Conflicted by the rating here because on one hand it seems low to me. Having said that, I wasn't wowed by my experience nor was I even acknowledged in the slightest. Well if you find yourself smack dab in the streets of Manhattan near Radio City and Rockefeller Center, you'll have no trouble finding this record store. Purely unexpected and to my delight, I popped in here while we were in the area. The selection here is definitely above average. Country, hip hop, alternative, metal, and heavy on classic rock. Based on the location of the shop, I was surprised to see the prices for new records were priced very fairly. Like I mentioned, I was not greeted once by either employee. To me, that's a huge no no. Imagine if someone walked into your house and you were completely ignored? No excuse for that in my book, especially when you're in the business of selling. Though a nice, varied selection, nothing struck me as completely original to this store, which is something I look for in other cities. Based on my experience, I wouldn't come out of my way, nor would I recommend. But I think the three stars rating factors in their solid selection of records. Just trying to review them fairly! read more

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Always closed for events for some reason. The selection isn't very good for the one part of the store they allowed me to visit. Super busy and hardly any room to walk around. The prices were very expensive and not a great value. The service was fine, I didn't have any issues with it. read more

Made 2 different online orders, nothing sent after months of waiting, zero customer service (always having a 'busier time than usual' so don't reply for days/weeks, NEVER AGAIN. read more

Really cool new store at Rockefeller Center! A big selection and some records are under $5 read more

Rough Trade - Pop Vinyl - Vinyl Records Near Me - New York, New York

Online orders only. Have placed 3 orders relatively recently. 1st order went off without a hitch - well packaged and shipped reasonably quickly, no issues. 2nd order came in and I realized is the wrong variant, their own internal inventory sticker was placed on a different variant a have now emailed for days with no response. 3rd order has taken a few weeks to ship, but finally was notified of shipping. Decent records, but it appears that accuracy and customer service is just not their thing. read more

Went to an album release show recently and honestly it was an amazing experience! Very well run between entering the venue, receiving our vinyls, meet and greet and such. Not oversold either which is a RARITY for NYC shows these days. Would definitely come back the next time an artist I like has an event here!! read more

Placed order for an item and it took a month to ship. Their website says as soon as possible for shipping. What could possibly take four weeks to ship. No communication from them and when I sent an inquiry it was returned with no details and note that multiple inquiries will place yours at the bottom on their queue. Meanwhile they have been paid and you just wait. Still waiting but no chance now to receive the item needed by my deadline which I thought a month was ample time. Interesting I also ordered several items on the same date from other vendors across the county and all have been received weeks ago. Will never order from this company again. Fingers crossed when I do get my order it will be correct and good quality. read more

I really want to give Rough Trade NYC five stars, but this Rockefeller Plaza location is only a fraction of the size of their Williamsburg, Brooklyn location (which closed down due to the COVID-19 pandemic). The Brooklyn location existed for about 7 years and it was PHENOMENAL (it was my favorite record store in NYC while it existed). Pros: It's very accessible by subway - steps away from the 47th-50th Streets-Rockefeller Center station (B, D, F, M trains). There are a lot of events here (performances and signings) - apparently Green Day played here on 1/19/24 for the release of their Saviors album. I was able to meet Thurston Moore (guitarist from Sonic Youth) and Randall Poster (music supervisor) here back in December 2022. There's a variety of new vinyl records (rock, metal, jazz, hip hop) and many "Rough Trade Exclusive" pressings. There's a section of autographed LPs. Also the photo booth and wall of celebrity photos is really fun! Cons: It's a very small shop. It's not a comfortable experience shopping here, I don't like having to maneuver around people while I'm flipping through records. A lot of times I order records online and pick them up at the store. The staff employees do have an apathetic vibe - the shop was closed due to "annual inventory" (which is weird, I feel like that's something that can be done outside of store hours so the store doesn't lose revenue). For one of the most influential indie labels of all time (The Smiths, The Strokes, Arcade Fire, etc.), Rough Trade deserves better representation in New York City. read more

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The venue is intimate and so cute, loved seeing beach bunny live! The records printed on the floor is amazing

Selection was so so but good value for current releases, staff were helpful when I asked them to look up something, nice and spacious and well located read more

I pre-ordered a signed book from Rough Trade back when it was first announced (April 30th) for a planned release date of early October. During that almost 6 months, the only word I got from them was that the US orders would be shipping a month after the release date. That release date came and went, I reached out and they proceeded to not tell me an updated shipping, but that they were still waiting on the items to arrive. Today (11/19), two weeks after the updated shipping date, they told me that they "did not have enough stock to fulfill your order", so they canceled and refunded. How do you not have enough stock to fulfill an order that was made more than 6 months ago. I will never order from them again. Terrible customer service and it seems like they can't even figure out how to fill pre-orders correctly. read more

Kept money for 2 months intrest free and recieved nothing but a cancellation! Do not waste your time with this company.

My husband orders albums from Rough Trade all the time so of course he couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit the actual store when we were in NYC. I did not know but was very pleasantly surprised to find that it's basically on the first level of the 30 Rock building. So that's an added bonus for those of you less into records. Anyway, the store itself isn't huge, but it is well organized and fun to look around. There's a book section, which I also did not expect but very much enjoyed. And there are some really interesting poster prints for sale. I can't say much about the selection really not being the music aficionado in the family, but I did have fun looking around. The one thing that did make me sad was not one employee acknowledged us at all ... no greeting, no can I help you, nothing. But they were super glad to take our money. read more

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I haven't used Yelp in years, but my experience with Rough Trade online was so bad that they got me back on here. I preordered a 4 LP vinyl on 2/11 for 3/14 release. Gave it a week or so after the release date, got no shipping info. Signed on to my profile & the whole listing was removed from their site even though the order went through. Reached out to customer service, was told there was an issue with their supplier & I just needed to wait, but other retailers successfully delivered the same release. After more than a month dealing with customer service & simply being told to wait indefinitely, I decide to cancel. Now I can't get in touch with customer service, no one responds to messages or emails. I log into my profile, there's an option to cancel there. ALL THE ACTION BUTTONS IN MY USER PROFILE WERE UNUSABLE... I couldn't cancel, edit my address, I couldn't do anything. So here I am, almost seven weeks after the release date with no album, no refund, no information, & really no respect for or from Rough Trade. Just initiated a chargeback with my bank & I'll never buy from these guys again. read more

Employees were not friendly at all and almost annoyed that i dared to have to pull them away from their conversation so i could check out. Very poorly organized with the listening event i attended as well. Just a general mess. Also the up charging on some of the newer releases is crazy. read more

Cool record store in Rockefeller center which made for some fun shopping! Now yes the prices are high on some things but not everything and part of the fun is just the experience. As an example. Kids wanted Fleetwood Mac Rumors vinyl and the price here was actually $10 cheaper than Amazon but conversely the Beastie Boys book was more than twice the price of Amazon. Plus you have to remember that this area gets a lot of tourists from overseas so it's priced accordingly It's a fun shop with lots of cool finds - only complaint is that it's crazy warm in the store for some reason! But it was a fun shop and we left with some new cool vinyl ! read more

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Rough Trade was a surprise find on July 22, 2021. They just moved to Rockefeller Plaza June 1st after closing their Williamsburg location. It's a great store with cool floors and a photo booth! They have vinyl, posters, books, cassette tapes and CD's. There's new and used. It's well organized and the employees are super nice! I'm recommending you visit! They're open 24 hours on line too. read more

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Do not waste your time with this company. Their customer service is some of the worst I've interacted. Like others have noted, they do not respond to emails and are annoyed when you call their office after failing to reach their customer service line (no one ever picks up). Just all around horrible experience. STAY AWAY read more

I ordered a record from them over four months ago and have been left in the dark. I emailed them more than six times for an update, but never received a response. When I finally reached out to their customer service line, they seemed uninterested and annoyed by my request for help. They informed me that they had lost my order and couldn't fulfill it, only offering a refund. It's frustrating that they lost an order and didn't bother to inform me, especially when I was trying so hard to get an answer. This is the last time for a while that i'm ordering from rough trade read more

scammers. they retroactively placed a limit order on my purchase multiple weeks after my order was confirmed, my card was charged, and shipping was confirmed. The delivery was delayed multiple times and it's clear they mishandled the release in multiple ways. DO NOT trust these people for any new releases. they will attempt to gaslight you to cover up their screw up. read more

RT cancelled my rsd items due to a false start. Searched online and called local shops but sadly they're all sold. Thanks Rough Trade!

I am from the uk so I try to support uk companies and independent record stores, I just went in here today, record store day, 3/4 of the shop is closed off so the staff can stand and chat away from the scum or customers I asked to see the house section, it's in the closed section. Now I know why I shop on discocogs never going back again. The Brooklyn store was better but I haven't been for a while. The experience was very similar to going into a record shop and being ignored as I was by 3 people I had to shout to get attention and it was with great pleasure that I was basically told to fuck off back at ya read more

Really bad online service. I placed a preorder 1/24/25 with an 4/4th release date. They charged my account on 2/11th. On 4/17th I called as I never received my purchase or any communication. Well I was informed they never got the album due to supplier issues while it is readily available elsewhere so I cancelled my order. Now good luck trying to get your refund. After 2 more phone calls to no avail I had to dispute the charge with my credit card company who instantly credited my account. Great name for this company Rough Trade lol it sure is. read more

Terrible online vendor. Never pre-order from them. Placed a pre-order in February. They shipped out the whole stock without sending mine now tell me I'll have to wait till they get a repress. Awful costumer service when trying to find an answer. Took them 8 days to respond to my email read more

The good: Nice selections of indie and alternative rock, and a small patch section. There is an experimental section though tiny. Decent tshirt selection. Good stock of books. The bad: jazz and world sections are minuscule. Overall stock is pretty thin. Antiseptic vibe in the store, maybe in part because it's right next to the Tonight Show entrance. The ugly: used vinyl prices elicit some sticker shock. Saw mostly $30-40 for the usual hodge podge. read more

I went into this record store because Ive been following on instagram for the longest time and I finally had a chance to go to NYC and I loved going into here. I wished the electronic area was a bit bigger but the place is a bit small. They did not have any merch in my size unfortunately... read more

they were pretty cool only the CD and Cassette collection was very small, whilst the vinyl records took up half the store. Good CDs, many of which were rare. The posters were cool too. If you like vinyl then definitely stop by when you're in new york. I can see why they don't have much cassettes and CDs because no one uses cassettes anymore and CDs and less popular but dam. read more

The old Williamsburg Rough Trade was a beautiful, wonderful, classic record store. The staff were laid back, the records were spaced out, and there were lots of them. The shows in the back venue were awesome and this was a REAL musical hub for everyone in Brooklyn and NYC. The Manhattan Rough Trade is a cheeseball tourist destination with a watered down, annoyingly awkward space, that has pretty much the least interesting location ever. I've never seen a record store make such a bad transformation before. I went there yesterday after a year--and the staff looked grumpy, the shoppers were clueless tourists, and the vibe was really depressing. Sort it out Rough Trade!!!! read more

I've been at Rough Trade for 15 minutes and have not seen a single employee on a Saturday at 11am. I could have easily stolen so much. Cool store but horrible service read more

Rough Trade - Vinyl Records Near Me - New York, New York

I decided to visit the store on record store day. I got here at 2pm and saw there was a massive line there, and I waited in the line for 2 while hours, until I got to the store, and supposedly you could have entered the store at any time, and the line was only to ask for a record story day exclusive item. And they kept all the record store items in the back, so I couldn't even see any of the exclusive items after waiting for all those hours. The website was not clear, and neither was their social media page. I am utterly upset by this store. read more

Rough Trade - The extremely long line. - Vinyl Records Near Me - New York, New York

Serafine helped me out a lot, very nice person. Also Miss. Christina is very helpful and nice. Good spot to get your leather. read more

Rough Trade - Bought a leather vest - Vinyl Records Near Me - New York, New York

well kept store. organized super well. 25$ band tees and records ranging from like 19-40$ from what i saw but there were so many so the range could def be bigger read more

Stopped there hoping to find something off of my "have-to-buy" list, but did not find much. The good: Store is cute. Kind of small but cute. They have a few good selection, and a few used vinyl. They have a great board to announce upcoming shows. Staff is helpful. Good jazz section it seems. Prices are average for new vinyls. The bad: Finding classic rock bands is hard as they only have a few specific titles from each band (for example, they had a few reeditions from The Beatles, but no White Album, Let it Be, or Magical Mystery Tour?) Not a lot of stuff from overseas or Canada. It is a nice little stop but if you have specific taste in music or bands, you will miss out. read more

Popped in here because of their legendary reputation and almost laughed out loud at the absurd pricing. I know we're in Manhattan, but you'd have to be an absolute idiot to pay these prices. Kids, we live in a global market now. It's FUN to find items "out in the wild" instead of finding them online, but not when they've got, for instance, a used copy of Bjork's "Post" with a misprint that they want $250 for when there are multiple copies online in similar or better condition for $50. This is just one example of the outrageous pricing. The selection is also comically limited. Don't waste your time. read more

This place is amazing when it comes to vinyls. They have every genre from Rock, metal, Pop, R&B, Hip-Hop, Rap, DanceHaul. They even had vinyls I didn't know were still being made. The service from the staff is amazing as well. Don't be afraid to ask for a record you don't see. Cost of the records range from 20+ which is absolutely affordable for records. They have a BUNCH of recent albums that came out. I'd say they have from the late 70's to today. I absolutely recommended this place to all my fellow record collectors. read more

The most overpriced record store I have ever been to. I should have just put my wallet in their counter and said "help yourselves."

Overpriced with a limited selection. I can't imagine rent here is cheap so they probably just cater to tourists.

Eh. Very underwhelming. The store is very clean and organized but, selection for me was sparse. The entire inventory of CDs was about three feet long on ONE shelf, and a few box sets. Tons of current alt rock vinyl, and the used selection of vinyl was decent, but again underwhelming. Not what I expect from a record store in NYC. read more

This was a nice little record store near Rockefeller Center. I haven't been to the other location so I don't have anything to compare it to. They had a good, interesting collection. My daughter bought an obscure vinyl that she really wanted, so we left happy! read more

I had done some research to see what was in the store and was only able to find one of the five items. Had to go out of the way to get help, but the staff was cool. read more