Review: River City Records & Books in Duluth

I was excited to hear that Duluth has a proper record store again with the opening of River City Records & Books in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.

Duluth has been without a proper place to shop for vinyl since the Electric Fetus closed its doors in Downtown Duluth in 2021. River City hopes to fill that void by offering a wide range of new and used vinyl records and a large selection of other nostalgic media like VHS, DVDs, CDs, and a huge selection of used books and comics.

Fans of vinyl will enjoy rummaging through the crates of just-arrived, unsorted used records, they also have sorted used vinyl alphabetically and by genre, I found the selection to be heavy on classic and alternative rock, but they had plenty of options for other types of music lovers, you just have to do some treasure hunting.

The selection of new vinyl was good, they had a good variety of classic and new artists, I was also surprised to find some rare, imported vinyl records, stuff I've never seen before. I was curious to find out if they'll be getting the new releases for Record Store Day, unfortunately, it sounds like they won't be participating in the twice-a-year limited-release records.

I was also impressed to see that all the records that they sold come sleeved and most of the vinyl they had for sale was in very good condition, I was also blown away at the amount of 45 RPM records they had available for sale, they had a great collection to rummage through.

If you're looking for movies, River City Records & Books has a large collection of DVDs, Blu-Rays, and even VHS tapes, everything from individual movies to hard-to-find box sets, they have a variety of choices to add to your collection, all at great prices.

The middle of the store is dedicated to used books and comics, they have tons of books in just about every available genre, if you're looking for a stack of winter books, it might be worth checking them out to see if they have what you're looking for. They had a small collection of comic books, but I didn't rummage through them to get an idea of the selection, there are certainly better options in town for comic books, but I wouldn't make a stop here just for their comic book selection.

The best thing about River City Records & Books was the atmosphere, the store is decorated with hundreds of nostalgic posters and promo materials for music, movies, and pop culture. It reminds me of my favorite record store in Minnesota, Cheapo Records, they have a few locations around the Twin Cities area, so I don't get to visit very often, but now I have an option for getting those record store vibes without a two-hour drive.