Salty Dog Records opens Venice location

The Venice location, at 234 South Tamiami Trail, opened its doors in mid-September right before the hurricane. Despite the storm coming through, the store fared well and is open for customers seven days a week.

“There’s nothing like this of its kind,” Ainger said about a record store in Venice.

Salty Dog Records Venice specializes in both new and pre-played vinyls, CDs, and other music or movie related items.

“Anything cool,” Ainger said.

Before coming to the area, Owner Bill Klippel originally began with Green Tangerine Records, which is still open near Northern Illinois University.

“That’s where it all started,” Klippel said.

After moving to Florida and being a vendor at the Red Barn Flea Market in Bradenton, Salty Dog Records opened up a store in Sarasota at 6565 Gateway Avenue around four years ago.

With success in the Gulf Gate neighborhood, expansion into Venice was the next move and Ainger mentioned liking the downtown Venice “vibe.”

“They want to buy back their childhood,” she said about customers.

While it’s hard to compete with streaming sites, Ainger said there are still people who want to touch and feel the vinyls.

So far, business has been good, she said, and there has been positive feedback.

“People love this kind of atmosphere,” she said while popular tunes played throughout the store.

Apart from selling items, the store will also buy and trade vinyls or CDs. So far, more people have been buying things in the Venice store, Ainger said.

In order to “keep the buzz going,” new arrivals and more content are posted to the Salty Dog Records Facebook pages. Also every Monday night, there is a live stream called the Josh and Lucas Show where the two hosts share records for people to buy.

The Venice store is open Tuesday through Friday from 2-7 p.m. and Saturday through Monday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“We just want to make people happy,” Ainger said about being in Venice and the hopes for the store.