Showing posts with label Turntable Lab. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Turntable Lab. Show all posts

Monday, June 21, 2021

Avenues is a real-estate office-espresso bar opening on 10th Street

Yes, I'd like a one-bedroom apartment in a building with laundry facilities and a latte with unsweetened almond milk.

Avenues, a real-estate company, is opening an office — complete with an espresso bar — at 84 E. 10th St. between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue... 
Not sure exactly how this will work at the moment (espresso bar upfront for customers and the office in the back?).

This upper-level storefront was the home of Turntable Lab, which closed its brick-and-mortar business last summer during the pandemic. (They still have a robust online service.)

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Turntable Lab closes its 10th Street storefront



Turntable Lab will not be reopening its storefront at 84 E. 10th St. between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue.

A for rent sign now hangs in the front window of the shop, which closed in March at the start of the COVID-19 PAUSE.

TTL partner Pete Hahn, an East Village resident, said that they "couldn’t come up with a viable deal with [the] landlord." He said the landlord came back to them recently with a more flexible offer, but their decision to close the brick-and-mortar part of the business was already made at that point.

The shop that sold vinyl, turntables, speakers, headphones and more for the DJ community as well as the casual music aficionado had its start while Hahn was still at NYU. Their first storefront was in a cramped space on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. They moved to the larger spot in early 2017.

While several local high-profile record stores have shut down in recent years (Other Music and Kim's among them), it's possible the TTL closure could be more short-term.

"We’re not ruling out a physical presence in the future," Hahn said. "We’re open to coming back when things return to somewhat normal, and hopefully rents are lower."

TTL, which celebrated its 20th year in business last year, will continue with retail sales online.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A visit to Turntable Lab on 10th Street

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

A visit to Turntable Lab on 10th Street



Text and photos by Stacie Joy

The older I get the less new music I am exposed to, which is why I am always particularly interested in EV Grieve’s Fridays at Five and curated musical selections. It’s turned me on to local rocker Liza Colby, Princess Nokia’s “Tomboy” and THICK’s “Green Eyes,” among others.

In this A Visit To ... I get the opportunity to explore new-to-me music at Turntable Lab with owner Pete Hahn and his Turntable staff.


[Pete Hahn]

Pete arrives — on skateboard — from his nearby East Village home to meet me at the Lab’s storefront at 84 E. 10th St. between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue, and walks me though the store pointing out both beginner record players (now made with USB port) and advanced DJ setups. I even get a mini lesson on the ones and twos on the in-house DJ booth from sales associate Paul Bennett!





Aside from a tour and DJ lesson, Hahn talked about the evolution of Turntable Lab, which had its humble beginnings as an NYU side hustle, to its first shop on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. Turntable is now in its 20th year of business.

Turntable Lab got its start while you were at NYU. What experiences led to this launch?

My decision to go to NYU had a lot to do with the city’s DJ/record shop scene. There were lots of record shops, but if I wanted to get equipment, I had to go to a Canal Street electronics stores. I would walk in knowing the market price of an item, get into an intense haggling session, and still walk away paying above market price.

This gave us the idea to create a website that would sell DJ equipment with more transparency — no “call for price,” which was the norm back then. We started in my apartment on 12th Street with a Macintosh G3, a 56K modem, and a fax machine to take orders.

At what point did you realize that this was going to be a full-time business and not a side hustle?

In the first year of the business I was working during the day for a Soho advertising agency. I specialized in internet boom sites (1999) and was assigned to an early beauty ecommerce site. They were paying the agency hundreds of thousands of dollars to build a site that was barely functional. During a meeting I found out that my archaic hand-coded HTML site was grossing more than the beauty site — that’s when I decided to go full time.





Why did you decide to relocate from Seventh Street in 2016 to the current shop on 10th Street? At the time, did you consider moving to another neighborhood?

After being on Seventh Street for 15-plus years, the store needed a major renovation. It was cramped. The basement always flooded. The fixtures were wearing down. Rather than renovate the old space, we decided to start fresh. We never looked at any other areas — we knew we were staying in the East Village.



On that note: Why have you continued to base the TTL storefront in the East Village?

Personally, I think the East Village is still one of the top three record-shopping neighborhoods in the world. You can walk around, eat delicious things, check out Tompkins, find a stoop sale, people watch, and visit other quality record shops.

The East Village — along with many other neighborhoods — have suffered the loss of record/music shops in recent years. What has helped you survive? Twenty years in any business, especially one related to trends in music and music consumption, is impressive.

I could go deep into this, but here’s a quick version:
1) Don’t get stuck in old ways.
2) Respect each other’s tastes in music.
3) Be kind to customers.
4) Make it interesting for customers to visit often.
5) Keep it organized.
6) Know your margins.

The TTL website is robust. Why is a physical storefront still important to you?

Online commerce is inherently soulless. The store helps us maintain our soul by linking us in a different way to our customers, the DJ community, and the neighborhood. Plus, if you can successfully run a storefront these days, you know you are doing something right (and maybe even universally correct).



The storefront spans many genres of music. In one visit, I can pick up the new Diiv, Bat for Lashes and the re-release Rupa Biswas’ 1982 disco jazz LP. How do you decide what to carry?

There’s three people in the company that buy most of the vinyl; but we also get input from everyone who works here. Nearly everyone in the company is a collector. For example, one person is our go-to for decisions on Japanese vinyl and anime soundtracks. If it’s emo, I’ll ask someone else in the company. Distributors also know that we’re super-selective, so they’ll only recommend the top titles to us. I still have that broke college-kid mentality when I’m picking records: they have to be worth it.






[Lauren Jefferson, sales associate]

Looking back to 1999, did you envision that you might be doing this in 20 years?

Hell no! I still can’t believe it. My business partner and I always joke that we can pass it along to our kids, but I think in our minds, we’re mostly serious about the idea. People have tried to buy the Lab a couple times, but in retrospect, I’m glad those deals never went through.

What’s next for TTL?

We’re very focused on continuing to expand our range of exclusives. We’ve been teaming up with audio-equipment manufacturers, brands and labels to create special items. I’m especially excited about this boxset with Stones Throw Records. It will be available at the end of the year and it features our favorite releases from their catalog in a box we designed. Lastly, we’ll continue to develop our in-house audio furniture line: Line Phono.

---

Turntable Lab is open every day from noon to 8 p.m. You can find them on Instagram here.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Check out the new Turntable Lab location today

Last Sunday was the last day on Seventh Street for Turntable Lab.

After 16 years the vinyl-and-stereo shop moved to a larger space at 84 E. 10th St. between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue.

And they are ready to open the doors today with a soft opening starting at noon...

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Sunday is the last day for Turntable Lab before move to new 10th Street storefront


[Image via Turntable Lab]

As we've been noting, Turntable Lab is leaving its 16-year-home on Seventh Street for a new space on 10th Street.

The store has announced that Sunday is the last day in business selling vinyl and stereo equipment here between Avenue A and First Avenue before reopening soon at 84 E. 10th St. between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue.

Here's more on the store's early days via their Instagram account...


Previously on EV Grieve:
Turntable Lab reveals new 10th Street storefront

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

The space for Turntable Lab, soon to move to 10th Street, is for rent



A Seventh Street resident noticed the arrival of two for rent signs from different brokers outside Turntable Lab on the block between Avenue A and First Avenue.

The resident said she was sorry to see the business closing. In this case, however, as we noted back in November, the store that sells a variety of vinyl, stereo equipment and assorted DJ gear is moving to a larger space on 10th Street.

Turntable Lab will be setting up shop at 84 E. 10th St. between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue some time next month.


[Photo from last month]

For now, Turntable Lab remains on Seventh Street. However, a listing for the space did arrive yesterday on LoopNet.

Here are the details:

Wonderful ground floor retail space in well maintained building is available for the 1st time in 15 years! PERFECT FOR RESTAURANT OR BAR. ALL USES CONSIDERED. This spaces includes a full basement and the stunning backyard is an option to be included in the lease for this space.

Amazinglocation! Pure east village commercial space for rent. Located on high traffic destination... On the same block as major East Village retail & restaurant destinations such as Big Gay Ice Cream, Miss Lily's, Avant Garden, Pylos, Giano, Koan, Rose & Basil, Trash & Vaudeville, Luke's Lobster....etc....

Asking rent on the 750-square-foot space: $7,500.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Turntable Lab reveals new 10th Street storefront

Monday, December 5, 2016

Turntable Lab reveals new 10th Street storefront


[Image via Turntable Lab]

Last month, the owners of Turntable Lab announced that they will be moving away from their small storefront on Seventh Street near Avenue A "to a larger, more central East Village location."

The Google Map link they provided on their website takes visitors to 10th Street between Fourth Avenue and Third Avenue. There are several available storefronts on that block, so we weren't sure which space the 17-year-old Turntable Lab would be taking.

Now, though, the coming soon signage is at 84 E. 10th St. ...



... above Ramen Zundo-Ya and right next door to Black and White.

The sign points to a February opening for the store that sells a variety of vinyl, stereo equipment and assorted DJ gear.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Turntable Lab latest business to vacate 7th Street between Avenue A and 1st Avenue


[Image via Turntable Lab]

Along with a new website, the folks at Turntable Lab, providing one-step shopping for DJs, have announced that they "will be moving to a larger, more central East Village location." The Google Map link takes visitors to 10th Street between Fourth Avenue and Third Avenue. (Perhaps the space above Black & White that Wiz Kid Management vacated.)

Anyway, the owners of the 17-year-old Turntable Lab said that they will be providing more information on the new storefront soon.

This departure marks the latest business to either close or move away from the block. For instance, at No. 111, the wine bar Virgola and vintage clothing shop Village Style left earlier in the fall. Meanwhile, Porchetta is closed for now ahead of a move... and the owners of paint shop/boutique Verdigreen ceased operations in September.

H/T DrBop