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Date: 11/3/2021
NORTHAMPTON – After 10-plus years of being a mainstay in Worcester, Joe’s Albums officially expanded to another location on 5 Market St. in Northampton.
Joe Demers, the owner and founder of Joe’s Albums, said that his vision ever since opening the Worcester store in 2010 was to have more than one location. Northampton is a very familiar spot for Demers over the past 30 or so years. He remembers driving out here to visit family and the old Dynamite Records at Thorne’s Marketplace.
“I think that the downtown area is really vibrant,” said Demers, regarding Northampton. “There’s a feel that you don’t have in very many places anymore.”
Demers began looking at a few places in Northampton for a new location back in 2018, but for various business reasons, he had to pause the adventure for the time being. After building a website and a system where product and information can be consolidated in one place, it became easier to expand for Demers. Then, COVID-19 hit, which once again paused the pursuit of a new location.
“A year and a half ago, I didn’t know what was even going to happen here,” said Demers, referring to the Worcester location. Being that vinyl has faced a resurgence and given the fact that – according to Demers – this particular medium of music became even more popular during a time when people had to quarantine, Joe’s experienced enough success where an expansion over these past few months was viable. “It kind of became the perfect storm to revisit [expansion] … the business is even bigger than it was when I was considering it,” he added.
Even though they have regular customers all throughout the country, Demers said expansion was important beyond just Worcester and their website because the vinyl business itself involves a lot of in-person activity. Much like the Worcester store, new and used vinyl albums of all genres will be sold, along with merchandise, music equipment and other accessories.
“Being able to do a lot of used purchasing in both locations is huge,” said Demers, adding that the Northampton spot currently has slightly more new vinyl additions mainly because the store was opening so quickly. He said people have already called asking if they can bring in used ones though, so Demers is hoping the new to used ratio becomes half and half, much like how the Worcester location is set up.
Nat Baldwin – a songwriter, upright bass player, and improvisor who has been performing and writing music for over 20 years, and continues to do so to this day – will be overseeing operations at the Northampton location, and Demers wants him to become the central face at that specific store. According to Demers, the Northampton inventory is not included on the website at the moment because he wants Baldwin to become comfortable with the day-to-day operations. People will be able to order online, no matter in what location, and the store will make sure to have the product for the customer in a few days at their closest location. “That will be a nice byproduct for people whether they live in the central Mass. area or the Western Mass. area,” said Demers, adding that people will not have to worry about shipping costs, either.
Baldwin, who also is a former member of the critically-acclaimed alternative art rock band the Dirty Projectors, moved from Portland, ME, to Northampton to take over operations at the new location. He said he met Demers through a mutual friend from Worcester who was a regular customer at Joe’s Albums.
“I had just moved into town, and he had connected Joe and I,” said Baldwin. “I was looking for work immediately, and Joe happened to be opening this shop, so the timing was perfect.”
The vinyl resurgence, coupled with Baldwin’s love for physical forms of music, as well as his impressive artistic resume, impacted his decision to take over the Northampton store. He and Demers also conducted lengthy discussions about the Northampton store. “I think it’s a great time to be consuming physical forms of media,” said Baldwin. “The vinyl is not something that is disposable…it’s something that you have for the rest of your life. It’s something you can have on your shelf forever, and I think that’s something meaningful.”
Baldwin said he has passed through Northampton a bunch in the past when he would tour, and it was a place he always enjoyed being a part of. “The music scene just seems really strong,” said Baldwin, regarding Northampton. “Even in the first few days, I’ve met some really awesome people and have had great conversations.”
Demers said that his vision over the next three to five years is to open three-to-five more stores and he believes that Northampton could outperform the Worcester location because of how much foot traffic the downtown area garners. “It’s really a destination,” said Demers.
The lease was signed in September and the store officially opened on Oct. 23, and Demers said that even people from Worcester drove all the way to Northampton to experience the new spot, as well as many regular Worcester customers who live in Springfield and other parts of the Pioneer Valley. “It means a lot that people would do that right off the bat,” said Demers. “It kind of felt like home in that way when I was here this past [opening] weekend.”
To learn more about Joe’s Albums, people can visit their website at https://www.joesalbums.com/. The Northampton location is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.