Glorious Noise hve an article about trying to support real record stores here. Although I do want to agree with the direction of the article, I am lossing faith in the bricks & mortar stores because they only seem to want to flog mass market and not cater or encourage more diverse tastes.
Having said that when I was in San Franscisco recently, I had a little bit of time spare and came across Rasputin Records. This is how record shops should be, rough around the edges – with that feeling you’d get that Nick Hornby captured in High Fidelity. Four stories of this within a block of Union Square!