Neptoon Records

Picture this: the year is 1980. Your construction company, which has seen many successful years, is suffering because a recession has hit. On the home front though, years of buying vinyl records means your collection has never been healthier. You've also been holding a bi-annual record convention that is going very well. What do you do? Open a record store, which is exactly what Rob Frith, co-owner of Neptoon Records, did.

“Neptoon first opened in 1981 on 41st and Fraser and later moved to Main Street,” says Ben Frith, Rob's son and the right-hand man in the family business. Ben sits on a couch in the store’s basement surrounded by walls lined floor to ceiling with hundreds of vinyl records while simultaneously bidding on a rare funk-soul record on eBay. It paints a picture of what his family’s home must have looked like before the store opened over 30 years ago.

Today, the business is healthier than ever and stands as Vancouver's vinyl go-to, whether you’re looking for the latest chart-topper or a decades-old rarity. “The thing with having a record store is that it’s fun!" Ben says. "And you find a lot of ways to make it fun."