Lou's Records

Lou's Records located in Encinitas, CA since 1980

We sell a unique mix of used and new vinyl, CD's, and cassettes as well as turntables, DVD's, Lou's Records T-shirts, gift certificates and accessories.

Lou's Records first opened its doors on February 15th, 1980 in a small, nondescript strip mall in the beachside community of Cardiff by the Sea, California. As our inventory expanded so did our reputation for having hard-to-find releases. We quickly grew and in 1982 our need for a larger space landed us in a 1200 sq ft storefront in downtown Encinitas. Foot traffic and our inventory continued to grow throughout the 80's and in 1990 we needed even more space and moved to our present location.

There have been many performances and events held at the store over the years; notably the Mazzy Star display contest winning event when the store was transformed into an invite only nightclub extravaganza and a series of Jack Johnson events over a number of years that started small in 2001 in a corner of the store and concluded in 2005 where an estimated 3500 people filled the parking lots, streets and unfortunately the area near the train tracks just across from the store which had the event shut down by the sheriff within 20 minutes of starting because of safety issues..