After 17 years, Everyday Music will permanently close its doors

A staple of downtown Bellingham for the last 17 years, Everyday Music, a CD, DVD and record store will close its doors to the public sometime in mid-August, according to Rian Zenner, the store’s manager.

Everyday Music began as a single location in Portland Oregon, opened by the original owner, Scott Kuzma, who has now passed away, Zenner said. Kuzma passed away from heart complications about a month ago, and despite business going steady, Kuzma’s wife thinks keeping one location in Portland will be the most manageable option for her now.

“We’re doing good, it's just an unfortunate incident that happened, and now we’re pulling out,” Zenner said. “Business has been great. This is a good town for a record store, records will never go away, everybody loves all records.” 

Everyday Music was founded in Portland in 1990, with the Bellingham location opening in 2005 when Everyday Music bought the original store named Cellophane Square, Zenner said. For 24 years, Zenner has worked at Everyday Music, originally starting at the Portland location until he was asked to manage the Bellingham location.

Although Zenner has only been at the Bellingham location for the last two years, he's still going to miss this spot, he said. 

“I’m sad to see it go, I mean it's been a staple up here in Bellingham for years and years,” Zenner said. “I’ve been up here for two years, and I saw how many people love this store, and the staff when I came up. It's a shame to see it go.” 

Alongside Zenner, loyal patrons of Everyday Music like Cory Blackwood, will miss shopping there. Blackwood said he used to go into Everyday Music about twice a week, but now with his busy life, he goes at least twice a month.

“Everyday [Music] is still kind of the standard place to go. I’ve been going there for years and they know who I am, make recommendations, play cool music, have good taste in music and are happy to order things,” Blackwood said. “So, it’s definitely sad they’re closing because I don’t like buying records online, I like going in and browsing and seeing what's new.” 

Everyday Music is the kind of store where if there is a record an employee knows Blackwood would like, they place it behind the counter for him. 

Blackwood, 44, said he mostly listened to CDs and tapes growing up, it wasn’t until about 2016 when he started collecting records. 

Blackwood said he likes listening to records because it forces him to be more tactile with his music listening, which means it’s more of a physical experience compared to streaming.

“It’s easy to put on anything streaming, a playlist or whatever, and kind of go about your day and not pay close attention to it, and with a record you can’t do that,” Blackwood said. ”You have to find it in your collection, you have to open it up, put it on your record player, and then as a side finishes, you have to get up and turn it over. It forces you to be a little more present.” 

Adding to this, James McCafferty, director of Western Washington University's College of Economics said consumer preference can be tricky. He gave the example of Walmart and Target who sell essentially the same things, but there is strong consumer preference for each one, McCafferty said.

“Music delivery has the same kind of consumer preference logic. One customer likes the convenience of streaming and the lack of ‘stuff’ around them, another might like the large music library at a low monthly cost,” McCafferty said. “Yet another thinks the quality of sound from vinyl is superior and wants that.”

Zenner said there might be liquidation sales closer to the closing of the store, or they might ship a lot of their inventory to the last standing Portland Oregon store — they will decide on this closer to the closing date.

The Front gives condolences to Scott Kuzma’s family.

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