Berks County record shop saw boost in sales thanks to Taylor Swift
KUTZTOWN, Pa. (CBS) -- Before she may make an appearance at the Super Bowl, Taylor Swift is kicking off an exciting next few weeks.
The pop star has sold millions of CDs, vinyl records and the like throughout her career. And for Young Ones Records, she's boosting sales.
"We sell pretty much everything to a wide range of age groups," Young Ones Records owner Chris Holt said.
Holt owns the small business nestled in Kutztown.
"You never know who's going to come in here," he said.
From jazz records to indie and pop rock, Young Ones has just about it all -- Swift included.
"We have had some people cry they were so happy they got the limited edition thing they wanted," Holt said.
The Berks County native is their bestselling artist.
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"She's done a lot for indie retail with indie exclusives, and we had 'Folklore' CDs signed. We sold over 1,000 of those, which is a crazy, crazy number I mean these days to sell like 10 or 20 CDs," Holt said.
Holt saw an explosion in sales before the holidays for Swift's limited edition "Folklore: Long Pond Studio Sessions" record.
"I wanted to make sure her local fans could get it so we ordered 1,000 copies of it," Holt said. "So we had 1,000 out of 75,000."
Those thousand copies came in for Record Store Day back in April and mostly sat on the shelf.
Holt's unsure how the message got out months later but once it did, this place became a "Holy Ground" for Swifties.
"We had a couple of people from Ohio. Somebody drove from Mississippi; a guy flew here from Colorado," he said. "People driving from Baltimore, D.C., Virginia."
Sales for the Grammy-winning artists here have slowed since the limited edition release sold out weeks ago.
Still, in his 30-plus years in business, Holt's never seen anything quite like this.
"When they have that thing in their hands, you know, it's like one of those things, so they grab it and they're like hold it like I'm never gonna let it go," he said.
If Swift is listening, Holt said he'd love to have her swing by when she comes home.
"I don't know how we'd control the crowd, but it would be pretty cool," he said.
Swift announced Sunday while accepting her 13th Grammy that her next studio album will be released April 19. It's called "The Tortured Poets Department," and Young Ones is sure it'll be a big seller.
Swift went on to win her fourth Grammy for album of the year later in the night, breaking the record for most wins in that category.
