The Bold Italic’s 2020 Awards

This article is part of The Bold Italic’s 2020 Awards, which celebrate the Bay Area’s small businesses and local residents who have hustled and shown creativity throughout 2020. See all the award winners here.

Local retail businesses have never faced as big of a challenge as 2020 has presented them. And while some haven’t been able to survive, others have found ways to adapt with online sales.

The one that The Bold Italic readers chose as the Best Local Retail Store is iconic Amoeba Music.

Founded in Berkeley in 1990, Amoeba survived decades of turmoil from the music industry to become a renowned location for musicians, music lovers, and tourists to the Bay Area. As we’ve transitioned from one method of enjoying music to the other with breakneck speed, you’d think that crate-digging would have been engulfed by the annals of history, rendered obsolete.

It hasn’t. For some of us, there’s nothing more soothing than rifling through a box of buried treasure we can listen to. Amoeba in San Francisco mirrors the bespoke experience of finding your favorite song on vinyl. Since retail has been allowed back open, business has kept up — the store also has a large online collection available to peruse.

We caught up with Joe Goldmark, co-owner of Amoeba Music, to ask him about the year. Read on for that Q&A and the other nominees for San Francisco’s Best Local Retail in 2020 below.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

TBI: How have you managed to stay afloat this year?
Joe Goldmark:
It hasn’t been easy. We were completely closed for about six months, mid-March until mid-September. Amoeba held a GoFundMe campaign and applied for a PPP small business loan back in April. When everyone came back to work, we were only open four days a week, but we had a nice response. We had all the safety measures going — masks, hand sanitizer, a lot of plexiglass around the cashiers, things like that.

For a while we did fine, but now things are really slowing down. The city’s sending mixed messages, issuing stay-at-home orders but telling businesses they can be open by 20% — “stay at home, but hey, retail’s open!” Doesn’t make sense, but nonetheless.

We’re hoping for a holiday rush.

How are you holding up now, heading into another month of shelter-in-place?
We’re doing a little more online business than before, but we’re trying to muddle through in the storefront, hoping that people still want a nice place to shop in-person. Online we sell vinyl, CDs, posters, etc., but we’re trying to keep the best stuff for the store, to keep people coming in. That’s been our business plan all along; we’ve always had an online presence, but that’s usually selling our lower-end products. The best stuff is for the store.

We’ve got two elements helping us online right now: a very neat website (based in L.A.) selling new products, read about what the rock stars are picking up from us. Then there’s commercial outlets like Discogs, eBay, and Amazon, where we sell used. That’s bringing some money to us.

What are your hopes for 2021?
I hope people feel confident to come back to the record store again. I hope there’s a large presence of people who are finally glad to get out of the house, have their jobs back, can afford to have a little fun, and shop retail again. And that people are healthy again.

How can people help support your business?
If you feel it’s safe enough to do so, please come out to the store. It’s a huge location and we’re enforcing all safety measures. And if you don’t feel comfortable now, we hope to see you soon. You can still visit our site for the newest releases, of course.

Other Nominees for San Francisco’s Best Local Retail in 2020

1. Feelmore Adult

This sex shop is way more than just a sex shop. Feelmore is the only Black-woman-owned business of its kind in Oakland, and now has a location in Berkeley. Owner Nenna Joiner is an active voice in Oakland’s small business community and an advocate for destigmatizing sex, decriminalizing sex workers, and local civic engagement. Throughout the pandemic, she has been hustling to fulfill online orders, doing deliveries around the East Bay.

2. Therapy

This beloved local retail shop has locations across the Bay Area — including San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and Albany—and even throughout California and Oregon. It’s been around since 1994, offering a wide selection of adorable gifts, clothes, accessories, jewelry, home decor, and more.

3. Rare Device

Located in Nopa, this store/gallery features a fun selection of housewares, art by local designers, artists, and artisans, gifts, cards, and more. It’s a great place to peruse in person if you feel safe, but they also have an extensive online store.

4. Bay-Made

Located along Oakland’s Grand Avenue near Lake Merritt, Bay-Made is a woman-owned and artist-owned Bay Area gift and souvenir shop stocked with exclusively local products and artwork, and a selection of quality art and writing supplies. A perfect place for holiday shopping.

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