One beloved London, Ont., record store is passing the torch to another beloved record store.
After announcing his plans to retire last year, the owner of the Village Idiot in Wortley Village has confirmed that Grooves Records will be taking over the space this spring to open a second location.
It’s a win-win proposition, says Robert Charles-Dunne, who has operated the store at the corner of Wortley Road and Askin Street for more than 23 years.
“We came to what I think is a mutually beneficial arrangement,” he told CBC News on Monday.
“Three of the boxes I wanted to tick have been ticked,” he said.
“First, was that I wanted to retire — and I’m doing that. The second thing is I wanted it to remain a record store, and it is. And the third thing was that I wanted the staff to have the opportunity to work in the new location, and that’s being extended to them.”
Three staff members work at the Village Idiot, which recently closed its doors in preparation for the takeover. Grooves will be handed the reins to the storefront on March 1, and hope to reopen it as a Grooves location in April following renovations.
“We want to continue it like the Village Idiot,” said Ryan Boldt, who will manage the new Wortley location.
“They had a good thing going there, lots of great regulars that went in. It was more geared toward psychedelic music, 60s and 70s, sort of stuff, and that’s kind of what I’m into.”
The response from the community so far has been positive, he said. “We didn’t really tell anybody, and we weren’t planning on telling anybody, but the word spread somehow.”
Charles-Dunne said Boldt was among 22 people who came forward with offers to take over the store after he announced his planned retirement in May 2023, and “was the only guy who had actually had any record store experience.”
Boldt has been a longtime Grooves staff member, and previously opened his own record store in Nova Scotia, he said.
“When people say, ‘I’ve never run my own business, I have no retail experience, and I really don’t know very much about music, but I really want to own a record store,’ it got to the point where I would start asking people, ‘Have you ever seen a movie called High Fidelity?’
“You don’t work at something for the better part of a quarter-century just to sell it to somebody you think is going to tank it in three months.”
London Morning10:54The Village Idiot record store is looking for its next owner
Robert Charles-Dunne has owned and operated The Village Idiot record store in Wortley village for twenty-three years and now he’s looking for a successor to buy the quant but cool neighbourhood record shop.
Looking back at his time running the store, Charles-Dunne said he was blessed to have met some “astonishing, wonderful people,” along the way, be they staff members, customers or members of London’s music community.
Being a music fan, Charles-Dunne may pop his head into the store once it opens as Grooves, but he said the big plan is to relax, reflect and focus more energy on The Mongrels, his band of nearly 20 years.
“I’ve been banging a guitar for 60 years. In retirement, I’ll actually learn how to play the damn thing.”
