People’s Records

Detroit techno didn’t only come from studios — it came from record stores, where future legends worked the counter and dug through crates between shifts. People’s Records keeps that flame. Run by musician-historian Brad Hales since 2003, this Eastern Market shop sits right on Gratiot, a few doors from the old “Techno Boulevard,” and its Detroit techno section alone is bigger than many stores’ entire dance selection.

Northern soul, jazz, house, hip-hop, and rare Detroit electronic gems fill every nook, hand-labeled in colored 45 boxes against blue walls. It’s the kind of place where you might unearth an original pressing of “Sharevari” — the 1981 A Number of Names single often called the very first Detroit techno record. Detroit’s stores trained a who’s-who of DJs; People’s keeps that tradition spinning.