Vinyl Dinosaur Opens At New Location, Readies For Grand Opening

BERKELEY, NJ — The days have been long and the workload heavy for Steven Baeli over the past three weeks, but as soon as the owner of Vinyl Dinosaur walked into his store’s new location in Bayville, he knew he was home.

After moving from its previous location less than a mile up Atlantic City Boulevard, Vinyl Dinosaur reopened for business on Sunday. The space is far from finished, Baeli knows, but amid all of the moving boxes and clutter that will eventually find a home, the new location of the popular record and bookstore is starting to take shape slowly but surely.

There is still plenty to do around a store space that occupies nearly twice the square footage of its previous location. But since opening in 2019, Vinyl Dinosaur has welcomed customers who have come from both near and far to find a community that is unique and connected by its love of all things vinyl.

Baeli is now “functional and open”, but it will be a bit before the store’s new location is ready to celebrate its Grand Opening. Baeli expects that occasion to arrive sometime around Oct. 2 when he will officially relaunch a business that has drawn customers from around New Jersey and as far away as Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New York.

“It’s been pretty rough,” Baeli told Patch on Tuesday in describing the moving process. “But it’s been worth it because, I mean, it’s vinyl.”

He added: “Vinyl is kind of an entity unto itself. …it’s definitely something people are drawn to.”

Vinyl Dinosaur, which is located at 655 Atlantic City Blvd., is the only Ocean County business that is dedicated to selling records. The next closest can be found in Belmar, a fact that Baeli makes him a bit of a rare bird in business. The store will also sell books in a space named after Baeli’s mother, along with a stage to display instruments and for live music on occasion.

Baeli credits his loyal customer base for keeping Vinyl Dinosaur alive at a time when many small businesses across the country struggled to remain open during the coronavirus pandemic. During the time when he was closed due to COVID-19, Baeli said he routinely heard from customers telling him he had to reopen.

Now, as he settles in the new space and continues to work to get the store ready for its big unveiling early next month, Baeli looks forward to the conversations and community bonds that will continue like they used to in his previous location.

They will do so all because of one reason.

“Let’s face it, when it comes to food and food and water and rent and toiletries, vinyl is probably way, way, way past that, but people will say, ‘Oh, that’s an essential,’” Baeli said.

For the time being, Baeli is only able to offer the sale of vinyl and CDs as the rest of the store space takes shape. Baeli expects to finish the stereo portion of the store sometime on Wednesday before he turns his attention to the bookstore. The library portion of the space will be much larger than at Vinyl Dinosaur’s previous location, but Baeli believes the extra real estate will be worth it. Customers have grown accustomed to finding space to relax with a book, which is all part of the hub that brings people together over a shared interest, Baeli said.

“People will have conversations with total strangers, and they’ll talk about all kinds of things,” he said Tuesday. “People will come and they’ll make friends and talk about, ‘Oh, I have this album’ or ‘You should try this band’ and it’s kind of neat. It’s definitely a community.”