Warren's In Your Ear opening Water Street location

Owner Chris Zingg said new location within Tourister complex is ideal

By Ted Hayes
Posted 1/28/21

Moving records is no joke. They're heavy, take up lots of room when you own thousands of them, and they're delicate. But Chris Zingg is all too happy to take on the task, as he works to move a good …

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Warren's In Your Ear opening Water Street location

Owner Chris Zingg said new location within Tourister complex is ideal

Posted

Moving records is no joke. They're heavy, take up lots of room when you own thousands of them, and they're delicate. But Chris Zingg is all too happy to take on the task, as he works to move a good portion of his recorded music inventory to Water Street.

Mr. Zingg, who owns In Your Ear at 462 Main St., has signed a lease on a 4,000-square-foot storefront at 99 Water St., along the south end of the American Tourister development. He hopes to open Wednesday, Feb. 10, and is excited to have a new In Your Ear just feet from the Warren River.

"It's got so many possibilities," he said of the new space. "The space is great."

In Your Ear has been a staple of independent music in Warren, and at former locations in Providence and Cambridge, Mass., for years. The Main Street store has been in Warren since 2008, and

Mr. Zingg said it will remain open under limited hours as sort of an 'annex' to the new main shop on Water. Though it's a bit off the beaten path, Mr. Zingg said he's confident In Your Ear has enough of a following to support the new location.

"It's always been a destination location," he said of the Main Street shop. "Very few people walk to In Your Ear. So I anticipate that getting them here, especially once they see it, will not be too difficult. Off the beaten path does not concern me."

The shop is built in an old brick warehouse with close views of the upper Warren River. It is laid out as an L, with CD, used CD and vinyl sections. Mr. Zingg said he plans to offer as many record titles as feasible in this space. The vinyl portion of the music business is booming, he said, after vinyl was all but dead just a few years ago. It was one of the reasons he decided to put more vinyl stock in the new location.

"Around 2009, that's when vinyl was at a low point and business wasn't great. Slowly but surely it's increasing," he said. "I thought that vinyl was going to peak two years ago, but it's still growing and it's broadening."

Though the space is 4,000 square feet, about half of that is dedicated to Mr. Zingg's new Wonder Corps, a separate business. Wonder Corps is a music marketing and promotion venture he is working on, he sadi.

Mr. Zingg hopes to open Wednesday, Feb. 10. The new store will be open Wednesdays through Sundays; for now, the annex on Main Street will be open Saturdays and Sundays.

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.