Now Boise is not known as a particularly musical city, in fact, if you ask someone what they know about Boise the answer will almost certainly include the word ‘potato,’ BUT that doesn’t stop The Record Exchange from kicking ass. Seriously, this is a great record store with a ton of cool and unique stuff right smack in the middle of downtown Boise.
What to Expect
If you were to wander into a record store in a city like Boise, which is not known for very much of anything, you might be expecting the kind of record shop you see in small towns; A humble little place filled with used records run by a passionate owner that is the sole employee. At The Record Exchange, this is not the case, at all. This massive store deserves to be in the same conversation as shops like Music Millennium and Easy Street Records.
The shop itself is one of the biggest record stores I have ever been to. Granted, a significant portion of the space is dedicated to things other than records, but this place is huge. At the main entrance, you’ll find a coffee shop and a gift shop full of every knick-knack imaginable. Once you get yourself a latte and a pair of quirky socks, you’re going to want to make your way to the musical part of the store, where the vinyl and CD bins are. The majority of the selection here is vinyl, but the CD selection was substantial in its own right.
Besides copious amounts of physical music, there is a great selection of equipment in the store’s back corner. On the day I went there was a really good selection of both new and used equipment available. If you are brand new to the hobby they will have everything you need to get started. If you are not so new to the hobby the used and vintage stuff is worth checking out.
It seems half the record stores I go to these days have some kind of t-shirt for sale but the Record Exchanges selection of merchandise was simply a cut above most shops. They also had plenty of beanies, hoodies, stickers, and other merch, as well as slip mats.
Selection at The Record Exchange
All right, so what kind of records does this store actually sell? The selection was what I’ve come to anticipate from a store this size: about 75% New Records with some high-quality used records mixed in. There was the obligatory bargain bin that was filled with records in the $5 range but besides that, expect the bulk of the selection to be brand spanking new.
As far as genres go the rock/pop section took up most of the store, which should be a surprise to absolutely no one that’s stepped into a record store in the last 50 years. There were a few sections that should be noted. An RSD selection is always nice to see as these records, even if they weren’t popular are often fairly limited so seeing them in the wild can be a little bit rare.
The country section here was also a bit beefier than many other shops, which, seeing this store is in the heart of the potato belt, checks out. Besides that, there was nothing too crazy. This store is quite large so there were plenty of genre-specific bins: Funk and Soul, Jazz, Hip-hop, rap, soundtracks, punk/metal, etc. A section of specifically rare pressings is always nice to see, not that many of these were in my price range.
There were also mystery bags of both records and CDs if you are looking to pad your selection with some random tunes, which is always a fun choice if you nothing is catching your fancy that day. What’re you going to do? Not buy anything?
Pricing at the Record Exchange
Prices here were perfectly reasonable. New records were $18.99 at the absolute lowest, often closer to $25.99, with many double LPs and heavyweight pressings pushing $34.99 and beyond. Expensive, but this is unfortunately the new normal for record shopping. Used records were reasonably priced as well here. I wasn’t cross-checking against Discogs or anything, but the used records I was familiar with were priced similarly to what I’ve seen from other shops.
My Thoughts
The Record Exchange is the largest independent record store in the state of Idaho by a long shot. There aren’t really bad things I have to say about this store. Maybe it was a little bit knick-knack-heavy for my purist tastes but that’s more me virtue signaling and pretending to be a good socialist. The selection is great, the vibes are great, the employees are friendly and knowledgeable and one of them is in a band that opened for Witch! WHICH, was an amazing anecdote to hear as I was buying one of my favorite funk albums. Go to Boise, go to The Record Exchange. Have a good time.
Records Purchased
Witch – Introduction
Address: 1105 W Idaho St, Boise, ID 83702