Jen Keenan reveals how she built a thriving vinyl destination in rural Arizona, Queen B Vinyl Cafe, combining record sales with coffee roasting, ramen, and live music in a 12,000-person town.
Topics Include:
- Jen Keenan owns Queen B Vinyl in Cottonwood, Arizona, a unique multi-business destination spot
- Record Store Day philosophy focuses on obscure, abstract, and smaller indie bands over mainstream releases
- RSD features 9am opening, numbered line system, DJs, live bands, and free chair massage
- Record stores can choose RSD titles but quantities received remain unpredictable surprises
- Queen B Vinyl spans two buildings with courtyard, housing vinyl, cafe, barbershop, ramen house
- Coffee roasting happens in-house alongside direct-to-garment printing press and live music stage
- Cottonwood serves as crossroads for tourists heading to Jerome, Sedona, and Grand Canyon
- Maynard James Keenan's presence helped amplify area's wine industry from handful to 100 wineries
- Rural record stores require more advertising and unique inventory unavailable at big box stores
- Used vinyl comprises 30% of inventory, with curated selection over quantity focus
- Jen drives five hours to Tucson for quality collections like 80s metal acquisitions
- After school music programs inspired Jen's punk rock journey from trumpet to cello
- Band Glitter Wizard emerged from record store workplace, requiring careful schedule coordination
- Queen B stocks diverse punk releases, carefully avoiding exclusion based on political perspectives
- Vinyl manufacturing delays from nine-month backlog created significant challenges for store operations
- Small town stores thrive through exceptional customer service recognizing individual preferences and needs
- Pandemic surprisingly improved business by bringing new audiences to smaller town locations
- Falconry hobby involves training hawks with telemetry tracking within one-mile range
- Jen and Maynard maintain separate vinyl collections despite sharing everything else
- Tool vinyl represses remain frustratingly delayed, creating bootleg market opportunities
- Rural record stores serve as essential community spaces beyond commercial transactions
High resolution version of this podcast is available at: www.Patreon.com/VinylGuide
