When you step into Hitt Records, you step into a community of music lovers. Adorned with lime green walls, shelves of records and string lights, owners Kyle Cook and Taylor Bacon have put their soul into their record store since the very beginning.

“We really wanted [Hitt Records] to be a communal space that people wanted to come check out,” Cook said. “We feel like there’s this struggle, especially in modern day with the internet, where everything is just at your fingertips, so we wanted to have a shop [that] people wanted to visit even if they can find everything on their phone.”

When the shop first opened, it was a “purely speakeasy” kind of place, Cook said. The two owners were selling their own extensive record collections in the upstairs of what used to be a video rental store. They built their own record bins, had no advertising and were only open on weekends.

Hitt Records became a reality after the owners realized the lack of music stores in Columbia.

“Everyone was driving to Kansas City or St. Louis to get their music,” Cook said. “The other record stores that did exist kind of fizzled out. The conversation of ‘someone should open a record store’ went on for years, and then it evolved to, ‘man, we should open a record store.’”
The conversation of wanting a record store translates to many others around Columbia. Part-time Hitt Records clerk and occasional after-hours show booker Jon Hadusek knew from the minute he stepped into Hitt Records that it was going to be his second home.

“Having been from Columbia, I always wanted an independent record store,” Hadusek said. “I just immediately recognized that this is the record store that’s going to have a couch in it and where it’s going to be okay to like, drink a beer inside of it. It has a very wholesome and organic atmosphere that felt, as a music fan, very comforting. I think that’s part of the reason why Hitt Records is still around.”

Cook and Bacon met many years ago when they both worked at the KOPN radio station and Shakespeare’s Pizza simultaneously.

“Really, I hit it off with [Bacon] when he came in to Shakespeare’s and said, ‘I wanna know who’s playing The Kinks,’ and I told him it was me,” Cook said. “He introduced himself and told me that he and his friends were putting on a Kinks musical at Stephens College, and they did.”

Hitt Records, in addition to selling records and booking shows, has a record label. The name, Cook said, has altered as a result of various advertising artwork commissions such as stickers from Hitt Rexxx to Hitt Street Records.

“The label was sort of born out of this shop,” Cook said. “We’ve had so much bootleg artwork done [for our record label]. People will make stickers and logos for us.”

The owners try to cater to their customers by providing a wide range of music. From returning customers to fresh new faces, Hadusek said, anyone can find a record they are interested in.

“The collection here is extremely well curated,” Hadusek said. “Generally, Kyle and Taylor are knowledgeable enough to know what the kids want to buy and what the hardcore collectors want to buy. They’ll buy rare psychedelic records but they also buy, like, Kendrick Lamar. It’s a very universal selection.”

Independent businesses in Columbia are a large part of the heart of downtown. Hitt Records, which is now six years old, is all about facilitating interactions with people.

“By supporting independent businesses, you’re generally supporting individuals, a family or a group of people who are doing, hopefully, what they love to do,” Hadusek said. “Hopefully by supporting them, you are supporting what they love to do. I can walk in here, put my record down and have a conversation and make a friend or have a genuine interaction.”

The things that those who work at Hitt Records love to do, in the words of Hadusek and Cook, is sell music and meet people.

“There’s a struggle, I think, for everyone in this world between doing something that satisfies you and something you survive and thrive at,” Cook said. “You should focus on the thing that you think you can change and do good with.”

Hitt Records is located at 10 Hitt St. in Columbia from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday.

_Edited by Alexandra Sharp | asharp@themaneater.com_