Jose Jurado’s first record store had four tires, a steering wheel and a license plate. Seven years ago, he “had a crazy idea” to load his extensive vinyl collection and turntables into the back of a FedEx truck so he could sell records on the go and play DJ sets anywhere in Los Angeles. That eventually led to a brick-and-mortar store in Long Beach, first near Pacific Avenue and Ninth Street, then — three years later — near Elm Avenue and Fourth Street.
But that roundabout journey is soon coming to an end. On Wednesday, Jurado announced plans to close his downtown Long Beach business, Record Box, later this month.
Jurado said he made the painful decision two weeks ago, only announcing it on social media after a week of “mourning and being depressed.”
“I’ve been operating at a loss for some time, and I’ve been hoping for the climate to change, and it hasn’t, and I’ve exhausted all of my resources to keep it going at the moment,” Jurado said.
Losing Record Box will be “a big loss for the community,” said longtime customer Allen Mota.
Mota first visited the store when it was on Pacific Avenue, stopping by on his lunch break to hunt for some funk and R&B vinyls. Mota struck up a rapport with Jurado and continued that lunch break habit for the last several years.
Jurado said he’s going to miss that interaction with customers the most.
“Just talking to them about music and sharing and learning from them about new stuff,” Jurado said. “It’s a community of information, giving and sharing.”
Jurado, who was born in the Philippines and moved to Anaheim at age 4, grew up with a passion for music.
“I used to break dance and do all the hip-hop things,” Jurado said. “I was really fascinated by turntablism and all the aspects of hip hop, that’s what made me want to be a DJ.”
His record collection started when he was 15 years old, the same year he got his first set of turntables.
Since then, he’s pestered friends to buy their collections, contacted countless Craigslist vendors and picked through dusty bins at flea markets to amass his collection of cassettes and vinyl.
More than three decades later, he still uses that first set of turntables in his store.
Even though he’s actively trying to reduce his inventory, Jurado said he caved recently when a stranger walked in offering used records for sale.
“I couldn’t help it. It was too good,” Jurado said.
Record Box is the latest step in Jurado’s journey in the music business. One of the highlights of his career came in 2008, when hip hop group The Pharcyde hired him to come on their Rock The Bells tour, Jurado said.
He also helped with sound mixing on a few Blu & Exile albums after meeting Aleksander Mandredi, better known as Exile, through a MySpace post seeking a roommate.
Exile was Jurado’s business partner when the shop first opened. But — apart from a few employees over the year who have run the cash register — Jurado has been in the shop day in and day out, putting on music he enjoys.
“I felt like I had a cheat code being able to listen to records all day,” he said.
For the past five years, Jurado also hosted a yearly art show called Covers, during which local artists would create “reimagined covers” for records that Jurado had bought without one.
Those events led to roughly 150 original art pieces.
Jurado said he has no plans to stop spinning vinyl records. He still DJs at The Grasshopper bar on East Anaheim Street every third Thursday and plans to host a send-off party for his shop there starting at 9 p.m. on Sept. 18.
As Jurado explained on his Instagram post announcing his shop’s closure, “This isn’t goodbye — just the moment where I flip the record and see what’s waiting on the other side.”
Record Box, 324 Elm Ave., is open from noon to 6 p.m. every day except Wednesday. All records and cassettes will be 50% until the shop’s last day on Sept. 19.