Community
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.”…