Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Schneider.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Mike. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I have been really into music since I was a kid and I started to collect records when I was around 13. In 1997, I was working in NYC at record stores and I started a record label called Welfare Records to release music by local bands. In 1999 I moved from NY to Boston and started working at a store in Cambridge called Second Coming Records. After a couple years there my boss retired and I took over the store. In 2004 I closed the store to look for a larger location that could have live music and a recording studio besides a record store. I decided to sell my 45 collections to put a down payment on a building and not have to deal with renting or landlords with everything I wanted to do. I found a location outside of Boston in Haverhill where I have been for the last 13 years. When I opened in Haverhill I decided to name the store after my record label which was still putting out a lot of releases at the time. During the last 13 years, the live music venue and the recording studio have both closed, but the record store is going strong and recently has been renovated and tripled in size.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The record store has gone pretty smoothly since I opened it. The only major struggle I had was money, due to the horrible mortgage I got because I had no credit. This was a huge struggle for 5 years until I was able to get out of it. Other than that, the biggest struggles were with the live music venue and the recording studio and finding time to run everything I was trying to do and finding the right people to help. Also dealing with the city and the police at the music venue was a huge headache. The local police used to love to come to the venue and mess with us for no reason other than that they were bored and would make up excuses for showing up. For a number of years, I was kind of juggling 5 different jobs. But now I just concentrate on the record store.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Welfare Records – what should we know?
Welfare Records is a new and used (mostly used) music store. We have a stock of over 60,000 records both 33 and 45 spanning every genre of music. We also have thousands of CD’s and DVD’s as well as a large selection of Cassettes, 8 tracks, video games, reel to reels, posters and a huge room filled with racks of audio equipment. We carry vintage and newer audio equipment, including a decent selection of Tube equipment. Turntables, receivers, Speakers, CD players, cassette decks, Reel to reels, Amplifiers, preamplifiers, DVD players, 8 Track players, Antique radios, Vintage video game consoles, DJ mixers and lots of rack mount studio gear. We have a constant flow of new stock daily. We are always out looking for great new stuff for the store as well as people bringing in great stuff all the time to sell or trade-in.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
The qualities I feel are most important to my success are that I am a hard worker and I am very knowledgeable about music. I am also very friendly and helpful to all my customers.
Pricing:
- We have a large selection of records for $1
- We have a large selection of DVD’s for $2
- The majority of our records and CD’s are priced $5 to $10
- Audio equipment starts as low as $5 and goes up from there. Most are ranging from $25 to $200.
Contact Info:
- Address: 58 River street Haverhill, MA 01832
- Website: welfarerecords.net
- Phone: 9783740777
- Email: mike@welfarerecords.net
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welfarerecords/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/welfare-records-haverhill
- Other: https://www.discogs.com/seller/WelfareRecords
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