Zia Record Exchange

I truly love the fact that this place even exists in our current digital download savvy society. About five years ago, I rediscovered my love of listening to music pressed on vinyl. In my own humble opinion, certain genres of music simply don’t sound the way they should unless they are on vinyl. I also enjoy the packaging and artwork that accompanies an actual hard copy of music. I really doubt that certain artists would have enjoyed the success they did without the packaging to project their «image».
Of all the places that I go to hunt down records, hitting Zia has always been an enjoyable experience. Most of the employees are quite a bit younger than I am and seem to be a bit quirky, which makes me love the place even more. The staff has always been friendly and quite helpful to me over the last few years. I can honestly say that I have never had any kind of a negative experience with a Zia employee. The atmosphere is totally laid back and you don’t have salespeople hovering around you making you feel watched or uncomfortable.
I also love the fact that Zia has a rewards program. When you go in, ask for a card. The staff will explain how it works. Really nice little perk. Also, either bring your own bag or simply do not get one when for checkout time and you get to pick between three different local charitable organizations that will receive a donation for the cost of the bag. Such a great idea on so many different levels. One more thing, if you are ever in a pinch for some cash, Zia will give you a FAIR price for what you bring in to them. They take much better care of you in that aspect… probably the best in Tucson. Trade for credit is the way to go if you have some stuff in nice shape that you don’t really use.
Really nice selection of New and Used with stuff always coming in. You will find some gems and enjoy the time doing so here.

This place is great! For second hand movies and music, you can always find something you’re looking for at a great price! They also have new stuff for cheap, as well! We’ve purchased a lot of our movies here and never had an issue except that we want to keep buying more. We recently just bought the first 4 Harry Potter movies all for a whopping $ 13.

Decent record store! Good punk and alt/​indie selection of new releases. I was pleased to find purity ring, parquet courts, st. vincent, a place to bury strangers etc. hip-​hop section wasn’t remarkable nor the electronic and goth/​industrial. Couldn’t find any Dan Mangan (and other A & C) artists as well as joel Plaskett etc. I’m wondering if the other store has a better or worse selection.
My problem us I want record stores in the southwest to be as good as Toronto and that isn’t going to happen so I have yet to find a store that warrants a 5 star review.

Found out the hard way that this place has a strict «all sales final» policy with vinyl. And yes, that includes brand new.
Let me say first that I thoroughly enjoy the record store experience. Physically sifting through records and finding something worthwhile is fun. Today I purchased a new album and when I got home, it was severely warped and unplayable. When I called the store to inquire about a return, the employee told me, «I am told by my manager that we have a no return policy on any vinyl, as we cannot get our money back from our distributors». This sounds like a problem for the retailer, not the consumer yet here I am, suffering the consequences of said retailer. The employee even admittedly agreed it isn’t fair, but «it’s our policy, so sorry».
To me, it’s simple. I purchased a brand new product. It was defective. Yet I am basically being told, «tough luck, deal with it». Does this seem like an acceptable practice in any other industry? No. Never buying from this store or any Zia store again. And I will make sure as many people I know will hear of my final visit. Way to really encourage the live, personal experience of going to a record store, Zia.

I would like to thank Zia for my vast DVD collection. I spent hours upon hours in there when I lived in Tucson! The prices can’t be beat, the staff is always friendly and helpful, and the selection is mind boggling. If you’re looking to expand your CD or DVD collection I highly recommend Zia!

I went here for the first time in 2012. I had moved from out of state and was hitting every local record store I could find (both Zia’s, Twist & Shout (closed), Toxic Ranch (moving again location tbd), Bookmans (all of them except Ina which isn’t great for vinyl). When I finally made it up to the Zia on Oracle I dug through every single record they had.
After looking through the stacks I notice that underneath there’s a bunch of milk crates filled with dusty records. Eh, I should probably check them out. After looking through every single one of them (there were about a dozen) I found, around the 11^th one, 3 LPs that are among my greatest finds: an original pressing Unicorn Records Black Flag Damaged with a newspaper clipping photo of Henry (which I found out when I brought it home had a hand photocopied SST press kit inside) for $ 3.99, The Stains (SST) Self titled album (Never been repressed, come on SST!) $ 1.99 & Red Cro$s’ 1982 Born Innocent LP on Smoke Seven Records also $ 1.99.
DUDE.
That’s one of those holy grail moments you have in life that no one believes when you tell them later on (or maybe no one cares)
Last year I found Agnostic Front’s Victim In Pain from ’86 (original press on Combat Core) for $ 9.99
Zia on Oracle rules.
They do not have valet parking.

Quickest place for trade. They are always fair and friendly. My kids love to pick movies and soundtracks here. They have a good size selection for kids.

Got some okay records but the girl that opened the door was still asleep. Otherwise just an okay experience.

Let me preface that my taste in vinyl records is weird stuff, usually from the 80’s underground.
I don’t know if I hit gold or what, but the used records gods were definitely watching over me when I was in this store. I drove from NYC down the eastern seaboard, then west along all of I-​10, hitting every major city, and THIS STORE was where I dropped the most money. It was crazy. I was digging in the crates on the floor and was finding 4 – 5 records per crate, and they were all like $ 4. My friend had to pull me away.
Also, these cats had new records that I thought had totally sold out a year ago, for cheap! They had the same record I paid $ 35 new for (it was an import), sealed new for $ 18.
So I don’t know if it was just a weird fluke that they happened to have 15 records I wanted at the particular time I visited, or if they are always this cool.
I would come back to Tucson just to go digging here again.

This place reminds me of the Record Stores when I first started buying music. Both locations in Tucson are fantastic.
One of my favorite things about Zia’s is that you can not get in the door without being greeted. This may not seem like a big thing, but to me it shows that they pay attention to details. I typically spend a bit of time browsing the bins when I go to any Independent Record Store and the folks at Zia’s seem to have good radar on how often to check in with customers to see if they need any assistance. Not too often, just enough to let you know they are willing to help fi you need it.
They have a frequent buyer’s program that is free to join and you get points towards discounted purchases every time you buy something. I usually save the points up for special purchases. It is always fun to go in and get a boxed set or limited edition release for half-​price because I hoarded my points for a while.
They have a pretty diverse selection of music (Rock/​Blues/​Heritage/​Jazz/​Country/​etc) and seem to have a pretty good video selection, though that is not where I spend my browsing time.
I still like a place like this over on-​line buying, because I have often discovered «new» music while shopping because the person behind the counter was playing their new favorite record. Hope these places don’t disappear!

This Zia is the best place to find records. They have alot of new vinyl selection and a pretty decent selection of used (mostly classic rock and jazz/​blues). I always end up spending over 60 bucks on vinyl so if your into new metal/​rap/​rock this is the place to go.
They also have a good selection of cheap used movies/​dvds. I think their staff is very cool and local.