Shopping In GOOD TASTE Records

There's a moment in a good record store that doesn't exist anywhere else. You pull a record out of the bin, look at the cover for the first time in years (or maybe ever), drop the needle on a listening station, and the song you've been hearing about for a decade finally makes sense. Or it doesn't, and you put it back, and you find something better two bins over.

That moment is what shopping IN GOOD TASTE Records is built around. Our online shop is great — same-day shipping, hundreds of glowing reviews, every new release that matters dropping every Friday in our new arrivals collection. But the store on Thacher Street is a different thing. It's the part of GOOD TASTE that the internet can't quite ship to you.

This is what it's actually like.

Listening stations: try before you buy

Every used record and CD in the shop can be played before you take it home. We mean every one. Take your record or CD to our listening booth behind the counter and cue it up at a listening station, and you can spend as much time with it as you want. Listen to the whole side. Skip around. Check for pops, warps, and the surface noise that grading sheets sometimes miss. Decide whether the version in your hand is the one you actually want.

This is one of the most-mentioned reasons people come back, and it shows up across our customer reviews again and again. It's also the reason we keep used inventory in the store rather than online — used records reward inspection, and inspection is something we'd rather hand you than ask you to take on faith. Hearing is believing.

If you've ever bought a used LP online and been disappointed when it landed on your turntable, you already know why this matters.

Used vinyl, in-store only

The used wall is where the store gets weird in the best way. New arrivals come in throughout the week. Hip-hop, soul and funk, jazz, electronic, soundtracks, rock, metal, punk, classic country, gospel, library music, international pressings, the occasional truly strange thing — graded fairly, priced based on condition, and refreshed every Tuesday so that our wall looks different week to week.

Some of it is $5. Some of it is a sought-after pressing priced where the market actually is, not where Discogs flippers wish it was. Most of it is somewhere in between, and the only way to know what's in the bins today is to come dig.

If you're hunting something specific, ask. Coty and Lindsey — the husband-and-wife team behind the store — have been crate-digging and DJing for 20+ years, and there's a real chance they've seen it, or know someone who has.

Used CDs, cassettes, and 45s

CDs are having a moment again and we've leaned into it. Used CDs, used cassettes, and used 12" and 7" singles are all in regular rotation in the store. The 12" and 7" 45 bins in particular are where DJs, soul-and-funk collectors, and hip-hop heads spend the most time, there are usually a few stacks worth pulling, and the bins get refreshed often. We supply DJs with the sounds you're dancing to.

None of this lives online. All of it is in the store.

Audio hardware and turntables

If you're starting a setup, replacing a needle, upgrading a cartridge, or eyeing a turntable to bring home today, the hardware shelf is here for you. Turntables are in-store only — both because shipping a turntable safely is a project we'd rather not put a customer through, and because we'd rather you hear what a setup sounds like before you commit to one. It also means that you can talk to an expert about the questions you have for your specific needs. Looking to get started or exploring ways to upgrade? We've got you covered.

We're happy to walk through what you have at home, what you want to add, and what makes sense at your budget. There's no upsell ladder here; the goal is that you leave with the right thing, not the most expensive thing.

The community part

GOOD TASTE Records is a music hub for DJs, collectors, and anyone with good taste, which we mean as a wide door, not a narrow one. The store is welcoming to first-time vinyl buyers and to people who have been digging for decades, and the conversations happening on any given afternoon tend to bounce across both.

A few things that happen in the space:

• Live DJ sets on Record Store Day and select occassions for our neighborhood
• Listening parties for new releases worth gathering around
• Buy/sell/trade days during regular store hours, where you can bring in your own collection

The store is a place to slow down for an hour, not a transaction to get through. That part is intentional.

Where we are and how to get here

GOOD TASTE Records lives at 4 Thacher Street, Boston, MA 02113, in the historic North End — less than a ten-minute walk from North Station and TD Garden.

By T: Take any line to North Station. We're a short, flat walk from there.

By bike: Blue Bike parking is within five minutes of the door. 

By car: We don't recommend driving in. Parking in the North End is limited and not free. The T is genuinely easier. Driving is only recommended if you are selling to us.

Visiting from out of town? The North End is one of the best neighborhoods in Boston to spend an afternoon. Grab a record, walk five minutes for some of the best Italian food in the country, then walk another five and you're on the Freedom Trail.

Get directions to GOOD TASTE Records →

Hours

• Monday–Thursday: 12pm – 7pm
• Friday & Saturday: 12pm – 6pm
• Sunday: 12pm – 5pm

Holiday hours and special-event hours are posted on Google and social media. If you're making the trip and want to confirm we're open, give us a call: (617) 209-9953, or check our FAQ for the most common visit questions.

What customers say

We've been lucky to earn hundreds of positive reviews from customers who've shopped with us in-store and online. You can read what people are saying about us on our reviews page, and if you've shopped with us and want to share your own experience, leave us a Google review here,it helps more than you'd think.

Come spend an afternoon

The records in the bins today won't be there next week. The conversations on the floor today won't happen again. That's the part of a record store that the internet keeps trying to replicate and never quite does.

Just like online, you save 10% any time you purchase 4 or more new albums at GOOD TASTE Records

If you've only ever shopped GOOD TASTE Records online, come see what the rest of it is.

Get directions → 

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It's all in GOOD TASTE.