Will SecondSpin.com Santa Monica Actually Close?

SecondSpin.com, one of the few stores selling records, DVDs and CDs in Santa Monica, is clearing out its inventory with big sales in preparation to close at the end of January.

But turntable owners looking for a new place to buy vinyl shouldn't rush to the Eastside just yet.

"We're not sure they're going... we're talking to them about staying," said Greg Eckhardt with PAR Commercial Brokerage, which is leasing the 3,000 square-foot space starting Feb. 1 for $12,750 a month.

A new lease has not been signed, Eckhardt said.

Employees have said unofficially that rising rent triggered the impending closure and signs and fliers inside the store direct customers to visit the chain's nearest location in Sherman Oaks. Company representatives have not returned messages seeking comment.

SecondSpin is a place to sell, buy and trade music, movies and video games. It started as website in 1996 and has opened several retail stores since, including the Santa Monica location at 14th Street and Wilshire Boulevard.

It would be sad to "see yet another independent record shop close its doors," said Mar Yvette, a lifestyle reporter for Good Day LA who also blogs about pop culture on her website, marpop.com.

"Even though I don't own a record player and rarely buy CDs anymore, I still liked the option to pick out something for a friend's birthday or some other occasion when an iTunes card or digital file just seemed too sterile," she wrote in an email.

There appears to be only one other shop in Santa Monica that sells vinyl: Angel City Books & Records on Main Street. Records Surplus is located just outside the city limits at Santa Monica Boulevard and Centinela Avenue.

Oliver Wang wrote about the "wax and wane" of record stores in Los Angeles for KCET in December. Though there's been a notable rise in smaller, boutique stores in Los Angeles recently, he wrote, most of those are make their homes around Hollywood and east-ward in  neighborhoods such as Atwater Village, Montebello, Eagle Rock and Highland Park.

"Where stores end up is where rents are lower," he told Patch, "because the profit margin on used records tends to be relatively low."