My Mind's Eye Moving to New Location

One of the most popular record stores in Greater Cleveland has found a new Lakewood home.

My Mind’s Eye, located at 13727 Madison Avenue, has got its new digs picked out at the former Detroit Savings and Loan building, at the corner of Detroit and Cranford avenues.

The store’s owner, Charles — who asked that his last name not be used for this story — said that he’ll be out of the Madison Avenue space by the end of the month. 

He’s already started to move crates of records over. They’re stacked neatly on the floor in what was the grand lobby of the former bank.

“I hope it’s better,” said Charles, who opened My Mind's Eye in May 1999. “I’ve wanted to move since the first year we’ve got here. We’ve expanded, but it was never right to just have two rooms like that.” 

With a large inventory, it’s not been unusual to find merchandise stacked in piles around the Madison Avenue store.

“The space issue inside the store is one thing — the space outside is another thing,” said Charles, adding that customers of thriving neighboring businesses often take the few on-street parking spots available.

“If this was Chicago this wouldn’t be an issue. But around here, people want to park right next to the place they’re going.”

A recent resurgence in the popularity of records helped give the record store a big boost.

“We stuck with vinyl during the time when most of the other stores took out their records,” he said.

My Mind’s Eye is hosting a sale through the end of the month “to thin out some of the CD stock,” so the new store can carry even more bins for records.

“We try to be very fair on prices,” Charles said. “I try not to give the typical record store attitude. I try not to be a total jerk when people come in — there’s no judgment here. I try at least."