EASTHAMPTON – Dave Witthaus, the owner of Platterpus Records, recently celebrated the business’ 38th year. Witthaus has been in Easthampton for the past 10 years after moving his business from Westfield.

“When I was 16, I got a job at a record store and I just knew that is where I wanted to be and that is what I wanted to do. So when I was 25, I said it’s time to do it,” Witthaus said.

Throughout the years and with entertainment constantly evolving, Witthaus said he is not averse to change and thinking about what he has to do for his business to stay alive.

“When I first started out, we were selling records, cassettes, and I even had a few eight tracks. Eventually, records went away for a while and CDs came in and we embraced that technology, now CDs are kind of going away and we have come back to embracing vinyls,” Witthaus said.

During his 38 years of being open, he got to the point where he stopped stocking new things because he realized that record companies no longer cared for small stores. Since then he has only stocked and sold used items.

“It started with used CDs and brining in used records in the early 2000s, that is what has kept it alive,” Witthaus said.

Buying things from people is his only way of getting items for the store but he finds that the pandemic is getting in the way of that. Platterpus Records closed down in March due to the coronavirus. Initially, he thought he would be closed for 15 days but he had not planned on a 10 week, unplanned, unpaid vacation.

“I was not really in fear of losing, maybe I was being naive but I just said ok at some point I’m going to be able to open. You get to a point too where you say, I mean not that I wanted to lose it but I have been doing this for 38 years, if all of a sudden I did not open, well I had a pretty good run,” Witthaus said.

He continued that he could not sit home and worry.

During the shutdown, he could not allow people into the store and people were not comfortable with bringing him into their home, so he could not purchase items.

Even with the restrictions a lot lighter than before, it is still tough for him, he said.

“There are a lot of people who are not selling,” he said.

Witthaus does sell a few things online on eBay and Discogs but it is usually merchandise that he believes he won’t sell in-store.

“I don’t like having the idea of this great record come in and selling it to someone in Montana who will never step foot in here when there might be someone in this area who might want that record. Being in business 38 years, the bulk of my business was long before there was the internet and those are the people who have always kept me alive and those are the kind of people you want to show support for because they supported me,” he said.

Witthaus does not know how much longer he will be in business but he did say, “as long as it is still fun I will continue doing it.”