Thats a cool spot and no matter how much its been dug over the years I always find something to come home with even its its just a UK Pop 12" I’ve always wanted.
I heard of the place very late in the game but I hear stories from dealers who used to go down there and the stuff they used to pick up for peanuts is crazy.
The owner Art is great, totally random record pricing, when Ive been there I’ve put a pile of records on the counter and its like he uses The Force to price them “these will be £2” “these will be £4” “this one will be £6” and there seems to be no logic to his pricing, but its cool and proper old school.
I found about 40 Chinese Pop albums (which took me forever to go through and they were rubbish) and he had no idea the had these records he was like “where did you find these”!
Precisely my experience too! 
A long time ago I used to be able to access Mo’s Music Machine warehouse with a record dealer I did a bit of work for. It was brilliant. Literally a huge warehouse with these massive pallet wrapped stacks of boxes in the middle, then shelved out around the sides.
At this point I think Mo was just buying up whatever he could - distribution companies that had gone under, record shops that had gone to the wall, whatever. It was pretty random, you could open a box and it’d be a load of different dance 12s, or the same novelty LP, or (on one happy occasion) a full box of the Moody Trax EP. There was a massive shelf of just strictly rhythm stuff. You’d pay a quid a record, so long as you committed to spending a certain amount.
Happy days but I still get sleepless nights over some of the records I might have missed.
Freelance digging, reasonable rates… contact me above. 
Great to see a mention upthread of World Beat in Wolverton. I grew up walking distance from there, and hung out there quite a lot in the early days. Picci and Steve sorted me out with some great stuff, and Picci gave me some free tickets for Rage @ Heaven one afternoon which was, shall we say, a bit of a turning point (wasn’t really clubbing as such then). Looking back, it was quite the hub: Outer Limits (Eddie ran it upstairs for a while, IIRC), Baptised By Dub (came out on the store label), and I guess many a DJ en route to gigs further up the M1 popped in, I just had no idea who they were at the time 
Moving up to MCR, E-Bloc and Vinyl Exchange were my main two, and Manchester Underground when it was going.
Late 90s, Vibe in Bletchley was decent. Anton was more a dnb head but was great for German tech stuff and sorted me out with many a choice cut. Moved to South London in 2000, and having been something of a Wiggle regular since 97ish(?), the odd trips down to Swag was a no-brainer, SOTU when I worked in central London, and Banquet in Kingston when I moved down that way.
Haven’t really been much of a vinyl buyer since moving to Canada, but when we’d visit the in-laws in Florida in “before times”, Bananas in St Petersburg was a regular destination (although they lived further up in Ocala, we’d usually fly home from Tampa and spend a night or two in St Pete’s - record shopping, visit the Dali/Chihuly museums, wife would drop me at Bananas for a few hours while she took the sprog shopping and/or to the movies… fun times!). Oh, and Submerge was a must on Memorial Day weekend trips to Detroit (been a few times, it’s equivalent to driving from South London to Southport for the weekender. Totally doable, and would tickle me thinking I could drive it after work and be there for the evening stuff!).
Oh man, I’d forgotten about Beat Street until your post (and pic!) - my co-conspiritor who I did a (fun, but short-lived) thing with in Manchester took me up there after our first (rather successful) night and I remember scoring a cheeky advance boot of the MAW mixes of Tito Puente “Ran Kan Kan”, Within A Dream “Where Is The Feeling” (that Kylie went on to cover many years ago!), and a few others that still bring joy and take me back when I see and play 'em.
IIRC, Mike and Pru also did some distro at one point. I vaguely remember doing some runs across the M62 for them when I was a brassic student. Fun times.
Have to have Hitzsville USA in there, a core shop in the 80’s for the adoption of Electro and House in the UK.
Rob’s Records, shop is a one off, a treasure, a potential health hazard etc
Black Market in the early 1990s in London. This footage takes me back!
That shop was pretty intimidating. It was the high counter that did it. : )
Hitsville USA and Volume in Newcastle were regular haunts in the late 80’s, Hitsville sold Hip hop, house and soul as well as High NRG with the owner being a well known face on the local gay scene apparently.
Volume was an indie store however they did have a very good hip hop section curated by the ever curmudgeonly “Chill Bill” whose complete lack of customer service skills were legendary and contributed later on to the collapse of his own shop.
In the early 90’s Trax records and Looney Tunes both opened although they were more dance focussed they also both carried some hip hop and soul/funk.
RPM was another local store with a wide selection of genres and also unusually friendly staff apart from the actual owner, who was rarely there which fortunately minimised the time spent having to deal with him.
Abington Street is the main town centre shopping street in Northampton. Walk into Watts the furnishers - a large, old school furniture store. Head up to the top floor past the solid wood dining tables, past the sofas admiring the oil paintings and lamps for sale as you go. Once on the top floor head to the partitioned wall, walk through the door and enter the realm of Vinyl Underground, where there are as many records in piles on the floor as there are in the racks. It’s not only one of the UK’s longest running dance music stores but a proper old school shopping experience from the lovely down to earth crew that work there.
Hitzville also had amazing sales back then, better than Nottingham stores. Lots of stuff that no one bought up there like Richie Havens for a a pound and Bomba/Raise promos.plus loads of import house and Techno got reduced to a quid. They also didn’t have the snobbery of lots of other shops, could take a sleeve to Arcade counter and get “sorry, not in stock”
As mentioned earlier hugely important shop for Electro as Newcastle had one of first Electro sessions in Uk, just before Rock City one.
Plus when clothes scene took off up there mid 80s had some great shops Marcus Price, original Cruise etc. Better than Nottingham had and most other cities. Coz initially they were so behind the curve up there it became huge!
End (for all its faults think still independent) and a couple of shops on Clayton Road still hanging on in there.
Aidy is a top bloke.Was never actually in the physical shop always mail order but well looked after.
Honorable mentions to
Zoom record’s London
Vinyl junkies London
Fat cat London
Rub a dub Glasgow
3 beat Liverpool
12 inch Paris
Betinos Paris
Most if not all sadly closed
My favourite was Trax in Soho. Mainly because I was just a kid (17) when I first started going in there so it was a little intimidating but Oscar was always really friendly. I then went to Manchester Uni in 91 and the first club I went to was Luv’d Up. Oscar was there and introduced me to Moonboots from Eastern Bloc. So I sort of passed the Eastern Bloc test and from then on was sorted! But I probably spent the most time at Reckless on Berwick St.
Was it run by the same guy who owned the record shop in Truro; down the side street next to WHSmith? I used to go and buy stuff from him back in the 90s. Loads of vinyl on the floor stacked against a wall.
He was a lovely fella. Looked stoned most of the time.
I used to shop at Urban Collective in Plymouth. The residents from the Warehouse used to work there; Justin Garrett, Phil Jubb, Andy McMinn.
Much of the time I’d save up and travel to London to stay with my brother and then head into London on the Saturday to buy a load to take back to Cornwall. We’d also have a big night that Saturday listening to my new tracks.
Plastic Fantastic in Shorts Gardens was my place of worship. First with the smaller venue they had and then they expanded. Used to spend about 3 hours in there before heading off to Tag in Soho. I’d then head to a pub to sink a couple of beers while looking at my new purchases. Absolutely gutted when PF & TAG closed.
Actually went back to Rupert court where Tag was a few years back. It was now a hairdressers 
Spinadisc in Northampton was ace too. Still got my copy of 2 Bad Mice Bombscare remixes I bought there which was my very first vinyl 
Loved Dance Music Finder in Brum too, until Hard to Find Records (allegedly) basically put them out of business. Original HtFR in the office block near the Chinese supermarket was also ace. Miss Tempest in Brum too.
Different guy but both shops are said to have been Treasure trove’s back in the days.
Totally forgot about Hard To Find. It was where a big chunk of my house records ended up in the 90’s
Do you remember a very cool shop called Folio 50 down in Digbeth? They had a record shop on the top floor for a short while.