40 Years of Needle Drops: Celebrating Graywhale

If the modern age has taken one thing from us mere mortals (besides our primal urge to connect on every cognitive level and unmuddy the truth of the world), it is physical media. Why would you want to clutter your rented shoebox of a casa with DVDs and vinyl records, when a monthly subscription will suffice your need? The illusion of convenience has gone translucent with the reality of “you’ll own nothing and be happy!” As we steer into the stream of service-driven uncertainty, we yearn for something to call our own. Hear me cry out, “Thar she blows!” as beyond the horizon’s ridge, a crescending humpback of forces beyond temporal suitability is pegged with our harpoons. And the last of its breed, herded in a Taylorsville strip mall, is championing its 40-year milestone.

“Once we took over the company outright and were able to maintain it, we’ve seen record profitability twofold”

For four decades, Graywhale has been Utah’s one-stop shop to death grip all physical entertainment — vinyl records, cassette tapes, CDs, DVDs and VHS. If you’re on the hunt for a limited-run platinum release LP or a theatrical director’s cut cult classic from the early 2000s, chances are it’ll be hiding amongst the shop’s alphabetical racks. It was this eclectic drive that moved Graywhale’s original owner Steve Gray from collecting watches and knick-knacks to finding an interest for CDs. “[Steve] started buying CDs and got a retail space so people could come and trade one of the 30 CDs that were being produced at the time,” says Graywhale’s current co-owner, Dustin Hansen. What snowballed was the buying, selling and trading of all types of media. According to Hansen, Graywhale is “arguably (but mostly confirmed) the first place in the country to do buy-sell trade on compact discs.”

Graywhale has rolled with the punches over the years. Hansen and co-owner Zane Pendleton recalled that all the stores went through their own trials, becoming sister organizations to large food conglomerates and siphoning profits to landlords disliking them over the culture. Through politics and even a global pandemic, several of the small shops that popped up around the Salt Lake valley depleted to only two locations — the Ogden store and the Taylorsville store (which has swapped storefronts but remains in the same shopping center since 1986). Some may see this as the tell-tale signs of a dying company, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. “The silver lining is once we took over the company outright and were able to maintain it, we’ve seen record profitability twofold,” Hansen says. “Just being able to be smaller really has made us able to deal with trend changes in the economy, focus on and be able to turn quickly.”

“What we realized very quickly was that this is about these people”

Having one flagship store in Salt Lake County was not only a smart business decision but called back to its home roots of being your neighborhood record store. “Having one huge location has become more profitable and does so much more business than when we had multiple smaller stores all over the valley,” Pendleton says. “So it kind of has worked out in our favor.”

To celebrate the anniversary, the two have been releasing a video series on their YouTube channel. In it, customers, employees and out-there personalities reflect on their memories of walking into their local Graywhale to find a holy grail of media. “What we realized very quickly in the filming of a couple of them was that this is about these people,” Hansen says. “It’s about the foundational core of what makes Graywhale exist.” The shop has also been working closely with local artists to create a whole line of artwork, including posters and greeting cards. However, the offer only stands while supplies last, so die-hard Graywhale fans need to hit the shop soon!

With every snapshot of personal accounts or the newer generation coming in to pick their new musical fixation, Graywhale opens its doors to a community of all media, against the whirling seas of streaming services. Going to your local record shop is more than just an errand of interest — it’s a venture of experience that many of us refuse to lose. “We’re all pop culture nerds here,” Hansen says. “That’s every day we’re immersed in it.”

Read about other record stores in Utah:
The Rebirth of Raunch Records
Velour and Vinyl: Yes, Provo Does Have a Music Scene

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