Good Records has been hawking an impressive (and affordably-priced) selection of records, many of them original pressings, in the East Village since 2005. Sadly, the eclectic store will close on March 24th, as EV Grieve reports.

It's not all bad, though. As owner Jonathan “Jonny” Sklute wrote in an Instagram farewell post, the majority of staff, as well as the East 5th Street store's prized crates of new and used records, will stay put. That's because the Bay Area mainstay Stranded Records is moving into the locale, and will open up shop on April 1st. The shop is the outpost of Superior Viaduct, an archival and experimental record label that counts the likes of Alice Coltrane, Suicide, and Julius Eastman within its catalogue.

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Dear Friends and Family. After nearly 14 years of serving the record collectors and music lovers of New York City and beyond, I am closing Good Records NYC on Sunday, March 24th. on April 1st, the shop at 218 East 5th Street in Manhattan’s East Village will re-open as @strandedrecords, a vinyl shop owned by the record label @superiorviaduct. Lots of things will remain the same. most of the staff is staying. most of the inventory is too. Stranded will honor Good Records gift certificates and trade credit for a period of 3 months - through the end of June. most importantly, there will still be vinyl records to dig and purchase and add to your collections, in the same bins, at the same location. On a personal note: we had a great run in the greatest city, and it could not have been done without YOU. big up to all our customers, from the daily and weekly regulars to casual stoppers-by; all current and former staff, friends, allies, plugs, and simply great collectros from across the globe; thank you for making us your favorite, year after year, from 3rd Street to 5th Street, from the well-worn classics to the new discoveries to the wtf-unclassifiable; thank you for the laughs, the knowledge, the stories, the good vibes, and of course, your hard-earned purchases. thank you for making our little shop a special and unique place in a world of rapidly increasing homogeneity. thank you for knowing and proving that vinyl is valid and dope and real and worth millions of dollars, long before big corporations agreed with us or saw reason to exploit those facts. I am moving on, but the platter keeps spinning. I look forward to releasing more music on my new imprint - @thekeysystem - and working with Superior Viaduct on this transition and other creative endeavors. This is but one chapter in a life of music, and the work continues. “the beat feels like a never-ender, but all things good must.” - Q-Tip with love and gratitude Jonathan “Jonny” Sklute

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It's not as though business wasn't good—Sklute told Gothamist that the store had their best sales year ever in 2017. "It was just time," he told us over the phone. Originally from the west coast, he moved back there with his family two years ago after over two decades in NYC. He said he was "burnt" from 14 years of keeping the shop open, also noting high rents in the area. "Eventually it just became way too costly and way too difficult to try and run a small little shop," he said. "That’s all I ever really wanted to do: I didn't want to scale, I didn't want to franchise. I just wanted to have a cool, communal space to sell and discover new music and interact with the community and that’s just really impossible in today’s New York City."

Sklute met the owners of Stranded, who happened to be looking to expand in New York, while out in the Bay Area. The serendipitous agreement came together several months ago, he told us. "That is kind of a real lock stock and barrel deal, we all wanted it to be this way," he said. "[Stranded] wanted to be able to hit the ground running with a fully-trained staff, I think that was a huge selling point as far as the store’s intrinsic value. It’s not just a box, it’s got years and years, over a decade of customer goodwill and interactions, and the staff is a big part of that."

While most of the records will stay put in the new store, Sklute said he's going to pick up Good's more collectible offerings and bring them to WFMU's upcoming Record Fair in late April. Crate-diggers, you know what to do.