RIP Schoolkids CH

Just found this statement from Mike Phillips on David Menconi's blog:

Schoolkids Records' Chapel Hill location will be closing its doors at the end of March after 33 years in business. The business climate for music retail has changed so much since our beginnings back in the early 70's. In a town like Chapel Hill where we do not have any competition and thirty thousand plus college students our retail foot traffic has died just like much of downtown Chapel Hill. We have had a good run and will continue to operate the Raleigh and Athens stores. Thanks to everyone for making this location happen for three decades.

It's pretty crazy to think about it. Albeit I've been shopping almost exclusively at CD Alley for the last seven or eight years, Schoolkids' presence will definitely be missed. It's too bad that it takes something so drastic to remind us of how wonderful local, independent record stores are. I'd encourage all of you to do what I'm going to do this week: head out to CD Alley, Chaz's Bull City Records in Durham, or Schoolkids in Raleigh and buy some records, because we love to!