Dr. Wax Prescribes Used Cds, Vinyl, Tapes

After 20 years in operation, Sam Greenberg, owner of the four-unit Dr. Wax chain, says the company knows "what music our customer wants."

What customers want are used CDs and vinyl, which is why the window sign at the chain's Hyde Park store reads "Dr. Wax. We buy CDs, LPs & Cassettes."

Used product makes up 30%-70% of inventory in each store. The chain's Web site, usedcds.com, was launched back in 1996 and now offers more than 20,000 titles, mostly used CDs and vinyl.

Greenberg and former partner Dave Wolfson had just graduated from Ohio State when they started their first store, Singin' Dog Records, in 1978, with mostly used CDs, LPs, and cassettes in all genres of music, and it's still in business.

They moved to Chicago in 1980 and opened the first Dr. Wax on Clark Street in the Lincoln Park area near DePaul University. The partners also opened Cut Corner Records in Lexington, Ky., and the Florida Vinyl Fever outlets in Tampa and Tallahassee, which are all still operating.

A 1984 split from Wolfson left Greenberg in Chicago running the Dr. Wax chain, which now has four neighborhood stores in that town, three of which are near a major university. The urban neighborhood Hyde Park store opened in 1988 and is near the University of Chicago, while the north suburban Evanston outlet, which opened in 1992, is close to Northwestern University.

The fourth outlet, which opened in 1996, is in the Gold Coast neighborhood on the north side, at State and Division.

"Since we operate in distinctly diverse neighborhoods, each store is run by the managers," Greenberg says. "They do all their own ordering and make their buys of used product based on their specific customers. The staff is very important in making decisions, as they are all experts in various music genres."

He gives full credit to his managers for the chain's success, with Randy Young joining from a Kentucky store to help open the Hyde Park store in 1988, Jack Kirk in Evanston, Harman Mitchell at the Gold Coast outlet, and co-managers Jewel Wilson and Scott Feingold at the original Clark Street store, now in larger quarters across the street. "We provide good benefits and have built a lot of loyalty," Greenberg says.

Dr. Wax buys mostly from one-stops, like Arc Distribution in Cincinnati, headed by Gary Curliss, which is termed by Greenberg as "the best one-stop we've ever dealt with, as they have taken care of small retailers from the beginning." Hyde Park also buys from Groove Distributing, Fat Beats, K-7, and other indie labels, while the Evanston store buys direct from Revolver Distribution, as well as Matador, among other indies.

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