Happy Trails

 

Happy Trails. A Record For Everyone

Happy Trails a record store located off Monroe Street in Corvallis Oregon has been in business for 47 years, since 1974. It might a tiny corner shop in downtown Oregon but an employee at Happy trails, who asked to stay anonymous has been at the store for over 15 years told me about what makes records and CD's still a promising business. I asked "in a day and age where streaming services like Spotify and Apple music are dominating the music market what allows Happy Trails to stay in business?" 

"Interacting with a physical piece of media is a lot more rewarding and has a lot more information available then a digital format. " 

Cooper Dodge a former Oregon State student and current
Corvallis resident told me he is just starting to get into the vinyl collection hobby
and remembers his first album was Kendrick Lamar's M.A.A.D City. His favorite artists
are Ice Cube and Nas. He hopes that one day his vinyl collection will get big enough that he 
can brag to his friends about it.   

When I asked what kind of demographic does Happy Trails typically see I got an answer of "mostly just heroine addicts and sexual deviants, no not really. records have really made a resurgence in the last 10 years... and it's generally been older people at first...people over 35 or 40 that remember records. records essentially vanished after 1990...hipsters that are discovering and now younger people are starting to discover these things."  

Happy Trails provides a wide arrange of different CD's and Vinyl's. They provide genres from
Jazz, Hip-hop, and all the way to folk country.  If you're new to the record scene and aren't sure
where to get started, have no fear! Happy Trails provides a large section of $1 records where you can
start with a handful of records without having to burn through your wallet. If the store doesn't have the 
vinyl or CD you're looking for the employees are more than willing to order one for you to come pick up in store. 

The outside of Happy Trails records, a record store on 
the corner of 3rd street in downtown Corvallis.  Happy Trails will typically see a large amount of customers during the day, but as one of the employees stated "when the sun goes down the animals go underground." Happy trails is open Monday through Saturday 11am-7pm and Sunday's 12:30PM-6PM.