‘A luxury’: X-Ray Records set to shut its doorways after 38 years in Regina | USAEMALL.com

Just minutes after opening, the front door barely closes as customers continuously shuffle into X-Ray Records.

Old rock music fills the space while customers browse their favourite vinyls searching for their next find.

But that won’t be the reality much longer as the team announced they would be closing on Feb. 28.

“There’s not enough foot traffic downtown,” Noah Biegler, the owner of X-Ray Records said. “The costs of keeping the doors open are higher than ever … The cost of records has gone up – some companies by 60 to 75 per cent.”

X-Ray Records was established in 1987 (initially as a franchise of the Ontario-based Records on Wheels chain) by Manitoba-born music enthusiast and record collector David Kuzenko.

In Regina, the store was first located in the Scarth Street Mall, but in 1998 the store went independent and was re-named X-Ray Records. It moved into World of Trout/Tiki Room on 11th Avenue. After another move to Dewdney Avenue, the store found its home on 1810 Smith St.

When Kuzenko passed away in May 2023, the store closed for a few months before long-time employee Biegler reopened X-Ray Records in November that year.

“Music really is a big community that people don’t realize how important it is for everybody,” Biegler said as customers browsed behind him.

It has become a place for music lovers, concertgoers and die-hard collectors.

One of those who has found a home there is vinyl junkie Franklin Benjoe.

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“They had records that Sunrise Records didn’t have and music that I like more,” Benjoe said about X-Ray. “I thought, ‘Oh this place is kind of nice, maybe I’ll start coming here more.’”

When he saw the news the shop would be closing, Benjoe was worried about where he would get this music.

“I don’t trust places like Amazon because I’ve read scary stories of them (the records) breaking.”

Biegler said the community support since the announcement has been great to see, but sales just aren’t what they used to be.

“In summer things started to dwindle off, and it just continued,” he explained. “December was really the knife in our backs because sales were down almost fifty/sixty per cent.”

“I don’t think people have a lot of money right now. Records are a luxury, just like tattoos and everything like that. They’re not a necessary thing, like clothes or food.”

Moving forward, Biegler isn’t sure what’s next for him. But he does plan to keep the online store open and potentially do some pop-up shops in the future.

And while it won’t be the same as coming into the store, hopefully it isn’t the end of making people feel part of a community.

“People have their records they bought here and that’s a memory,” he said. “People are gonna miss this place.”

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