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EDINBURG — What started out as selling records from his personal collection at pop ups, Juan Campos has transformed his passion for music into a new full-fledged record store, Groove Garden, giving the Valley another destination for vinyl desires.
Located at 1519 South McColl Rd. in Edinburg, Groove Garden held its grand opening on Saturday.
Campos, the owner of the record store, said he was nervous about the store’s first day.
“I’ve been really stressed about the turnout because you never know exactly if people are going to come out,” he said.
Despite a downpour of rain most of the afternoon, the store saw a strong turnout.
The record store has about a thousand vinyls with the four main genres of the store being hip-hop, indie rock, jazz, and funk and disco.
Having a deep passion for those four genres but especially funk and disco music, Campos said he felt there was a void for that type of sound in the Valley.
“Not being able to find those records really pushed me to go out of my way and find them,” he said. “Our disco collection I think is really cool and is a pretty good size.”
Groove Garden also has the genres of pop, alt-rock, classic rock, country, folk and blues, classical, electronica and salsa.
Initially starting from attending pop-up events to having a small space in McAllen’s Mercado District until the start of the summer, Campos said his desire to scale up to a full size record store was not until his first location on 10th Street Plaza in McAllen.
“It feels really good to be part of the (vinyl record stores in the Valley),” Campos said. “From the collector’s side, it feels really good to have somewhere else to buy records outside of Barnes and Noble, Target and Walmart. From the business owner’s side it feels really good, because we know that void is there and that it can grow and what it can become. You see, places like Houston, Austin, have like, 15 record stores.”
Groove Garden’s opening day brought all kinds of people through the door looking for their own style of music.
Jose Garcia brought his son Jesus Garcia to the opening day of the record store since it has become a common shared interest. Jose, being a fan of music from the 1960s and 1970s, said he has a large collection in Mexico and was impressed with the selection at Groove Garden. His son on the other hand is just starting out.
Jesus said his interest was sparked when his sister received a record player for Christmas and when he found Laufey, one of his favorite artists, had released their “Bewitched” album on vinyl.
Purchasing his fifth vinyl that day, Arctic Monkeys’ “AM,” Jesus said he feels a sense of happiness knowing that he can share a common interest with his father.
Rick Perera also attended Groove Garden’s opening day and found exactly what he was looking for which was jazz album “Natura Morta” by Sven Wunder, and Afro-pop album “La Confusion” by Amadou & Mariam.
Perera said he has been collecting records for about eight years and has a collection of around 800 vinyls.
“It’s great that (Groove Garden) is expanding,” he said. “We just had one (record store) for the longest time and then Pharr Out Records opened up and they all have different specialties … most of the records I would buy, I would have to go to Austin or Houston and I’m happy that its becoming local.”
Putting on his collectors hat, Campos said he encourages people that find themselves in his position years ago yearning for a certain funky sound or indie feeling to check out Groove Garden.
Groove Garden is open Monday through Saturday from 2 to 10 p.m.
