Editor’s Note: Originally published November 28, 2017. Updated November 18, 2021.

Bargain CDs Records and Tapes: the name says it all. 

It's been in Everett for as long as I have been here. When I first arrived the shop was on the corner of Rucker & Hewitt where the yoga studio is now. Now it's on North Broadway, next to Henry's Donuts.

I spent a lot of money there circa 2008. Would walk from my house, into the store with the Art Deco facade and the half-busted marquee and snap up Talking Heads records, forgotten Beach Boys R & B albums, or Kanye CDs. 

This is the joy of Bargain CDs Records and Tapes. Everything is a bargain. And they regularly sell things at half off the already-low sticker price. They have 99 cent and 50 cent record bins.

I have friends who go here for stacks and stacks of VHS tapes because why not? 

I hadn't been there in a few years. I stopped by on a rainy day.

The smell. It's unmistakable: old vinyl. There are crates of it. A lot of Loverboy or KISS albums or whatever, but some real gems, too---if you dig for them.

And that's part of the fun.

I forgot how everything is stacked up haphazardly and the walls are plastered in pop culture memorabilia and off-kilter handwritten jokes. I like this weird, independent side of Everett.

I'll be back. It's been too long. 

It's the last record store in Snohomish County.

Go there.

Support local.

Revel in the weird vibe.

BARGAIN CDS RECORDS & TAPES
2501 Broadway Avenue
Everett, WA 98201
(425) 259-4306

Richard Porter is a writer for Live in Everett.