On Monday, Stephen Judge, owner of Schoolkids Records, announced that the independent store’s Chapel Hill location will be permanently closing at the end of the year.
“Owning a business, especially one with the history and reputation of Schoolkids, and operating it on Franklin Street has been the thrill of a lifetime. I will miss it terribly. It’s like a death in the family,” Judge wrote in a GoFundMe message to his supporters.
In its heyday, Schoolkids had record stores in college towns across the Southeast; in recent years, it has shrunk to locations in Chapel Hill and Raleigh. Schoolkids Records’ flagship store in Raleigh, near NC State, isn’t going anywhere, Judge insists, and with more time, he hopes to make it even stronger.
Nestled among a group of local businesses on Franklin Street like Mediterranean Deli and Local 506, the Chapel Hill location has developed an icon of its own.
Since it opened in the 1970s, generations of college students have discovered artists from Nirvana to Fiona Apple, Guns ‘N’ Roses to The Supremes – and some legendary local bands like The Connells and Superchunk were also formed here, emerging from the musical relationships forged in the store.
Judge tells INDY that the Chapel Hill closure was the result of several business and personal pressures – including the well-documented challenges of running a business on Franklin Street.
“I’ve had four landlords in the last seven years … it’s crazy,” says Judge, who reopened the Franklin Street location in 2016 after first closing it in 2008.
He stresses that the landlords he’s rented from have all been nice, even though each change in ownership has come with a rent increase. And as he considered moving to another location in Chapel Hill, he began to wonder if signing another five-year lease would be a good idea given the volatile business landscape.
“It wasn’t until last fall, when inflation really hit and started affecting everyone, that everyone thought, ‘Oh, crap.’ The major label records – especially Taylor Swift and Noah Kahan – went up by an average of $10,” Judge says.
The Chapel Hill store is currently having a major clearance sale with records, posters and memorabilia up for grabs.
The music scene in Chapel Hill over the years
The Schoolkids closure is the latest sign of a larger specter haunting Chapel Hill businesses: Students, the lifeblood of the downtown economy, are only there nine months a year. As rents have skyrocketed, small business owners are struggling to make it through the summer.
Larger chains have been more successful. This summer, Starbucks moved into a larger store on Franklin Street, allowing neighboring chicken purveyor Raising Cane’s to expand into the old Starbucks space. Over the past decade, city officials have tried to balance the need for a year-round economy with the desire to preserve the independent character of a street that predates the founding of the state.
Judge says the record business has always been “up and down,” and he certainly doesn’t blame city officials for his troubles. Like many business owners and workers, he’s too busy to go to City Council meetings.
However, he is convinced that local government and the business community can work together to find a business-friendly balance.
“I still think Chapel Hill is a very special city,” Judge emphasizes. “It hasn’t lost anything.”
Reach reporter Chase Pellegrini de Paur at [email protected]Comment on this story at [email protected].
