America's Groove Honored w/City Business Appreciation Award

(FROM LEFT, EFFINGHAM MAYOR JEFF BLOEMKER AND AARON WILSON OF AMERICA'S GROOVE RECORD STORE)

The City of Effingham has named America’s Groove Record Store as a recipient of the City of Effingham’s Business Appreciation Award.

Mayor Jeff Bloemker stated, “We applaud the Wilsons’ entrepreneurial spirit!  They have applied their passion and creativity to their hobby and have turned it all into a great business. They have a cult following and I love that they are located in the Village Square Mall.”

Aaron and Brianne Wilson are the owners of America’s Groove Record Store. They opened the store located in the Village Square Mall in 2016 as they wanted to bring something “cool” back to the mall, and it has been better than they could have imagined. In fact, coming up this February, they will be celebrating their two-year anniversary. Within the first year, they doubled their space with an expansion that included a back room containing arcade games and a stage area for live performances. Nominator Darin Blickem describes the store as “a place for music lovers to find new and used vinyl, CDs and even cassettes! They also carry new and used stereo equipment, toys, video games and consoles, and a few other funky items.”

Aaron Wilson holds family friendly bands to play at least once a month in the back room. The store also participates in the Record Store Day program where twice a year, Record Store Day and Black Friday, special vinyl releases are made available to independent record store owners. These sales attract record collector enthusiasts who “record-store hop” on these days to find these special additions to their collections. America’s Groove hosts a biannual Toy Show that includes several vendors and brings in many attendees.