Lunchbox Records started as a punk compilation in Atlanta around 1990. The label belonged to a collective, then to Scott Wishart's brother, and Scott designed the ads. In 2005, when Scott opened a record store in Charlotte, he asked his brother if he could use the name. The answer was yes.
He opened it because most of what he wanted to buy came out only on vinyl, and he was special-ordering it from outside the city. He figured Charlotte needed a shop built around what he and his friends wanted to hear.
Bands have played in the store since opening day. Back then, Tremont Music Hall was the only other all-ages venue in town, and Scott remembered the shows he missed as a kid because they were in bars. The shop still hosts live shows.
Lunchbox Records is the bright blue shop at 825 Central Avenue in Charlotte, with new and used LPs, CDs, cassettes, and turntables. The racks lean indie rock, punk, metal, jazz, soul, and rap. There's a local music section, tickets to Charlotte shows, and Blue Note reissues as an authorized dealer. They buy records, too. Scott says a record store lets you stumble onto things the algorithms never show you. He calls Record Store Day "Pretend the Internet Didn't Exist Day." Almost 20 years in, the shop just landed its first store-exclusive vinyl variant.
Leave the algorithm at home. Go dig.
