April 4, 2022 – West Bend, WI – The red-lettered neon Exclusive Co. sign no longer hangs in the window at 156 N. Main Street in West Bend, WI. On Tuesday, April 5, 2022 the doors will be shut, inventory assessed and by Wednesday, April 6 a new dawn in music will break with the opening of the store Beat Goes On Records and more.
The staff at The Exclusive Co. has spent the past few weeks cleaning and noting inventory and cleaning some more. “We found an old bottle of Fireball whiskey in the back room,” said the Mikayla. “It had been opened; we figured it belonged to Dennis.”
That would be ‘the’ Dennis Benn the longtime manager of the store.
Other valuables included the red-lettered neon sign, now sitting between stand-up cardboard cutouts of AC/DC and Mariah Carey.
Joe and Mary Zaremba are the new owners of the business. Joe, in particular, was the driving force in making the deal happen.
“I’ve been buying records since I was 10 years old and I’ve just been a music fanatic. I definitely like music and I love vinyl and I love that place.
“I’ve been going there (to The Exclusive Co.) since the 80s and when I found out there was a chance it could go away, it really impacted me hard,” said Joe.
“I went home and talked to Mary, and she said it was kind of interesting and let’s look into it further.
“The reality is when I reached out to Exclusive, I didn’t know if it was an option. I started to hear other stores were being liquidated so I didn’t know if they already had a plan. When I reached out we had a really great conversation and agreed there’s a vision we both had and so here we are.”
As far as the new name for the shop, Joe said it came from brainstorming.
“I went back to some of the old record stores I used to go to when I was a kid and decided against all those. This just felt good; it continues the story that’s why we picked it,” he said.
Questioned whether the Exclusive Co. asked that the name be changed as part of the deal, Zaremba said simply, “It was very clear this brand is going away. So, we had to come up with something pretty quick.”
The community reaction to the changeover has been “overwhelming and positive.”
“Mostly it has been humbling,” said Joe. “Everybody just seems to realize it’s the right fit.”
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The Exclusive Co. was known for its bins of 33 rpm records categorized in alphabetical order by music genera. The smell of Pisculli when you walked through the heavy wooden door. The black flecked terrazzo floor and the ever-changing rock n’ roll posters plastered on the walls.
Questioned what will change, Joe said, “We don’t want to break anything that’s not broken. Our goal is to keep it super positive; you know, the formula works there and the people… we don’t want to do anything to mess that up.”
