Mississippi record and comic stores handle slow January

For Phillip Rollins, owner of OffBeat, a record and comic store in Jackson, Mississippi, January brought a downturn.

“Either you get paid off, or it’s like a dead zone,” Rollins said. “So January and summer tends to be the months that I personally hate the most because it’s so slow.”

Rollins, who recently moved to a new storefront in downtown Jackson, is having a good holiday retail season.

“I like a lot of big-ticket items,” he said. “Recently, I bought a collectible with two rare Taylor Swift 45 [a vinyl record played at a speed of 45 revolutions per minute]. I actually sold one of these, thinking I’d never have one. “

But once the summer passed, he had to deal with a problem that had been a headache since last year: inflation. Rollins is not alone. In December, nearly a third of small businesses said they were concerned about inflation, according to the Small Business Optimism Index, a monthly survey released by the National Federation of Independent Business.

“I’m kind of fed up because of the way inflation is going,” Rollins said. “For example, a Lauryn Hill record that was $25 last year is now $30, maybe $35. That extra $5 really makes a difference for people, ‘I want one record or I want two records.'”

Click the audio player above to listen to the full story.

There are many things going on in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is there for you.

You rely on Marketplace to break down world events and tell you how it affects you in an approachable, fact-based way. We rely on your financial support to make this possible.

Your donation today powers the independent journalism you depend on. For just $5 a month, you can help sustain the Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.

Source link