EMPIRE DISCS

It's been two years since this mecca of Long Island record shopping has been closed. However, I'll never forget the first time I happened upon Empire shortly after I moved back to Long Island upon my graduation from SUNY New Paltz back in the summer of 1998. It was mind blowing. The square footage of the store was that of a large CVS or Walgreens, but it was all CDs and DVDs!

My friends and I quickly made Empire a regular stop on our monthly record store circuit treks. And living only 10 minutes away from the place in Westbury, I was there on the regular, especially during the week if I was bored and wanted a place to go and hang out and pick through the bins at 11 PM on a Tuesday night. I found some serious gems in that store, whether it was a copy of Otis Redding's Tell The Truth for $2.95 or a mint condition copy of Shellac's At Action Park for $8.95 or a Japanese import of King Crimson's Red with the mock vinyl packaging for $10.

The place is sorely, sorely missed by many of us who spent their evenings hanging out, rifling through their shelves.

I recently found a post on Yelp from one of the former store managers I became friendly with over the years, the lovely Lynee, who left this wonderful epitaph:

For 7 Years I managed Empire Discs, it was like my second home.
This was an amazing music store. I miss it terribly! Unfortunately IPODs/downloading & technology has taken over and people do not want to buy cds when they can just get the songs for free!

Empire bought and sold new and used cds and dvds. We paid from $.05- $5.00 per disc. We sold our merch for as cheap as $.25 and on average a cd was $4.95-$8.95. We were open every day (even Christmas, Thanksgiving etc!!!) from 10am-midnight. The store was very large and had a tremendous amount of merchandise.

This store was for the hunter and the obsessed. It was like a garage sale of music and movies. Recent arrivals and listening stations were available for those who would frequent the store. Every genre of music and movies could be found, even the most pickiest person could appreciate and enjoy what we sold!

Local bands would continuously call to book a show at our in-store performances. We tried to promote all types of music and started sponsoring shows at the Vanderbuilt etc. We worked closely with the guys from WLIR 92.7, and even traded business with my local music store, Slipped Disc (also closed) in Valley Stream.

Empire was a social late night hang out for everyone. I met a lot of great people and got to be friends with the regulars. I miss this place!

She also posted some great photos of the shop, which I have included here as well.

Store front in the glory days:


Local band Hepburn killing it at one of Empire's many in-store performances:


An epic battle waged on the Recent Arrivals racks:



Rest in peace, Empire Discs. You will always be remembered at Metro Recycling.

News feature on Empire Discs from Hofstra's student-run TV station: