AN INDEPENDENT Edinburgh record store has been named by the Financial Times as one of the world’s best.
Thorne Records in Bruntsfield was opened by owner Mark Thorne in 2022 and offers locals and those from outside the city a diverse range of music from all eras.
With an unmissable yellow exterior and an ever-rotating display of the team’s current record picks in the window, the shop also holds listening parties and events for music lovers.
Mark, having been in the record business for 25 years now, prides himself on giving each customer a tailored service, based on their unique tastes.
Now, Thorne Records has been chosen as one of the best in the world, alongside stores in New York City, Paris, Sydney and Budapest.
The Financial Times describe the unique shop as “hard to miss among the specialty shops and restaurants in the fashionable Edinburgh neighbourhood of Bruntsfield”.
An illuminated neon sign in the high-street store says “Records make your life better”, which Mark says is what life is all about – “it’s about the little things that make your life better”.
As well as giving people the gift of good music, Thorne Records also donates a percentage of every sale to Multiple Sclerosis Society Scotland.
Speaking today on how he feels about being included on the list, Mark said: “I’m really proud after 34 months to have done it.
“I don’t sell online or do mail order, I do everything over the counter, which I was told would never work.
“I was determined to do it that way, as that way you can focus on the customer.
“I know my customers’ names and I know what they want.
“This is the eighth record shop I’ve worked in, and I’ve been doing it since I was sixteen years old, but it’s the first shop I’ve owned.
“I know what people want from a record shop and they want to feel happier on the way out than they did on the way in.
“They want to spend their disposable income in an environment where they are welcome and welcomed.”
On the success of the business, Mark spoke on the varying demographics who walk through his yellow doors: “It’s growing all the time.
“People are coming in with their daughters and sons and they are buying their first albums.
“I’m seeing really old people coming in who haven’t played a record in years, and then single digit people picking up their first record.
“Everyone is discovering it or rediscovering it, and it’s a lovely thing to witness.”
As for the secret to running one of the world’s greatest record stores, Mark said: “Be positive, don’t be cynical, and lead from the front and people will come.”
