NILES, Mich. -- What's old is new again for vintage stores all over the country!
Research in the music industry shows a dramatic spike in record and vinyl sales over the last few years.
Girl, put your records on, and maybe bring them to a local vintage store because they might be worth more than you think, as the popularity of vinyl and other vintage items continues to increase.
Music industry research shows vinyl sales are up by the tens of millions compared to a decade ago and the majority of customers are Gen-Z and millennials.
It's not only records bringing in increased sales to places like Four Flags antique mall.
Records, books, you name it, people are buying it in droves.
"It is a shotgun of everything, whether it is old rock band t shirts that come through here, records, cd's, i see a lot of kids bringing up cd's, and they're just like oh this is really cool, especially the records. They see a record and they don't even know what it is but they think it's so cool, so they're going to put it on their wall," said Kerriann Cords, an employee at Four Flags vintage mall.
Employees tell me sales have more than doubled, and they're nearly at a point of tripling. They attribute the success partially to the vendors who keep the store stacked to the brim and also credit the local attractions for helping bring in foot traffic.
"A lot of it is our windows, especially in the wintertime when we do Christmas windows that are like the old Marshall Fields days, and then we also bring in municipal decorations into our store to draw in attention and in the summertime, we have the NODE, which is awesome. They close down part of our street so then we have live bands out there, we have a farmers market out there on Sundays, people like to do meetings, they like to meet up with their friends. We have Second and Main that's right down the road, and people like to grab coffee, or maybe more adult drinks, they like to come in here and sip and browse so it's really bringing in a lot of people," said Cords.
Just up the road at Casperson Books, the store's 77-year-old owner tells me he's been seeing plenty of sales both in-store and through Facebook Marketplace. In recent years, he added vinyl to his inventory, a decision that's been very good for his shop.
"I wanted to bring the interest level of a younger generation up in the shop, so what I did, down there is the beginnings of my daughter's art gallery, science fiction, fantasy, comic books, and the record area is downstairs. I'm not the premier guy in town for records, but I just needed to offer more variety to a younger generation, and the vinyl has made a huge resurgence," said Allen Casperson, co-owner of Casperson Books.
One customer I spoke with who is in her early thirties says part of the reason she comes to vintage stores is the feeling of knowing what she’s getting is an original, and not a reprint that she can find online or at a chain store.