In 1971, when parts of Orange Avenue were still surrounded by orange groves, a young couple from Los Angeles moved to Florida and decided to open a record store.
Everyone seemed to think they were crazy, even the representatives of the companies that sold them the records. “They saw us leaving in about six months,” Hanna Skrobko said. “Surprise, surprise.”
More than five decades later, Skrobko is saying goodbye to the store she owned with her late husband, a place she said has become a meeting place for fans of vinyl records and independent music.
“We did it because we were too full of ourselves to understand that you really can’t do that,” she said.
East West Records, which bills itself as Florida’s oldest independent vinyl record store, will close at the end of the month, closing the store at 4895 S Orange Ave.
She’s holding a yard sale this weekend and will donate her plaque, a giant white square with the red and white East West Records logo, to the Orange County Regional History Center.
Skrobko and her husband, Roman, who passed away last year, owned the store until 2018, when they sold the property to current owner Bobby Serros. Serros, who grew up in the area and shopped at the store as a child, later gave the store to his daughter Emma.
Emma Serros said she also loved the store as a child, long before her father gave her the store.
“I got my first record player when I was 11 or 12,” she said. “I was buying records from Barnes & Noble because it was close to our house and my dad said, ‘Hell no, I’ll take you to a real record store,’ so he brought me to East West and I’ve been coming here since then.
The store is called East West Records, Skrobko said, named after a Butterfield Blues Band album that she and Roman agreed would be a good fit for the store both for its catchy sound and for representing their cross-country move.
Its wooden cases displayed hundreds of records, and cassette tapes, CDs and DVDs were also for sale. A web of colored lights and records hanging from the ceiling danced overhead as store employees played music that ranged from classical to contemporary. featuring music that spans decades and genres.
When Emma Serros took over in August 2018, the Skrobkos had just one request: keep the store open until 2021 so it could celebrate its 50th anniversary. That date is already behind us.
Skrobko said Serros did “a wonderful job” managing the store and helped it finish on a high note.
“The first ten years and the last ten years were the best, they were a bookend of awesomeness,” Skrobko said.
After six years of maintaining East West Records, Serros decided to focus on his education. She is studying radiology at the University of Central Florida.
But she said she will miss the store’s regular customers, who stopped by to check out what’s new or just browse the stalls for hidden gems they might have missed.
“I’ve had to call a few clients and say, ‘You won’t hear from me, don’t panic when you can’t call the number anymore, but I’m fine and this is my cell phone number’ so I can keep in touch with them. ,” she said. “I’m really going to miss a lot of my customers.”
David Porter, an Orlando resident and East West Records customer since 1974, said stopping by the store has long been part of his routine.
“I call it a ride,” Porter said. “It’s nice because there’s a little box of new arrivals, so when people bring albums to trade, they put them right there,” he said. “If I don’t have much time, I run out and see what they just arrived at. It’s like a little ritual.”
Running the store was never easy, Skrobko said, but creating a place for vinyl music lovers was worth it.
“The music and the friendships, all my friends that I acquired in the store. Long, lasting friendships,” she said. “There’s a lot of love in this place.”
