Mississippi record store owner hopes "greatest hits" compilations sound good to collectors

Sep 13, 2023
While vinyl record prices remain a concern for Phillip Rollins of OffBeat, he thinks lower-priced "greatest hits" albums may entice customers.
Phillip Rollins, owner of OffBeat in Jackson, Mississippi, says collections of popular work by artists such as En Vogue and Notorious B.I.G. could get more people interested in buying records.
Courtesy Rollins

This record store wants to prove that downtown Jackson, Mississippi, is a destination

Jun 12, 2023
"There's always something to do here," says Phillip Rollins, owner of the store OffBeat. "People just don't know how to find it."
Phillip Rollins' store, OffBeat, was part of 601JXN, an event that aimed to bring people downtown.
Courtesy Rollins

Water ruined his vinyl, but store owner gets by with a little help from his friends

Apr 12, 2023
Phillip Rollins, owner of OffBeat, says people saw him on the news and supported his shop by helping to clean up and dry things off.
"We had a fire next door and then we had a lot of flood damage due to that fire," said Phillip Rollins. "So we lost a lot of our used records."
Courtesy Phillip Rollins

A Mississippi record and comic store deals with the January "dead zone"

Jan 10, 2023
OffBeat owner Phillip Rollins says January and summer are his "most hated months" because business is so slow.
OffBeat in Jackson, Mississippi, had a good holiday season but is dealing with the January doldrums.
Courtesy Phillip Rollins

How a Mississippi nonprofit helps Black entrepreneurs get funded

Nov 16, 2022
Tim Lampkin, CEO of Higher Purpose Co., says his organization serves as an adviser and "capital matchmaker" for business owners.
Higher Purpose Co. Founder and CEO Tim Lampkin (center) with Therapy Plus CEO LeJeune Johnson (left) and BloomTech Developments CEO Melissa Bloom (right).
Courtesy Innovate Mississippi

"Inflation is gut-punching my business," record store owner laments

Aug 12, 2022
Vinyl records are a big part of Phillip Rollins' business at Offbeat in Jackson, Mississippi. But rising costs make them a harder sell.
Phillip "DJ Young Venom" Rollins, of the Offbeat record store and art gallery, would like to see the prices of vinyl records go down. "The demand is up there, just the supply is kind of low."
Courtesy Rollins

Texas, Mississippi lift COVID mask mandates

Texas businesses can open at 100% capacity in a week. In Mississippi, mask and distancing recommendations are now in place.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (right) issued an executive order lifting the state's mask mandate on Tuesday.
Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

A nonprofit director finds hope in community engagement

Sep 3, 2020
Once, Chiquikta Fountain wanted to escape the little town of Cleveland, Mississippi. Now she is reinvested in the Delta city.
Chiquikta Fountain and her son Maurice at their home in Cleveland, Mississippi, in 2016.
Marketplace

Mississippi business owner celebrates rate cut

Aug 1, 2019
Kai Ryssdal checked in with Austin Golding, a small business owner in Mississippi.
Floodwaters in Vicksburg, Mississippi back in 2011.
Mario Tama/Getty Images

Mississippi farmers forced to leave thousands of acres unplanted this season

Jun 6, 2019
Victoria Darden and her family have been forced to leave their soybean and corn fields unplanted because of flooding.
Flood waters covering farmland in the Mississippi Delta means thousands of acres of crops
Victoria Darden