Cactus Records moves into a new era

The closing of Cactus Records’ Main Street location came as harsh news for Bozeman music lovers. A historic space known for its great records, CDs, apparel and trinkets was suddenly lost. But in a bittersweet twist of events, Cactus Records still remains on Main Street. It’s farther down the road and a little hidden, but no less of a treasure.

Last weekend I attended the shop’s celebration of Record Store Day, an international holiday taking place on the third Saturday of April. The holiday began in 2008 to promote foot traffic in record stores by offering limited special releases of music that can only be found in store. I spoke with the owner of Cactus Records, Mike “Bueno” Good, who had been at the downtown location for 20 years. We spoke about the store’s move to 2742 W. Main St., which involved a few months of renovation to get the space sound-proofed and ready for a large number of customers.

The reason for the shop’s move was the growing real estate market in Bozeman. The previous owners of Cactus Records were looking to sell and when the downtown location was evaluated, the appraisal came in at $1.8 million. This meant it was time for Cactus Records to move forward and find an affordable space. However, there was not a lot available within the market. Luckily, the new space for the town’s beloved record store became available. “Now we have a permanent home,” Good said.

I asked Good about the status of the shop’s customer base since changing locations. “There’s definitely been some slow days. Not everybody knows where we are. We did a soft opening almost a month ago where we just opened the doors and did a couple social media posts saying we’re open,” Good said. “We still are unpacking now and we’re definitely not very far along at this point, but we needed to get some customers in the door.” The large unit doesn’t quite have the retro character of the old location, but the staff successfully transferred many of the funky elements characteristic of the old Cactus Records into the new space. All the records are downstairs, and the extra merchandise Cactus is popular for (apparel, posters, gifts, etc.) is upstairs. The high ceilings are a big plus, allowing a lot of light to come into the space and making it feel open for wandering.

Good considered this most recent Record Store Day to be the store’s official grand opening. “The support today has been incredible. It’s really overwhelming,” he said as the store bustled with customers. “On Record Store Day there’s a lot of limited edition releases that come out just for the day and if you don’t get them [that day] you’re probably not going to get them, or you’re going to pay a fortune online. So people line up for [Record Store Day] in the morning to get these particular titles,” Good said, expanding on the novelty of the holiday. 

People were certainly flocking to these limited titles and more. And the live music performances were quite the fun bonus. Go head over to the new Cactus Records location and explore it for yourself!