Deco

One of the things I miss about my South Manchester days is the collection of treasures it threw in my general direction. Sure, I’m surrounded by this sort of stuff in the Northern Quarter, but the jumble and bargains of Withington were pretty awesome. If you take a trip to the Post Office, bet you’ll get seduced by Deco.
This shop’s achieved its five stars for me because even though I no longer collect DVDs, here they’re mostly £3, which is technically cheaper than renting a movie for the night (after all, it is mere minutes from our apartment) — and you get to keep it! They’re arranged by genre too which is lots of fun. Good way to test your definition of «horror» against someone else’s.
I was pulled in by the immense tractor beam of a selection of Cure LPs. I don’t have a record player but have often toyed with the idea of obtaining one. Lo and behold, they sell record players. My friend snagged an old Bang and Olufsen treasure, similar to the one my father had. £40 and a fiver for a Cure album? Bargainous. And I never even looked at the books! If you’re near Withington, you need to give this place a blast.

I went in for some guitar strings. I ended up spending an hour in there and buying, besides the strings, a bunch of LPs, a couple of CDs some comics and a book on blues guitar technique. What a great shop!

Deco… hidden gem? well kept secret? Hmm not quite its really one of more uninspiring record stores in Manchester. Its in the wonderful world of Withington and pretty easy to find just off the busy wilmslow road corridor. Its not hard to find but does contain the odd ‘hard to find’ record.
If you’re after cutting edge contemporary electronic stuff please leave by the nearest exit. If you’re looking for some nostalgic pop, soul, jazz reggae or ancient hip-​hop stop by and get rooting!
As mentioned in other reviews prices can vary with CDs and Books, in my opinion being slightly overpriced… the vinyl however is reasonable and lets face it the main reason most people will go here is for the vinyl.

This is one of those shops where people seem to hang out and talk about films, books and records all day. Still, you can hardly blame them there’s an awful lot to discuss in here! The place is crammed with CDs, vinyl, DVDs and collectables, mostly with a cult/​alternative slant.
From vintage Action Man dolls to albums by lost 90s Indie bands, this shop is a real treasure trove. The stock is all second-​hand and you’ll have to spend time quite a while looking through the racks to find a bargain, but you’ll usually pick something up that makes it all worthwhile.

If it was in the Northern Quarter, Deco would be constantly bustling with deejays and producers looking for new sources of inspiration. Tucked away in suburban Withington however, it’s a bit of a well kept secret.
I’ve only popped in a handful of times myself but each time I spent a good twenty to thirty minutes flicking through the racks looking for treasure. There’s hundreds of CDs for the iPod generation and crates of lovely, dusty old vinyl for record collectors. As all the stock is secondhand, the quality varies record to record with the cheapest records usually being the most scratched or warped.
Genre wise, Deco seems to have a bit of everything from pop and rock to funk, soul, reggae, hip hop and jazz. You’re unlikely to find a rare Ornette Coleman or Karen Dalton album here but you could probably find lots of Ella, Louis and Billie. The first time I went I picked up a Kate Bush album I’d been after and the second time, a mint copy of Johnny Cash Live at San Quentin.
Endearingly, Deco also sells the kind of secondhand books you’d find at Record and Tape Exchange in London. We’re talking hefty rock biographies, contemporary fiction, crime fiction and the occasional cool comic book. As you might have guessed, I’m a bit of a fan.