WE’RE 1 MILLION MORE THAN A RECORD STORE….

Yes, we’ve got a LOT of albums, but Wax Atlas is A LOT more than a normal record store!

Look behind the curtain and you’ll find a family founded media reuse / recycling e-commerce organization that partners with other stores, nonprofits, resellers, e-commerce companies, and the public to divert large lots of used records, electronics, CDs, DVDs, cassettes, books and other forms of physical media from the dump. 

We started cranking through discards in an unfinished basement in 2017.  Since then, our small team of caring,  knowledgeable. hardworking and and ever-adventurous music nerds has saved more than 1.2 million items that were LITERALLY going into the trash otherwise. 

How do we do it? 

Well, most used retail stores can’t stock even a fraction of the items that are brought to them for sale (not necessarily because it’s bad stuff but because it may not sell in that specific market or because the condition isn’t pristine). That’s where we jump in to help. When you bring items to us, we make an offer on EVERYTHING. 

We take what we can use in our shop and then, using a range of ecommerce platforms as well as partnerships with flea markets, antique shops, and other small dealers, we get the rest where it needs to go. Items that are too beat up to send out? We are trying to find a reuse for every item. Whether selling music to be enjoyed, or unplayable for arts and crafts, we’re always looking for innovative, or even simplistic, ways to reuse every item.

What’s with those HUGE loads we often bring in? 

People don’t realize, but many thrift stores and great nonprofits (Goodwill, Salvation Army, ETC) receive SIGNIFICANTLY more CDs, records, tapes and other types of media than they can process on their own. Sometimes they simply lack the manpower or expertise. Often it’s cheaper to throw things away then keep them in storage. Luckily, we’re on it.

When the call comes, Andy hops into a 20-foot truck, picks up CDs, DVDs, and all manner of other items by the 700lb pallet. Then, our staff (mostly local artists and musicians) sorts out the most sellable stuff, batches other items together for wholesale, and slavages any usable materials from everything else.

We’re Just getting started. 

It’s a dirty job and we don’t make as much money as if we just threw the less appealing away, but well worth it to make sure our culture endures. 

And we’re only just getting started. Wax Atlas, is  this spring with a larger space in an effort to expand our store selection and more actively engage the community with local programming and other outreach efforts.