Hillsborough Street won’t be quite the same come January, but students won’t be deprived of a record store near campus. Schoolkids Records plans to move out of its Hillsborough Street location on Jan. 1 in lieu of imminent demolition to make way for a hotel, but Schoolkids owner Stephen Judge said the record store has found its new home—Mission Valley.
Although the record store has changed buildings before, Schoolkids Records has run business along Hillsborough Street for almost 40 years.
Judge, who bought the record store in April 2012, said that he’s optimistic for Mission Valley, but that doesn’t mean he wants to leave Hillsborough Street.
“I think it is an unfortunate change, I mean I think that our three businesses [Schoolkids, Sadlack’s and Buddha’s Belly] have a good camaraderie with each other and it’s going to be a shame to get broken up,” Judge said. “I love Sadlack’s and I’m really close with the owner and all of the bartenders and workers so I am really sad not to be next to them anymore come next year.”
Being an N.C. State graduate, Judge talked about his partiality for Hillsborough Street and his store’s place on it.
“I share the same concerns that I think most of my customers do. I hate the idea of taking away the special thing that we have on this block and the history we have,” Judge said. “I don’t like seeing that. I am very traditional. I still like the original eight teams of the ACC, I don’t like all of this expansion.”
Though Judge said he is sad to see his store move, he said he understands the circumstances.
“I understand and accept the changes and I know that it is inevitable but I don’t have to like it,” Judge said. “But I definitely look at it as an opportunity for my business to do something that I haven’t been able to do before.”
Schoolkids will be housed in a bigger space that will allow for a different type of environment and a shopping center with greater car accessibility.
“The store will expand a little bit, it’s going to be about three or four hundred square feet more and maybe find better parking,” Judge said. “All the things that this space and location has limited.”
Judge said he’s confident the new location won’t feel as clustered as its current location.
“We will be able to open up from the claustrophobic aspect of the store we have now and parking will be immensely better,” Judge said. “The most important things about the extra space is getting to pursue my future plans.”
Judge said he is also working on the paperwork and licensing to have a bar inside of the new store.
“My plan is to have a bar in the store and sell craft beers so I have to get all of the paperwork in lock for that,” Judge said. “But I’ve been wanting to do that for quite some time, I would want to work with the local breweries.”
Judge expressed his excitement for moving into a new place and expanding on the “hangout” vibe that already exists in the old store into the new store.
“I kind of want to create more of a kind of hangout type place because we have a lot of people that come here and just kind of hang out in the store even if they aren’t buying anything,” Judge said. “But I feel like because of our space and parking limitations it’s not really the best space for that so at the new location I’m going to try to slowly grow us into that.”
