By Cameron Lee
May 3, 2020
Since 2005, Charlotte’s Lunchbox Records has been selling new and used vinyl, CDs, and cassettes in Plaza Midwood. The name, originating from an indie punk label in the ‘90s, was adopted by Scott Wishart, whose brother owned the label. Wishart, once a manager at Manifest, rekindled the Lunchbox Records brand when he opened his new record store on Central Avenue in 2005.
Having expanded to sell books, DVDs, and their very own merch, Lunchbox Records has also hosted several music events over the years. Some Charlotte natives may remember the raucous rock shows in the alley for neighborhood music festivals like Recess and Treasure Fest, but since the move to the larger building on 825 Central Ave., the store has seen more shows and even Grammy Award-winning artists like Kacey Musgraves and Steep Canyon Rangers.
While the bright blue brick store on Central has expanded their inventory of records and products since moving in 2016, the website has been fairly stagnant over the years. The stay-at-home order obviously changed things: “It was sort of planned but the pandemic definitely made it number one priority,” Wishart said in a message. With the help of full-time local programmers and store patrons Rob Banker and Melinda Jones, Lunchbox Records now has a fully functional e-commerce site. “We have a pretty bare bones POS system and converting that information into something we could use for the website was a big task. Rob wrote a JavaScript application to do the conversions for us,” Wishart said.
The new website now makes available most of their expansive catalog spanning a multitude of genres, all neatly categorized. It also features a local music section with everything from Benji Hughes to Junior Astronomers to Anthony Hamilton. You can even purchase some of the original Lunchbox Records merchandise (shirts, hats, pins, and stickers) designed by Charlotte artists Lee Herrera, Dustin Harbin, HNin Nie, and Brett Toukatly.
Check out the new Lunchbox Records website.
Read next:
