The time has come for a downtown institution.
In a social media post, Greg Halamay, founder and owner of Finders Records announced today that the store is closed.
And in sitting fashion he evoked a classic song, The Chambers Brothers’ “The Time Has Come.”
Since April, the 52-year-old shop was opened only on Saturdays. Now it is closed even then.
[RELATED: Greg Halamay finds himself still in play as Record Store Day spins around again]
Halamay said that gift certificates can still redeemed by contacting him at 419-352-7677. Shoppers may still arrange “private shopping sessions” by calling that number.
And Finders may have special pop-up openings at unannounced times. Those will be announced on a sign outside the door.
Halamay said in 2022 that he’d been contemplating retiring for five years or so. Then the pandemic gave him a chance to think it over, and he decided it was time. The “for sale or lease” banners appeared in the window.
Now he has moved a step further into “retirement and vacation mode.”
Shuttering the shop, Halamay wrote on Instagram, will allow “him to organize and complete a full inventory of the store and to be able to spend more time with his list of potential buyers of the record business.”
Halamay opened the shop with the backing of his father, who was in the music business, when he was a student at Bowling Green State University.
He’s weathered the uptowns and downturns of the business, starting with vinyl records then moving to CDs into the vinyl revival, which saw the old format outpace what replaced it.
Streaming, however, has now become the dominant method of accessing music.
– David Dupont, BG Independent
