400 records, 88 eight-track tapes, 3 cassettes and $6,000 was all it took to launch one of the longest running independent record stores in the country.
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The year was 1973 when Terry and Deon Borchard opened The Long Ear in a 16×30 free-standing building with handmade record bins.
“Terry had never even lifted a hammer before he made those,” Deon Borchard said.
Not everybody believed in the Borchard’s dream, however.
“The post office people wouldn’t give us a regular business box because ‘you guys aren’t going to be in business long enough to warrant a big box,’” Deon Borchard said.
It was only a matter of time before the post office changed their mind.
“They started begging us to get a bigger box,” Deon Borchard said.
Although the store eventually moved to a larger building on Coeur d’Alene’s 4th street, the original record bins are still there, albeit with a few alterations.
Extra wooden slots were dropped to help organize and accommodate the store’s over 17,000 new and used CDs.
“We are OCD about music,” said Chelsea Fritze, an employee since 2004. “We want to help people find that song that’s been stuck in their head and we’ve also got the knowledge to do so.”
The knowledge comes from a place of love.
“I get to be surrounded by good music and people who love good music,” said Dustin Selle, a Long Ear employee and NIC student.
Although music lovers of all ages still frequent the store, Deon Brochard said they have still seen changes due to the popularity on downloading.
“It used to be that record stores in each individual community were considered the hub, where people you’d consider to be the cool people because they liked music and anymore that’s not quite the case,”Deon Brochard said. “You’re seeing that clear across society though, its not just in record stores, people are not communicating in person as much as they are with their smart phones and their internet connections. We would love to see people realize that this is a resource, a place that they can gather and it’s a really neat atmosphere and its still vibrant.”
As a result, The Long Ear is beginning to offer more lifestyle products to bring in a wider crowd, such as unique fair trade clothing, hookah products, body jewelry, incense and home décor.
The store also offers additional rewards for purchases, such as free weekly drawings where the tickets double as $.25 coupons off any purchase.
“We had a guy turn in 370 tickets at one time once,” Fritze said.
The man walked away with several collector box sets for free.
Customers will have a chance to walk away with even more free prizes at next weekend’s Record Store Day.
In addition to several top-secret exclusive releases, customers can be entered to win a pair of Beats by Dre headphones, a Spin Clean system for record players and many other smaller door prizes.
Fritze said last year’s Record Store Day drew long lines well before the store had opened for the day.
“People that used to come in with their parents are now coming in with their kids,” said Deon Borchard“We consider ourselves really blessed to be able to continue to do something we thoroughly enjoy.”