Real Groovy

Love this place, so much stock, you could be lost in here for hours!
I love that you can check out your LP selection at the listening station before buying. Great old school touch!

The mothership of record stores seems to be morphing into a gift store of sorts. It still has a good selection of new and second hand CDs, lots of vinyl and even some cassette tapes! But you’ll probably have to make your way through the tacky student gifts and the vigilant security guard to find them. Worth an hour or two on a rainy day though.

My absolute must visit place when in Auckland, many hours spent browsing the racks and shelves.

The place to go to for music in Queen Street area, racks and racks of new and used vinyl, CD’s DVD’s and Blu Ray, you may find a real gem. Have expanded in recent times to include clothing and now a coffee bar has appeared too.

this place is pretty sweet, second hand clothes, cute coffee stall, comics, records and random books… the main reason I come here is for the second hand/​vintage clothes store. And when I say «vintage» I do mean authentic apparel, none of that retro/1980−00’s crap you see for three times the prices in tons of other second hand places (don’t even get me started on that issue). I bought a beautiful 1960’s beaded dress for and quite a few American-​vintage items. They do sell retro and more recent things as well, but there’s an overall «flavour» to what they stock (aha. Hipster? You won’t find second hand Glassons that’s for sure). There’s a guy who works here (or maybe he owns it), anyway, look you for a guy with glasses and an American accent; he’s great! He seems to really know his stuff about these types of clothes so go chat him up with fashion.

It must be kind of weird to be the best in the city at something that is kind of irrelevant and outdated and pretty much didn’t matter any more. This seems to be the position that Real Groovy currently occupies. It’s definitely the place you want to go when you want to buy a cd (do people want to buy cds any mo=re? no. definitely not.). But that’s not a popular thing, right. So it’s kind of like the last days of the Roman Empire in there now. They have all these ‘funny books’ and discount sections and little pop culture statuettes and all of that kind of crap. Worth a look for the fading decadence.

I spent a lot of time here as a teenager, browsing through the racks, not looking for anything in particular but buying cheap records with cool cover art. Some of them turned out to actually have good music, others. not so much. Nowadays I find my music using a more.direct.route, so I have to say I dont spend much (any) time there any more.
Real Groovy has changed with the times as well, however, with a vastly diversified space. The wisest decision is having a Barista right next to the door, which must send waves of coffee aroma throughout the shop. Although that could be a problem considering they now sell clothes. They also have a wide range of books, dvds, and clothing. However, the core business of real groovy still remains music, and they have a great range. They also do trade in, and will buy old records and albums off you — although they aren’t exactly paying market value.

I can’t imagine Auckland without Real Groovy. As a teenager I would literally spend hours in here flicking through the LPs and checking out the boys.
I still own some very random Flying Nun recordings and will NEVER part with my record collection. Much of it was purchased here and although the shop has changed a lot over the years and diversified, in lots of ways it hasn’t changed at all.
Of course the shine of its heydey has been a little dulled but that’s just because the times have changed (she said sounding like an old timer). There’s still nowhere else like it and long may it fly the flag for vinyl, turntables and the trading of secondhand music. The clothes, books and the rest are all a bonus.

Against today’s backdrop of digital downloads and homogenising tastes, it’s gratifying to know that Real Groovy still exists. It was teetering on the brink there for a while, but it’s since diversified enough to broaden its appeal without losing it’s authentic record store charm. So while coffee, DVDs, quirky gifts and cool clothing now sit alongside the vast stock of CDs and records, it’s still the same shop I fell in love with as a teenager. Walking through the doors and seeing the bright flashing ‘Real Groovy Records’ sign still makes me feel all kinds of happiness, and once in it’s very easy to spend a few hours browsing for stuff you won’t find anywhere else. The book section is stuffed full of great stuff from rock histories all the way through to classic fiction and philosophy books, and the vinyl collection is extensive.
The last bastion of the independent, there is no place like Real Groovy. In a world where everything is the bloody same, isn’t that something to treasure?

One of the places I always stop at when walking around the CBD, Real Groovy feels like a trip back in time. Sometimes I walk around the huge amount of LP’s in the back whilst wearing my Doc Martens and pretend I’m Liv Tyler in Empire Records.
The store has the perfect mixture of all the things that interest me in life: music, books and clothing. However, it is the book section that always takes my fancy and can keep me enchanted for hours, as the store harbours a selection of fiction and non-​fiction, the likes of which I have seen in no other store in Auckland. Books about tattoos and punks nestled together with Penguin Classics and Palahnuik makes for an eclectic but interesting combination. The clothing section is always worth a look too, with guys and girls clothing from the likes of Stussy and Wrangler as well as a range of vintage finds from the amazing downtown store Peachy Keen.
It’s such a shame to think that inevitably the store is going to go the way of so many other independent record stores that just can’t compete with the likes Amazon and thepiratebay as it offers a truly unique experience on the otherwise characterless backdrop of Queen Street.

Real Groovy is the kind of record-​store experience to be cherished by those of us who remember the movie High Fidelity rather fondly. The huge selection of new and used LPs are the big draw card here, and I always have so much fun rummaging for old favourites and discovering new stuff too. It’s the kind of place where the staff won’t blink an eyelid if you walk in and tell them you need the 1974 Italian Fonit Cetra pressing of Delirium III to complete your collection.
Real Groovy has had a proud, if somewhat floundering, history in New Zealand. They closed their Christchurch branch a while back and it looked like the Auckland shop might go the same way for a while there. So get in while it lasts I say, there’s nothing like supporting local independent music retail.