Retro Spin Shop

Retro Spin Shop sits on Main Street in Monroe, Connecticut, doing something most record stores stopped doing two decades ago: carrying every physical format the music and video industry ever made. Vinyl LPs, 45s, CDs, cassettes, 8-tracks, laserdiscs, video discs, VHS, DVDs, Blu-rays. Posters. T-shirts. Vintage toys including Scooby-Doo and Star Wars gear. The premise of the shop is in the name. Retro Spin is a spin through the back end of physical media.

Owner Ronn has built the shop around the idea that formats are collectible, not just musical. A good record store carries the LPs you want to play. Retro Spin also carries the laserdisc you had as a kid and the 8-track your uncle left in the basement. That is a different pitch, and in a Connecticut record-store scene dominated by vinyl specialists, it is the one that makes Monroe worth the drive.

Inside the Shop

The shop's Main Street storefront is in Suite B of the 446 Main complex, a walkable downtown Monroe stretch. Inside, the inventory is organized by format rather than genre. The vinyl section is substantial. The CD wall is deeper than most 2026 record shops can be bothered to maintain. The cassette and 8-track bins are real, not ironic. The VHS rack draws a different customer than the LP rack.

Ronn runs the shop solo most days. The pace is conversational. It is not uncommon to hear Ronn walk a customer through the difference between a 1970s Japanese pressing and a later US reissue or explain why a specific laserdisc commentary track matters. Retro Spin has the feel of a collector's shop that happened to open to the public, which is exactly what it is.

What to dig for: out-of-print CDs, rare cassette singles, 8-tracks in playable condition, laserdisc titles with director commentaries, and the occasional VHS pressing that has never been reissued on digital.

Every Format You Remember (and Some You Forgot)

The laserdisc selection is worth singling out. Laserdisc is one of the most under-covered collector formats in America, and it is hard to find a shop that takes it seriously. The format died commercially in the late 1990s but left behind some of the best director commentaries ever recorded and a lot of LD-exclusive releases. Retro Spin is a Connecticut destination for the small but committed LD collector community.

Plan a CT Record Crawl

Monroe sits in southwest Connecticut, making Retro Spin a natural anchor for a Fairfield County or Lower-CT record day:

• Monroe to Mystic (2 hours east). Pair Retro Spin with Mystic Disc on Steamboat Wharf for a full CT coastline trip.
• Monroe to Cromwell (50 minutes northeast). Uncle Joe's Records is a natural second stop if you are running the Central Connecticut circuit.
• Monroe to New Haven (35 minutes south). Redscroll Records and other New Haven shops.
• Monroe to New York City (90 minutes southwest). The full metro-NYC record scene is an easy extension if you are visiting from out of state.

Plan Your Visit

Retro Spin Shop

Main Street Monroe, CT. Every physical music and video format ever made, still on the shelves.

Address: 446 Main St Suite B, Monroe, CT 06468
Phone: (203) 220-8333
Email: ronn@retrospinshop.com
Hours: Tue-Sun 11am-6pm, closed Mon
Web: retrospinshop.com
Facebook: Retro Spin Shop on Facebook
Owner: Ronn

Getting there

Monroe sits at the intersection of Routes 25 and 111 in Fairfield County. From Bridgeport, 25 minutes north. From Danbury, 25 minutes east. From New Haven, 35 minutes west. From Hartford, about an hour south. From New York City, about 90 minutes. Parking on Main Street is straightforward.

Make a day of it

Downtown Monroe is small but walkable. Main Street has restaurants and coffee. The Wolfe Park recreation area is a few minutes away. If you are combining with a longer drive, the Housatonic River valley north of Monroe is one of the underrated scenic stretches in Connecticut.

Not every format died. Go find the ones still spinning on Main Street Monroe.