, it reached the point where he found himself prowling around San Francisco, searching thrift shops for used records, fantasizing about one day opening his own record shop.
He lived his dream in the form of Sharpe’s Music, a used-record store that has stood in its location on University Avenue since 1990.
But 20 years later, the swan song sounds for Sharpe’s as it closed its doors for good Dec. 28.
The walls that were once covered with albums by The Beatles, Lou Reed and special edition prints of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side Of The Moon” were blank, and the shop shuttered for good.
Sharpe, now 67, is headed for retirement and opting to move his shop — which primarily sells vinyl records, along with CDs, cassettes and sound equipment — to an eBay store online.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years,” he said. “I just thought I’m ready to kick back a little bit.”
Though economic struggles have caused some local businesses to close their doors, Sharpe said his business has remained profitable.
“It’s just a question of whether I want to stay in retail,” he said. “If I was 20 years younger, I’d probably stick with it.”
He tried to keep the business alive by selling it on Craigslist and even on eBay, but no one was willing to buy it.
He donated the remaining stock to local thrift stores and charitable organizations such as Friends of the Library and Habitat for Humanity.
Chad Darby, a 29-year-old employee at local record label No Idea Records, said he started shopping regularly at Sharpe’s when he arrived at UF 10 years ago.
He came in search of punk-rock records, but eventually, Sharpe’s became his destination when in search of rarer items, he said.
“If there’s ever some weird random record I’m looking for, it’s usually the first place I check,” he said. “Sharpe knows his music.”
But Darby said he had taken the shop for granted.
“I kind of figured it’d always be here,” he said.
The closing of Sharpe’s prompts the question of whether record shops like Sharpe’s will survive in the new age of digital music.
Sharpe believes that a physical store gives its customers a chance to delve into the unknown and stumble upon a treasure as they browse the shelves.
UF professor Ji Hoon Lee, who teaches History of Rock ‘n’ Roll, said he agrees with Sharpe.
He said that the sonic imperfections of vinyl, such as the crackling and popping, make each person’s copy unique and give it a personal touch. However, Lee said the customer base for vinyl is still limited compared to its heyday, which ended when CDs went mainstream in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
That makes it tough for smaller record shops to survive solely by specializing in vinyl, Lee said.
But for Sharpe, it’s not the industry pushing him to bow out; it’s the daily grind of working a retail store.
“I didn’t think I’d be here five years,” he said. “But it turned into 20.”
