A few weeks before I was due to take the winner of the indie music store shopping spree out for some record riffling (the package included two records each from three indie record stores along with some expert shopping advice and picks by yours truly), 30-year-old mainstay Vinyl Fever announced it was closing its doors for good.

Vinyl Fever was a participant in the spree and owner Lee Wolfson was still more than willing to offer the winning bidder store credit. But in the end, rather than stress the finances of an already-closing business (and so the winner wasn’t limited to choosing from a dwindling stock of LPs), we offered to pick up the tab on an extra record at each of the two still-open and thriving stores, Mojo Books & Music in North Tampa and Daddy Kool in downtown St. Petersburg. The winner gladly accepted.

The spree was purchased by Jessica Hellman as a birthday/Christmas present for her vinyl/music loving boyfriend, Jonathan Peskin, though the day we went shopping, it was actually her birthday (and she snagged a few goodies for herself just to make it fair).

This article appears in Jan 20-26, 2011.