From the Ashes

Over a year ago Gayle and I were invited to dinner at the home of some friends. There we were introduced to Steve and Elizabeth Wiley, friends of our friends from across the street. In the course of the evening we listened with great interest to the story of Steve and his partner Kristian's music and DVD store, which had been located in the ASU Memorial Union until a fire on November 1, 2007. Having served the community for nine years, and having developed a large and enthusiastic customer base and strong ties to the local indie music scene, the guys from Hoodlums were eager to find a new home for their shop. Even with an established track record and a mailing list of loyal customers awaiting their reopening, it was crucial to heed the old dictum that the three most important factors in retail success are location, location and location. Fortunately, this story has a happy ending:

BEST ADDITION TO A STRIP MALL
Hoodlums

"We would head to the southeast corner of Guadalupe and McClintock just to go to Changing Hands — or Trader Joe's, or China Max, or even Baskin-Robbins, but now we're happy to report we have yet another reason to hit the south Tempe strip mall. Hoodlums, the record store smoked out of the Memorial Union at ASU by a recent fire, is graduating to a spot just a couple doors down from Changing Hands. Now we can shop for books and music, and we're looking forward to joint projects from the two businesses, like a recent event featuring the author of 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. We like the sound of that!"

-Bob