Among the many delights of Lunchbox Records on my last visit; eight years ago, were not only the caliber of the discs in stock, but also the accoutrements that made what I felt to be a very successful record store. Organization. Ample lighting. Cleanliness. Air conditioning. And a dedicated parking lot! This last is worth a lot. On this Saturday at mid-afternoon peak hour, the parking lot was almost full. We stopped in a place, and I got out and collected the three boxes of discs. My wife was going to a favorite bakery we loved when visiting the area.
I entered and spoke to the presumptive manager; a British gent, mentioning that I had some CDs for trade-in. I mentioned that I have almost a thousand CDs to divest, but had traveled from Asheville to go to Ikea and only brought three small boxes as a trial balloon. He asked if we had gone to the small Ikea store in the south. No, we had just spent several tiring hours at the huge warehouse prior to arriving here. He revealed that he was also upgrading his kitchen and that the small store had lots of kitchen displays whereas the kitchens at the warehouse were under reconstruction and not available to view. So I’d gotten prime info to share with my wife from the manager when she got back from her shopping trip.
I gave them the three boxes and set about to see what, if anything, might I want in return for the discs going out of the collection. I noticed that like any modern record store, the new LP stock had increased since the last visit; shortly after they had opened in their new location after moving from the downtown site. New CD stock was commensurately down. Used CD stock as well, but also used 12″ wax. The latter was particularly discouraging, because the last time I shopped there the used wax was almost the best part of the experience. I had picked up nine used 12″ singles I had on my want list and this time 12″ singles, like almost everywhere else, had been exiled from the premises. There was a small selection of hip hop 12″ers and little else.
Once I found the new CDs I started to look but the stock was not too deep. The last time I found high-value want list items…used! This time after looking at the new CDs, just one thing jumped out at me: the David Bowie “Toy” boxed set new on CD. I’d not yet picked that up [the repellent cover and its cost never helped] but it was one of the posthumous releases that I was wanting to eventually hear.
The 3xCD version was $36.99 new. More than I’d want to fork over for it, normally. I’d imagined that I would get the single disc version but that’s what was here this day. However, with trade, that changed everything. I was actually looking for some of the other Bowie CDs that I’d be down with getting this day. Since you asked…
- Live Santa Monica ’72
- A Reality Tour
- Welcome To The Blackout
- Glastonbury 2000
- Changesnowbowie
- I’m Only Dancing [The Soul Tour ’74]
- Ready. Set. Go!
At that point the manager found me and told me that he’d take a stack of CDs in exchange for $14.00 in trade-in value. “Fourteen?” I asked, thinking I’d go for it. My goal was to get rid of multiple CDs this day if possible. No, that was my poor hearing selling him short. He repeated “forty in trade.” Okay! So that was about a quarter of what I’d hoped was my best estimate of what I might sell every one of the discs for in my Discogs store. And this was for about a third of the CDs. And I wouldn’t have sales fees. In minutes. So it was excellent by my reckoning. What did I get rid of?
- Underworld: hundred days off | US | CD
- The The: mind bomb | US | CD
- Pierce Turner: it’s only a long way across | UK | CD
- Mecano:descanso dominical | JPN | CD
- Bananarama: deep sea skiving | UK | CD
- Matt Bianca: world go round | JPN | CD
- Game Theory: two steps from the middle ages | US | CD
- Duran Duran’s red carpet massacre | US | CD
- Saint Etienne: good humor | US | CD
- Cabaret Voltaire: body + soul | Austria | CD
- The Faint: blank wave arcade | US | CD
- Polysics: neu | US | CD
- The Sundays: reading, writing and arithmetic | UK | CD
- The Cure: kiss me, kiss me, kiss me | US | CD
- The Cure: disintegration | US | CD
- Blue Velvet OST | US | CD
- The Blow Monkeys: animal magic | US | CD
- Sheila Chandra: this sentence is true [the previous sentence is false] | US | CD
- Frigg-A-Go-Go: the penetrating sounds of… | US | CD
- Velocity Girl: 6 song compilation | US | CD
- Tiga: no fantasy required | USP | CD
Before I continued, I made sure to show the manager that about half of the discs had mildew spots in the booklets from being kept in my home in the woods. We only got air conditioning installed after nearly 20 years in the home. This didn’t phase him. They were only CDs. Nothing of value. So with the Bowie in hand, I needed to find something else. The new CDs were hard to browse because they were tight in the bins. Which drives me crazy.
I moved to the used CDs. Last time was amazing. This time there was nothing jumping out at me. Eventually I found a high value disc in the “B” section. The new 2020 album from The Boomtown Rats! Now I could do that Boomtown Rats Rock G.P.A. if I found the time. It was $6.00 so I had crossed the $40 threshold. I next went to the used records. At the [small] selection of used LPs I only saw a single good one, and I already had it. The first Pearl Harbour solo album. I remembered to look for the new CD of that at this point but no dice. Amazingly enough there was also a table full of 7″ singles in the corner of the store, but wait. Most of these were of the modern variety. Where a 7″ single sells for $14.98!!! There were older things there. but I didn’t see any old UK pressings that were 40+ years old, so I moved on from the 7″ singles.
Having glanced at the CDs, used records, and 7″ singles, there was nothing else left but the least interesting format to me in record stores in 2025…new LPs. So I looked at the new arrivals first. Just in case there would be somethign of higher value than the Bowie box. Yow! Right up front was the brand spankin’ new Sinple Minds double live album that had been released just hours earlier! A 2xLP for $33.99…an impressive $8.00 less than the band webstore for that title. No one would balk, but I have the CD on preorder, and had gotten the shipping notice a few days earlier. No worries, mate.
There was nothing else of interest up at the front of the store so I went to the sale bin; being of a cheapskate makeup. There was nothing I wanted on LP but I did note that the new Iggy Pop LP was priced right at $20.99. Only a tiny portion of new LPs in 2025 are in the $20 range, but wait… this one was seriously marked down. It was now going for half price at $10.99! I was agog. Is there no respect for Iggy Pop? None of the scanty LPs I would actually buy new were in the bin so I moved to the full retain section.
I saw yet another pressing of “Fresh Fruit From Foreign Places” by Kid Creole + the Coconuts on LP. Like I’ve been seeing for over 40 years. What I haven’t seen in the CD of this title, otherwise I would own it by now! But this LP was a classy variant, with the artwork knocked out in gold foil stamping instead of yellow ink. Nice!
Nothing else in the “regular” stock, so I looked at the RSD bins. There’s possibly something I’d want in there. Judging from the posts I write each year. The first thing to be noticed was a Killing Joke 2xLP + DVD. Live 2003 at Lockersefesten. I’m actually divesting a little Killing Joke from the Record Cell, so I can’t consider buying any more. Especially on LP/DVD. My two least useful formats for regular listening.
They had the OMD “Junk Culture” “Demos = Rarities” LP which I see out a LOT. It’s pretty, and I suppose I should want one, but it’s all on the DLX RM 2xCD of the album, so I can’t justify it. Even though I try to keep up with the band’s singles on record. I really hope that OMD are out to pasture because I will probably not continue on that path and just stick with the CDs.
Woah! I saw the Heaven 17 “Bigger Than America” EU orange LP from RSD 2019. What was it doing in American bins? Maybe I should pay closer attention of titles that weren’t supposed to be Stateside were making it over here anyway? But it was $29.99 after sitting here for six years. Why wasn’t this in the sale bin with Iggy? It’s a fantastic Heaven 17 album. My favorite after the one-two punch of the first two. But I have plenty of H17 wax that is justified. This was not. No matter how much I like it.
And finally, there were a number of pop cult tchotke’s for sale, but not so many that they were taking up valuable music real estate! I noted the Small Derek Smalls from Spinal Tap™ in action figure form and smiled. Approving the details of the leather and studs. And that was it. I was done here and my wife wasn’t yet back to pick me up. I texted her to let her know I was ready and paid the tax/difference at the checkout. I walked out to the parking lot, where there were no spaces, and stood there waiting.
After a short while my loved one arrived but needed to use a restroom. Amazingly, the store had one inside I had seen, so she parked in the handicapped space and left me in the car to deal with John Law if necessary while she went inside. When she returned she remarked at how clean and welcoming the restroom was. Note: if record stores even have a public restroom, using it is usually traumatizing experience. The one here was a reflection of the higher standards to which the owners of Lunchbox are answering.
So we left Lunchbox 20 CDs lighter than how we had arrived. Not too shabby. I even had managed to [barely] find things I wanted to trade for. But the store had changed with the times in ways that are not for me, like practically every store out there. As I’m aging and the music retailing market is transforming even further from the qualities which were once in abundance 40-50 years ago but are in short supply now, I find that the pull to visit them is seriously ebbing as I am getting dopamine hits from them all so intermittently that my operant conditioning to compulsively visit them is simply no longer there. Record stores of the 21st century, like almost everything else, are just not for me. I’d thought often about Lunchbox in the last eight years. Would it still be as rewarding and of course, it wasn’t. I’ve thought of Lunchbox as the best store in North Carolina for eight years. The sad thing is…it still may be that.
-30-
![Record Trading Road Trip: Lunchbox Records In Charlotte Gets Another Visit Eight Years Later [Part 2]](https://i0.wp.com/postpunkmonk.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/lunchbox-interior.jpg?fit=1200%2C500&ssl=1&resize=200%2C200)
Post-Punk Monk 
If you could travel back in time to shop your fave store ever for used items, what year would you choose, and where? I’d love to go back to Aron’s (RIP) in Hollywood, around ’94. That would be amazing… and yes, you would be your current self still, in spirit, so you’d have a better handle after the time-trip as to what you’d missed the first time ’round. Man that would be fun.
LikeLike
Scott Klapman – That’s so easy. It probably would have blown my mind completely to have shopped there in, let’s say, the Holy Year of 1981.
Second runner up? Sam The Record Man. Toronto. 1992. I was only looking for CDs back then and I mentally kick myself over what records I passed up.
LikeLike
“Record stores of the 21st century….are just not for me.”
I take some comfort in seeing I’m not alone in feeling this way, and it also extends to the stores here in the UK which deal only in the second-hand market, and increasingly to charity shops which have vinyl for sale. The on-line info means everything seems to be generically priced, and the days of coming across any genuine bargains are long gone.
I look back and realise I got slightly lucky with the fact that my rekindled interest in vinyl, sparked by the decision to start a blog in 2007, was just a handful of years before the ‘market’ exploded, and I was able to get quite a few things I was after for reasonable prices. Nowadays, the largest second-hand shop in Glasgow is looking for upwards of £20 for most albums. I’m sure I saw them asking £100 for a copy of ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’ by the Cocteau Twins, which is just ridiculous, but then again, there are folk out there who seem happy to pay that.
LikeLike
JC – It’s more than the pricing, though that has moved far on from the mild levels I’ve been used to for 30+ years of record collecting from 1978-2008-ish. Though pricing gets my spleen going, the bigger issue is simply that the stock I want to buy, in the formats I’d buy it in, are simply not there. The war on singles has been the worst. The actual records that I want to buy [and record stores are the place to buy them all of my life, until the last decade] have been disappeared. Where they went I cannot say, but 12” singles of the 1980-1990 span are not there. Anywhere that I frequent. Albums on CD are preferred, but there are still things I want that have never made it to CD format, but I never see them. And even the new LPs that I want to buy with music I can’t get on CD are invisible where I shop. There’s plenty of dreadful indie and classic rock though! Record store have become hateful places for me. Lunchbox was not inspiring this visit, but they are still miles better than stores in my city.
LikeLike
I live nearby and agree with all your points regarding Lunchbox. I visited the shop last year and found it dreadful.
What has been your experience with Schoolkids Records? I’m curious to see if the Raleigh location has changed since the Chapel Hill store closed in December. I always had better luck at the Chapel Hill location.
Also – have you ever visited In Your Ear Music in Sylva?
LikeLike
Eugene Unger – I can’t call Lunchbox dreadful. Local stores in Asheville? They’re dreadful. Harvest Records was amazing when it started out in 2006 but now they just make me angry when I stop in. The other stores intown were never even that. The last time I had an actually exciting record store visit was when I found myself back at Park Ave. CDs in November. It was astonishing how many high value goods in my want list were there. But the follow up in February of this year was decidedly downbeat. The ratio of CDs to new LPs had tipped significantly in the direction of the boring records even in just 90 days!
I didn’t know that Schoolkids in Chapel Hill had closed. The last time I’d been there was 15-20 years ago, I think! It was before I began making purchase records on this blog, in any case! I fremember it being a decent store. I only went to the Schoolkids in Raleigh last summer. I bought 4-5 things. Pretty good for the now, but nothing to write home about. I think I’ve poked my head in In Your Ear once, quite a while back. Just another WNC useless record store as far as I could see. And that was years ago. Before the Great Decline.
LikeLike
Maybe I was a bit harsh on Lunchbox but can also agree 100% on Harvest. I always found their pricing to be very high.
Are you referring to Park Ave in Orlando? If so, that is a bummer because I have always wanted to visit.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Eugene Unger – Visit Orlando quickly!! Prices make me angry but that’s factor two. The main problem is no music I want to buy in the formats I prefer! How many times do I see an LP of something I know is on CD but not ordered by the hipster running the store?
LikeLike
They hate CDs. Ha!!
LikeLike
Eugene Unger – In November the CDs were about 40% to the records 60%, but by February the records were close to 70-75%. A swift, dramatic shift. Actually, these days my tastes are so askew from the marketplace that if I run into a store that has stuff I’m really eager to buy they are typically dirt cheap loss leader dollar discs! Often I will look elsewhere in the store and get nothing back, but a great dollar bin can be pulse quickening. Like The Bomb Shelter antique mall in Akron, Ohio. When I first went there a few years ago it was thrill packed. All of those 12” singles I wanted for a buck each!
LikeLike
Hi PPM, I’m unclear on what you actually took home from your trade, did you take the Bowie Toy 3CD? And did you get anything else with your remaining store credit?
LikeLike
Toast – Whoops, my error! I usually sum up any purchases with bullet points at least, but I only got the “Toy Box” and the used Boomtown Rats CD. And paid a little over six dollars for the difference in costs and the taxes. I have to admit that “Toy Box” exceeded my levels of expectation! I expected the two other discs to be perfunctory at best but that was definitely not the case. I actually felt that disc three was the biggest payload of the set.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I really agree on the ‘Toy’ artwork, I’ve seen the 10″ box set on a record fair a few month ago for a reasonable price but I just couldn’t get me motivated to buy it, especially as I was insecure if it has all the tracks of the CD box (it has). All the earlier illegal releases used better images which is really a poor testimony.
And for the HEAVEN 17 LP art I really lost any motivation to buy this one once more, the greatest value of ‘Bigger Than America’ in my opinion was them showing the will to connect to their glorious past of the first 3 albums, classic Ray Smith art, BEF stamp. Sadly they missed to engage Greg Walsh to sharpen the production imho. Anyway, the revised LP image is really a a reason not to buy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’d still go to Park Ave CD s to check em out if I was in the area (something that is unlikely to happen for quite a long time now … not by my choice).
Wax n Facts is one of my faves in Atlanta but I would imagine it has changed some. Danny’s probably not running the place day-to-day anymore so I’m not sure what I’d find there these days, but I would hope it’s not too different — and there’s a number of music stores close by that I would hope would still make for a fun afternoon.
LikeLike
chasinvictoria – Just sayin’ that Wuxtry Decatur is where I spend by far the most in Atlanta! And my wife has outspent me there on one memorable occasion to set purchase CDs! Hell, I think that they make Wuxtry Athens look bad!
LikeLiked by 1 person