New Day Records
New Day Records and Accessories (December 2013 - 14 November 2018) was a vinyl record store founded by William M. "Will" Rutledge.
It was located at 15a Saint Paul Street, in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, and then from 1 September to its final closure on 14 November 2018, it was located in the same building, within "Moon Money Vintage", at 16 Cumberland Street North.
Vinyl Trend
The store capitalized on a trend of increased consumption of vinyl records, for the nostalgic and tactile impact.
New Owners
Rutledge moved away from Thunder Bay in summer 2016 and put his business on the market. It was purchased in October 2016 by Jason Wellwood and Scott Arnot, who had owned the nearby Sovereign Room since 2009. [1] They linked the businesses together since they already shared an internal door. [1]
Its original location was closed on Saturday 25 August 2018. [2] In the first week of September 2018, the shop moved to the other side of the same building: "Well folks we are down to the final two weeks at our location at 15a St. Paul Street. We will be closing up shop at 6pm on Saturday the 25th for the last time. We WILL be up and running at our new location, inside Moon Money Vintage at 16 N. Cumberland St (essentially right behind where we are now) the first week of September. Until then, all vinyl is on sale! New and used vinyl is 30% off this week and that means things will go fast! If you have been debating picking something up, now is the time! Open 12:30-6 today! Also, many of our fixtures and gear are up for sale. Come ask us about it if you are interested!" [3]
This was evidently just the prelude to its closure.
Closure
On 24 March 2017, national chain Sunrise Records (established 1977) opened a store in the former HMV location in Intercity Mall in Thunder Bay, as part of a national strategy of moving into former HMV locations, presenting New Day Records with its first competition.
Perhaps because of this competition, New Day Records closed the following year, on 14 November 2018.
Well, today marks the end of an era.
As of yesterday, New Day Records is no more and Alram Records will be selling the remainder of the New Day Records stock. If you haven’t yet, check out the Moon Money Vintage page, as Alram Records will be located inside Moon Money Vintage. They will be announcing a page specifically for Alram Records soon.
Going forward, please don’t message this page for questions with regards to New Day as it won’t be monitored after today. If you have questions about records, feel free to get in touch with Alram Records via the Moon Money Vintage page. If you have items that you have left at New Day for appraisal, sale or repair, everything will be sorted out with those by the end of next week and Derrick will be happy to answer your questions.
Thank you to everyone who supported New Day Records and Accessories over the years, it was a pleasure serving all of you.
— New Day Records Facebook page, 15 November 2018
"Alram Records" [4] stopped posting on its Instagram page in January 2019, so it seems to have closed as well.
Alram Apparel, owned by Derrick [6] and Marla Thompson and started in 2017, started by selling t-shirts out of their home and at events such as Buskers Festival. It seems they eventually came to run "Moon Money Vintage" and take on the stock of New Day Records.
Sources
[1] "Thunder Bay record shop gets new lease on life." 18 October 2016. Chronicle-Journal [7]
[2] Facebook [8]
[3] Impulsive Traveler Guy blog [9]
[4] CBC News, 24 March 2017 [10]
[5] Will Rutledge Facebook page [11]
[6] @newdaysound, the New Day Records and Accessories Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/newdaysound/
[7] "Thunder Bay's New Day Records gets new lease on life." 21 October 2016. CBC; Jason Wellwood reporting [12]