Austin's record shop since 1982. Listen to anything in the store.
- Shop
- Waterloo Records
- Address
- 1105 North Lamar Boulevard
- Town
- Austin, United States
- Established
- 1982
- Formats
- Vinyl, CDs, DVDs
- Crates
- Rock, Country, Blues, Soul, Jazz, Folk, Latin
- In the shop
- Buys collections, Step-free access, In-store gigs, Listening booth
- Opening hours
- Mo-Su 10:00-21:00
Waterloo opened on 1 April 1982, started by Louis Karp in a 1,200 square foot room on South Lamar built out of personal and bought-in collections. John Kunz joined as a partner that October and took full ownership in 1987. It is one of the largest independents anywhere, staffed by forty-odd people who are mostly musicians, and it has taken Best Record Store in the Austin Chronicle's Best of Austin every single year since it opened. You can listen to anything in the shop before buying, it runs over 150 in-store performances a year, and it backs Texas music harder than anyone. The name is what Austin was called first.