Pete Stidman has learned firsthand that the Mile High City has a serious addiction to vinyl since taking over Wax Trax Records, a mini-chain that’s in the midst of expanding its kiosk at Aurora’s Stanley Marketplace to what he refers to as a “real store” set to debut next month.
“I do think Denver is unique in terms of how many records people buy and how many people love to buy records,” he says. “I chalk that up to shops like Wax Trax and Twist & Shout being here all along and never leaving. People have a tradition that they’re passing along to their kids of buying records.”
Wax Trax certainly has a rich history. The initial shop was founded in 1975 by Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher, who would go on to start a groundbreaking record label called Wax Trax!, based in Chicago. But they allowed Duane Davis and Pete’s father, Dave Stidman, who purchased the business from them in 1978, to continue using the Wax Trax moniker, sans the exclamation point.
A new era
Pete Stidman took Wax Trax’s reins near the start of the 2020 pandemic, and over the subsequent years, he has steadily enlarged the brand’s footprint. The flagship store at 638 East 13th Avenue is actually two shops in one – the new-music outlet on the corner of 13th and Washington Street and the used-music affiliate a couple of doors down. There’s also the Broadway Bazaar, at 200 South Broadway, and Wax Trax Northside, at 3641 West 32nd Avenue, which debuted last fall…