SAN ANTONIO — Owning a record store was George Mendoza’s dream come true. 

“The space is an extension of my bedroom as a teenager. Some of the posters that are up on the wall are the posters I had as a teenager,” Mendoza said. 

He co-own’s Friends of Sound Records in the heart of San Antonio. 

What You Need To Know

  • Small business owners in Texas are dealing with dramatic upticks in rent

  • One expert told Spectrum News 1 that rents are rising fastest in the South 

  • A lot of that, he said, is due to people relocating to states including Texas 

 

“We have rock records, gospel records, soul records, jazz, blues, funk,” Mendoza said. “Also 45s, which is something you don’t really see too often with most record stores. They are not going to have this type of selection.”

Since 2016, the store has been a mainstay in San Antonio, but it’s relocating in October.

His business partner, David Haffner, says rent skyrocketed when new ownership took over the strip.

“They came in and they didn’t want to double the rent, but almost double. It increased about 85%,” Haffner said. 

Rent went up more than $1,500 a month.

“Record stores inevitably go into neighborhoods and open up before they are nice,” Haffner said. “The natural lifecycle rent-wise for a record store is to get priced out unless you buy the building that you are in.” 

He knows this from experience.

Friends of Sound was priced out of its original Austin location in 2016 after serving sounds in the state capital for 10 years.

Experts say small businesses are feeling the financial squeeze now more than compared to recent years.

Bank of America Institute economist Taylor Bowley says retail rent has risen the fastest in South. 

“Compared to the 2019 average, as of July, rent payments were up 25% higher than the 2019 average,” Bowley said. 

Bowley says this is due to migration trends.

The growing number of individuals relocating to states like Texas results in higher demand for property owned by small businesses. 

“Those micro businesses are feeling more pressure than firms that are more established,” Bowley said. 

Bowley says higher rent cuts into the profit margins for smaller businesses. 

For Mendoza, it’s bittersweet packing up out of a space he’s called home for eight years. 

“I guess the positive is we get to take all of the experiences, and we to take all the foundational work that we’ve done here and we get to take it to a new place,” Mendoza said. 

Keeping his childhood dream alive one record at a time.