The Exclusive Company record store in Green Bay closed its doors for the final time today after 37 years in the community.
The downtown store has been a music fixture across the state for the last 66 years, with the first location in West Bend.
Tom Smith was the manager of the Green Bay store for 34 of its 37 years. He saw a lot of changes to the music industry and the store, but nothing like what happened last November.
When founder James "Mr. G" Giombetti passed away in November, the fate of the store was undetermined. "We kind of thought we would be going on we kind of thought there was a secession plan," said Smith.
"It guarantees the legacy of Mr. G. in some regard where the place could never turn into something that he would've hated," said Smith.
The store held a clearance sale of the vinyls and CD's over the last several weeks with local fans looking to keep a piece of history.
This tangible piece of history is what many of the shoppers say they loved. Owning a vinyl or CD brings back memories of a bygone era. An era that some music fans still long for.
Matthew Lutzow was a regular at the store and visited several of the locations in the state. He says the community of the store in Green Bay is what he'll miss most.
"You see all different people all walks of life come in here, young and old, it's neat. It's a really cool experience to be able to have this in my life," said Lutzow.
While Smith is looking forward to having some time to relax, it doesn't sound like he'll be out of the music scene in the area for too long.
He says he'll make an announcement later in July as to what's next for music passion.
