LTNS 435 Fall 2022 T Rideaux

00:02 My name is Tiffany rideau, and I'm 50 years old. Today is November 28, 2022, and I am speaking with Paige Brodsky my dear friend of eight and a half years. I am recording this interview in Paige's home in Santa Cruz, California. So tell me about how you got into your line of work.

00:26 When I was in college, I thought I wanted to be in broadcasting, specifically radio. So I worked at the college radio station and really enjoyed it and discovered that music was more my interest than broadcasting. And just after I graduated, I thought, well, I'll just get a job in a record store just while I figure out what I want to do with my life. So I got a job for one year in Peach's Records in Columbia, South Carolina. Then I decided to move to California, to San Francisco. And I went through the same thing once I got to San Francisco. Oh, I'll just stop it. Look, they have a help wanted sign at the record store. I'll just stop at the record store and see if I can get hired there, and then I'll just work there until I figure out what I want to do with my life with my degree, you know. And that was Streetlight Records, the company that I am still working for 33 and a third years later.

01:39 Wow. Yeah, that's cool. So tell me a little bit about why you came out to California.

01:46 I had. When I was involved in radio, I had attended a conference of college radio stations that was hosted by this trade magazine called the Gavin Report, and they were headquartered in San Francisco. So I attended as part of an entourage from the college radio station that I had been working at in Columbia, WUSC fm. And I fell in love with San Francisco, which is so easy to do. And this was in the late 80s, I think. I think I must have first seen San Francisco in 88. And I ended up moving. Moving here or moving to Northern California, to San Francisco in 89. And, you know, it. It was such an incredible experience living in San Francisco and being involved in music. And it was the kind of thing that I wish everybody had the opportunity to do because San Francisco was, you know, it's such an amazing city. You know, the culture was so different from anything I had experienced before. The weather was different, the architecture was different. Like, it was all just. I loved it. I loved it. I was in San Francisco for about six and a half years, and then city life kind of started getting to me. And the store that I was working for had, you know, we had a couple small stores in San Francisco, and I Had worked at both of them, but we also had a bigger store in San Jose, and they were going through some growing pains and an opportunity opened up there, so I moved out to the country and commuted to San Jose and still do.

03:40 And so what is your kind of official role at the record store at Street Light?

03:47 Currently, I am the store manager of our store in San Jose, and I also oversee marketing and promotions for both of our stores. We also. We have a store in Santa Cruz as well. The two small stores that were in San Francisco have since closed, so we're. We've got the two large stores left.

04:06 Cool. So who stands out as a significant mentor?

04:12 His name is Jeff, and he was the general manager of the Streetlight chain. And I used the word chain kind of lightly because it's a, you know, it's a mom and pop, it's definitely an independent store. But we had, you know, we had four stores at the highest. And he just. He just was always a source of information, a source of support, a source of inspiration. And I was devastated when at this point, it's probably eight or nine years ago, he decided to retire. And I actually, you know, considered leaving at that point in time. I could not imagine being there without him, but, you know, decided to stay. And he's still, you know, very much enjoying his retirement. And he is still very much a mentor. Like, he, you know, I share the big successes with him, I share the failures with him. I still seek advice from him, and he's still like, such a huge supporter and cares deeply about the business, the indie record store business as a whole, but also Streetlights business. And I, you know, it's just. It's been so valuable. It's really. It. It's like having a parental figure, you know, cheering for you and pushing you a little bit and. But still, you know, learning. I'm still learning from him all these years later.

05:59 So how did the relationship kind of mentorship start? Did you seek him out or.

06:06 Well, his office was in the store that I was working at, so I would see him frequently. Although our job responsibilities at that time didn't really overlap a whole lot. I was a clerk, I was working out on the floor, and I was a used product buyer. So when people were selling their collections, I would be one of the people that would evaluate them. But when our store in San Jose was experiencing some growing pains, they had moved from a really small location to a really large location and just encountered some issues that the staff hadn't really expected. And I jokingly said to him, One day, oh, yeah, let me have a chance at that store and see what happens. And then it was one of those, like, sitcom moments or TV moments where after I said it, I kind of stopped and thought for a second, and he stopped and thought for a second, and we looked at each other, and I'm like, I wonder if there's something here. So I started commuting from San Francisco to San Jose, like, three days a week, I think. So I was still working a few days a week at the store in San Francisco, but just trying to communicate, you know, and be a communications conduit for the people that were the staff at the San Jose store and figure out where the stumbling blocks were. And it was. It was fascinating. And then they ran into a situation at. At that store where the manager, who had been a manager for several years, ended up leaving. And that position was offered to me, and I took it and left San Francisco in the rearview mirror, which was hard and sad, but it was also. It was time I was done with high population density in a small area.

08:14 Okay, so let's maybe just a little bit in terms of talking about capitalism. So how does capitalism impact your work at an independent record store?

08:27 Capitalism is something that I definitely think about and struggle with. I. My. My mind works like. Like a capitalist mind. I'm always looking for the angle, not as necessarily the angle to make the most money possible, but when someone describes a business to me, the first thing I think of was how does. Or an idea. And I think, well, how does that get monetized? Like, where. Where does the revenue come from? How does that offset overhead? You know, I just. I think like a. A business person, but I struggle with that because I would like to lead my life as a person with a social conscience. And oftentimes capitalism is in conflict with social conscience. There are some ways that those of us in the indie record store world can rationalize that. And in that, we are buying and selling a lot of used goods. So there's less. I mean, in that part of our business, there's, you know, less environmental impact. You know, we're reusing recycling. However, there's a huge demand for records these days, and so there's a lot of vinyl being pressed new, and we are selling that. So, you know, I struggle. And, you know, we tried. We. We raise money for Second Harvest Food bank, and we, you know, we try to try to do good where we can. But in terms of a business that is competing with other businesses, capitalism, you know, is an interesting animal. You know, once upon A time it was Tower Records or the Warehouse, and it was the little guy kind of fighting the good fight against the big chains. Warehouse is gone. Tower is gone. But with the resurgence of vinyl and its popularity among young people, in particular, Target got into the game. Best Buy got into the game for a while. Walmart got into the game, you know, and now, yeah, we might have four different color variations on vinyl for the new Taylor Swift, but Target has its own special color that nobody else gets to have, and they have the buying leverage to be able to forge those contracts. So there's just. There's always an element of the little guy fighting the big fight against the big guy. But then I'm also humbled sometimes, too, because I'll talk to folks who own record stores who are smaller than ours, and to them, we're the big guy. And it's, you know, it's an interesting perspective, and I, you know, I need to remember that. Yeah, yeah.

11:44 So I think I remember correctly. So, you know, our memory is not as good as they used to be. But you had mentioned that you pay employees to. To get. When they get COVID testing, so that seems like a really interesting way of kind of social consciousness. Right, and health and public health, as well as having to pay folks to do that.

12:14 Yes. Anybody who wants to get a vaccination or PCR COVID test can do it on the clock. And we just. We started that policy at the outset of the pandemic for a few reasons. One, I. I wanted it to not. I didn't want taking care of one's health, which in the. In the case of a pandemic means also taking care of other people's health when you're taking care of your own and getting tested, your, you know, protecting others. I didn't want that to be a burden for the staff. You know, it is indie retail. We're not making a ton of money. And I just. I wanted it to be easy. And it was also one of the ways. And, you know, this became really important, especially when the store was shut down and some people were laid off. And, you know, those that weren't were only working a fraction of the hours that they were before you. I wanted people to feel like they were cared for, you know, and important, and they are. But I also realized that it's. There's a difference between people being important and being cared for and them feeling like they're important and feeling like they're cared for. And so that really has to be overt. That has to be spoken. It has to be said. It has to be, you know, displayed in your, you know, whatever systems you have set up for personnel. And that's worked out well, like the whole COVID testing thing. And we also always. We have rapid tests on hand. If someone starts to feel sick, just go. Go to the back office and grab a COVID test and. And take it. And. Yeah, you know, we discourage people from coming to work when they feel sick. You know, that. I'm sure that's the case with a lot of other businesses, but it seemed like an important component to making. Making sure people felt safe when they were at work. Yeah.

14:31 Yeah. And I think another thing that might be really important as we think of this as a time capsule, is how do you think Streetlight made it through COVID 19 pandemic and shut down, like you mentioned?

14:46 Yeah, it's interesting because that same question could actually be asked of a number of different points in time in our existence. How did Streetlight make it through the introduction of the MP3? How did streetlight make it through streaming? How did Streetlight make it through the pandemic? Like, they're all. They're. They're all turning points that. Where the. The result really could have been different, you know, And I will say that, though we probably would have survived anyway, the PPP loans that were available from the federal government went a long way towards helping us stay afloat. And I hear that time and again from other small businesses. So that, I think, was major. And the other element there, which is also applicable to other existential crises in our history, is that because we're an independent business, we have more flexibility. We can stop on a dime, change what we're doing, and take it in a different direction if we need to. And a big corporation with 200 different locations just isn't built to do that.

16:10 Yeah.

16:10 You know.

16:13 Okay, so shifting a little bit. Let's talk about gender. So how has being a woman affected your work in the music industry?

16:24 This is gonna sound silly, but I don't have any evidence that it has, which I don't know if that's because being a woman in the music industry hasn't impacted my career, or I'm just blissfully unaware of how it's impacted my career. There is only one. Well, I can't think of a few. A few instances. There was. There's only one instance I can think of in the. On the business side of my job where I was. Was buying some ads on a local radio station, and I had this really unpleasant experience with the sales the account executive, and he was dishonest, said that our spot was running on a. On a particular show that it didn't run. And. And it was the only time that I felt like, oh, is he, like, treating me this way because I'm a woman? Like, it's the only time it ever really became a question. But the other interesting thing that happens, and I hear this in dealing with the customers, which is, you know, a different side of my job, this happens constantly. Somebody comes in, they see me behind the counter, and they say, hey, I'm the one that called earlier about such and such. And I'll be like, oh, I wasn't the one that you talked with, but what did you call about? I said, oh, you weren't the one that I talked to. It was a girl that I talked to. And it happens so often. And there was one time it happened and I got a little snippy with the customer, although it didn't seem to take it in a negative way, which is great, which is lucky on my part. He said, oh, more than one woman works here. And I looked at him and I said, you know, we are 51% of the global population. And he just had this look on his face like, oh, yeah, I guess so, huh. So that, you know, people are surprised that there are as many women working in the record store as there are, and our staff just so happens to be a little over 50% female. And that's starting to happen, you know, across the country and across the world. But, you know, like, when I was a kid, music was. It was a man's world. Making the music and selling the music. It was all men. And that's definitely different now than it was. And that's. That's great to see.

19:26 Yeah.

19:27 But I don't feel like being a woman has gotten in my way or held me back or stopped me from doing anything that I want to do or. Yeah, I just. But I, again, I could be blissfully aware.

19:43 Well, let me ask. Have you noticed a shift in terms of managers or, you know, owners of independent record stores, in terms of representation of women? Has that, like.

19:57 Yes.

19:58 Yeah.

19:59 Yes. Huge. Even just like, the last five or 10 years, it's been huge. We had. There's a. An indie record store convention once a year, and I met, I think, three different women that own stores that. And their stores had never attended this convention before. So I participated in hosting an event with another indie record store friend from Omaha. And it's amazing to me, like, these three new stores, they'd never Been here. They're all owned by women, owned and operated by women. And it's. It's definitely changing. And the management staff at our store is at least half female, maybe more than half. It's pretty evenly split. So, yeah, it's great to see. You know, it's about time.

21:00 Do you feel like it has had any impact, like, by having women be more represented, does it impact maybe what you have available in the store or how you kind of think about doing things in the store?

21:19 Yes. And the fact that there are more women, I mean, my answer is actually going to be applicable to any sort of diversity because we're an independent store again, and these decisions are not being made, like, from high above, and we don't have any say in it. Each one of us that works at the store has an opportunity to see ourselves reflected in the store in some way that could be artistically with displays. It can be with products that, oh, this person is really in. You know, we have one gal that's really into metal, and so our metal section has expanded, and that would. That would be the case no matter who it was. But it's just yet more evidence that diversity matters in the workplace. And, you know, particularly in an independent store where the employees do have a say in how it gets run and what we do and how we do it. So, yeah, that's my thinking there.

22:36 Well, I think it also speaks highly of you as a manager that you are open, Right. To getting feedback. I've heard stories before of you kind of talking about how one of the employees had made a suggestion on how to do something on record store day or something where it was a little bit of a shift. But you were open to hearing.

22:58 Yeah.

22:58 What folks had to say.

22:59 Well, and so this is. Recognizing one's own limitations is important. I do not like change. I like routine and habit. And, you know, I'm one of those people that wants to keep doing it the way that we've been doing it, just because it's the way we've been doing it and not because it's the best way. But I recognize that about myself. So if someone else has an idea and it's particularly if they want to run with it, if they want to, you know, start the process and do the communication that's required and do some of the work that's required, I don't want to stand in the way of progress. I mean, I could end up, you know, I could so easily end up being the old fuddy duddy that stands in the way of Modernization, you know, so. Yeah, but I had. I had to teach myself how to be open to those ideas because, you know, if you don't change, if you don't adapt, you perish. Right?

24:01 Yeah.

24:01 Yeah.

24:03 Oh, my goodness. So our last question, I think, how would you like to be remembered?

24:12 Well, I mean, I guess I interpret that question in two different ways. So as a person who's involved in the indie record store world and also beyond just our store, our store is part of a larger coalition. Our coalition is part of an even larger coalition. And you know, I'm in close contact with a lot of those people on a regular basis. I. In the indie record store world, I would like to be remembered as an advocate for the indie record store as a cultural community center, as a place where people can come to and they, you know, they can feel safe, they can feel excited about, you know, finding new music or new movies that, that they didn't know about before. They can know that there's a friendly spot where they're accepted, you know, for who they are. And they know that there's this place that they can go for an open exchange of ideas about art and music and movies and, you know, and life. But how do I want to be remembered on a grander scale as a human being, hopefully as a kind person who likes to laugh?

25:53 Yes. I would definitely say that I have very much appreciated our friendship. And you have made me laugh for sure. And yes, I can't think of anyone kinder. You are definitely my go to when I think about how to be in the world and to really thinking about caring about people. Right. And animals. The non human folks.

26:22 Oh, yes. We love the animals.

26:25 Yes. And just how giving. You are generous. You are very giving too. So I'm going to add giving as well. Your list.

26:35 Thank you, Tifferuni. I cherish you. I do.

26:40 Awesome. Thank you so much, Paige