Audiophil’s Records grows into bigger Joliet store

National Record Store Day turned out to be a record day for Audiophil’s Records in Joliet.

People came as early as 5:30 a.m. and were lined up around the block of the store’s new location for the annual event, which features newly issued vinyl albums to promote the business of independent record stores across the country.

Audiophil’s has been around since 2018, and the store has never seen a Record Store Day like it did April 20, owners Phil and Tiffany Johnson said.

Tiffany said she gave away the store’s 200 free posters by 3 p.m., and there still were four more hours of business left.

“It’s a great day, and it’s fun,” she said.

The long line in large part was due to the store letting in a limited number of customers at a time to control access to the newly listed records.

But the numbers also were likely related a newly opened location at 76 N. Chicago St., Tiffany said. National Record Store Day also was opening day for the new store.

The store provides almost four times the space as Audiophil’s previous downtown location. That means more records are on display instead of stored in the back. Customers get to see more, which is a big part of why vinyl records have made a comeback with a demographic that did not grow up with music coming in a format that they can put in their hands.

“They like the idea of owning it,” Tiffany said. “It’s there. It’s tangible.”

The Johnsons did not necessarily expect that they still would be there six years after they opened the store.

“When we opened in 2018, we both considered if we made it a year we could live with that, and we could call it a success because we did it,” Phil said.

They aren’t getting rich selling records, and both have other jobs. Phil is a plumbing company manager, and Tiffany works for a local Lutheran church, but they are devoted to the store.

“Tiffany and I are both avid fans of music,” Phil said.

That includes all kinds of music.

Thanks to the larger space on Chicago Street, they can put on display the variety of records they have that range from newly listed vinyl albums to old shellac 78 RPMs.

They also have started stocking CDs and cassette tapes in large part because of customers they get from new neighbor Prison City Vintage. The used-clothing store has a younger customer base with a taste for styles of past decades and provides some synergy with a store that offers the music from those years.

“We definitely have a lot in common, and our customers have a lot in common,” Tiffany said. “We started to carry CDs and cassettes because of demand from them.”

Audiophil’s always has been in downtown Joliet. The Johnsons moved from their original location on Van Buren Street when another store closing made the Chicago Street space available.

“If we were going to move anywhere, we were moving to Chicago Street,” Tiffany said.

The city has big plans for Chicago Street, the main street downtown, which includes redesigning the street to make it more accommodating for merchants and the creation of a new city square a quick walk away from Audiophil’s.

The Johnsons want to be part of the city plans for downtown. They said they enjoy the connections they have with other business owners and their own customers.

“A good 100 customers who come in regularly, we know their names and their kids’ names,” Phil said.

Plus, they said running Audiophil’s Records has been fun.

“Tiff and I always joke with ourselves,” Phil said, “if we’re not having fun with this, we’ll take our ball and go home.”