On the front door of Everett's Bargain CDs Records & Tapes is posted a sign that reads, "step into a world of magic and excitement."
You can't help but sense a bit of magic in the air when you walk into Gordy Arlin's store and the needle gently touches the vinyl.
"It's the fairy dust of the music!" He exclaimed. "Music, music, music!"
Gordy has been buying and selling cassettes, CDs, DVDs and records in Everett for 28 years -- everything from Sheena Easton to Lawrence Welk.
"It's kind of a time machine," he said. "You thumb through and you see a record and remember that was when I asked Betty Lou for a date and she said no!"
The time machine hasn't always been good to Gordy. The store has almost gone under four times.
"We had to decide if we were really going to do this because record stores are dying for sure," he said. "We thought that maybe if we're the last one standing it might work."
Indeed, Bargain CDs Records and Tapes is now the last record store remaining in all of Everett. Gordy went all-in, moving his store to a bigger, more visible location at 25th and Broadway. He believes his world has kept spinning here because of something cosmic.
"Our attitude is play a fair game and apply ourselves. That seems to be what scripture says the rules of the universe are, and it works."
But how to continue surviving with an increasingly electronic marketplace?
Record stores are an increasingly endangered species. iTunes, Spotify and file sharing have taken a big bite out of the stores, which were once a staple across the country.
Between 2003 and 2013, the number of independent record stores dropped by 50-percent. There are now estimated to be fewer than 15-hundred record stores across the U.S.
Gordy is counting on the likes of Tony Howes, his teenage daughter Tori, and their matching turntable tattoos.
They said stores like Gordy's help people experience music on a deeper level.
"So, she gets albums that she likes and I get albums that I like," said Tony. "Then we go home an it's one side hers, one side mine. One side hers, one side mine. We share them!"
It has them believing there really is something to that 'fairy dust' in this dusty old record store.
