Today we’d like to introduce you to Jesse and Melanie Feldman.
Jesse and Melanie, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Rust & Wax initially started as a popup and online vintage resale business. As we are both music lovers, avid concert goers, and lovers of vinyl, we could never leave a record collection behind…so we ended up accumulating a lot of records from all of our vintage travels and started selling some of those records. Eventually, we realized how much we enjoyed the vinyl side of our business. More specifically, we love talking music with our customers, helping them track down records they have been hunting down for years, and introducing them to new music. We also love the culture surrounding vinyl records and are avid collectors ourselves. So it only made sense that we would open up a record shop and that opportunity presented itself to us in the middle of 2017 when we were approached by Elizabeth Avenue Station to open up a shop within their space.
Since September of 2017, we have continued to grow our record shop within Elizabeth Avenue Station. In addition to our large collection of cleaned, tested, and finely curated vintage records, we recently began carrying records from several local bands and are currently working to curate a Fall music festival that will feature some of our favorite local bands.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Any time you start and run a small business, you are going to run in to some roadblocks. While no specific roadblock stands out as a monumental one, we’ve always made a point of using those obstacles as a jump off point to develop and further grow our business. In other words, any obstacle we have encountered has allowed us to reevaluate what we are doing and determine whether we need to switch things up.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We sell new, used, rare, and import records, as well as cassette tapes, vintage décor, books, and zines. Honestly, that description can apply to all record shops…and while this may not set us apart from other shops, our favorite aspect of running a record shop has been the people who make up the vinyl community. We have become friends with many of our customers and are constantly looking to introduce them to new music (or vice versa). We also have become friends with many local musicians and are currently working with some to come up with new ways to promote their music within the community.
Every record store is different and every shop has something that makes it stand out from the rest. That said, we love record shops that become a gathering place for local musicians and music lovers in the community, so nearly all of our decisions surrounding the shop have been with that goal in mind.
What were you like growing up?
We were both music lovers and grew up in homes where music was front and center. We both had extensive music collections growing up, including CD’s, cassettes, and vinyl. Jesse worked at a Spec’s Music record shop growing up, as a radio DJ in college, and always had dreams of opening up a record shop.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1500C Elizabeth Avenue
West Palm Beach, FL 33401 - Website: rustandwax.com
- Phone: 954-770-2179
- Email: hello@rustandwax.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rustandwax/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RustandWax/
Getting in touch: VoyageMIA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
