Schroeder Used Books & Music

the store hours posted on the door say 9am to midnight, but I arrived at 11am and the shop was closed.
I called the number on the door, and spoke with a lady who said she was running errands and would be back by 3. she made a comment about how no one buys books these days cuz everyone is using «those electric pads» … bless her.
anyway, I didn’t actually get to go inside, but I had quite an experience looking in the windows. it looks like if you went in, you might come out with a treasure, or perhaps herpes. if you’re up for the adventure of that gamble, check it out!

How can I even begin.
If you’re ever trying to describe this place to someone who’s never been there, good luck. You just have to show them.
It’s a little bit like Bill Hader’s character, Stefon, on SNL: «Located in a literal firetrap, this place has everything: obstacle courses, hoarders, cat pee, random stains, oh, and what’s that in the corner? It’s a VHS copy of Kindergarten Cop.»
But amongst the insanity (useless and ancient magazines, tapes both audio and video, pamphlets for extinct appliances, out of date reference books, and oh so much more), there exist sort-​of treasures (fabulous vinyl if you can manage to pry it apart for browsing, the occasional decent cookbook, hardcover editions of Kon-​Tiki and Giant with good jackets, funny 50s etiquette books). You just have to want to dig.
Bring cash and expect to pay random prices that won’t make any sense. It’s boiling in there and it’s beyond tight, so no sweaters or bulky bags or you’ll be sorry. The clientele is a hoot, the proprietor is direct from Central Casting, and her son REALLY needs to buy her a chair so she doesn’t have to sit on a milkcrate. Buddy, Salvation Army’s right next door, pop in and snag her a flipping chair already! She’s already been robbed a couple of times so keeps the door locked and you knock to be let in. Sometimes you can’t tell if she’s sleeping, passed out, or worse. When we drive by late, I always peek in for a well-​being check.
Open until god knows when, sometimes till 2 or 3 am.
Interesting window display choices involving stuffed animals and random objects.
Just go.

Weird doesn’t begin to describe it. I happened upon it while riding my bike and thought they might have a book I was looking for. When I tried to go in, the woman who owns it was talking to some guy in the front; there are so many books on the floor there that I could barely get around them. The second thing you’ll notice, if you go there, is that there’s porn everywhere. It’s creepy. When I went, there was a guy who looked like Andy Warhol casually looking at one of the porn magazines like it was no big deal. You can’t use a credit card; it’s cash only. Also, the woman who owns it wears a wig like it’s a hat. I’ve finally found a place that makes Koppa’s look normal.

@ Meg S.
I feel for you.
But when I was REALLY little in the late 60’s it wasn’t much better — at least in the 45’s department which is about all a bunch of little kids like my friends and I could afford.
The big-​holed 45’s were just jammed in every which way on spindles — and the ones with small holes — and/​or the 6-​inch and 7-​inch kiddie 78’s that pre-​dated them — were just jammed into overflowing shelves equally haphazardly — and to find one with few enough scratches that it would still play on the horrible kiddie phonos of the day — took awhile. However, all the boys always said we always got our dime-​a-​record worth.
But your father, along with Bob from Serendipity Antiques up on 37^th Street — when THEY THEMSELVES were on duty — was about the only place that a dorky little half-​blind fat kid who couldn’t sing, dance, play an instrument or go out for football could go and “fit in” in those pre-​computer and pre-​video-​game days.
Like I said — when HE was on duty that is.
I can’t tell you how may times I walked in there to step over slightly older slightly fatter and considerably more dorky boys than me who were all over the floor reading comic books on their backs or discussing the latest sci-​fi epic.
Maybe it’s a 50-​year – old memory gone fuzzy but I kind of remember him as a buzz-​cut kind of ex-​linebacker chubby looking guy who was maybe halfway between our fathers and grandfathers ages.
But even if the description is wrong — the attitude was right. he took all kinds of boys I knew — and me — under his wing who didn’t have anything else to do after school and on weekends when our parents just wanted us out from underfoot.
I think I was about eight when I first met “the crabby old lady” (Alma) who — unbeknownst to us kids — had zero tolerance for anybody under her age it seemed — because all of a sudden when she took over the after school and weekend shift — it became deserted of everybody I once knew.
One time I remember having enough time to go to BOTH book and record stores in a row — and thought Alma had a sister because I had just left 636 with a handful of 45’s to walk a block up to see what was there while my dad and his buddies were at the game over at the arena — and here she was again with different clothes on.
Then I remember a slightly less chubby dark-​curly-​haired younger feller in his early 20s who TRIED to be nice to us kids — but I guess he was a draftee too like you and your siblings.
Anyway — one day when I was maybe ten, he told me “Why don’t you help me sort the 45’s on Saturdays, and then I’ll let you pick some to take home for free.” Woooooh. Not have to pay “early bird fee” like at the swapmeets and then get to take some home for FREE for doing the same looking I would have done anyway? That was the biggest rush I’d had in my life til then.
And then of course I never had to worry about scratchy 45’s after that. Nor did any of the few other guys who still hung around and just made sure we only went in when Bill was working.
Two years later a week before I turned 13 he started letting me go through and categorize the kiddie LPs, with the same deal, then let me go through the other genres. As long as I only came when he was on and didn’t tell nobody.
I suppose that was also the first exposure I had to the whole idea that “men kept certain secrets from women and even other members of their family”.
By the time I turned 16 and his friend Mike from Yesterday’s Memories Music and Memorabilia (that started off around the corner from my house on Lisbon and 44^th — and evolved into Musical Memories down in a basement in the East Side on Kilbourn — still in existence as well) — needed a helper — he called Mike up and told him i lived around the corner and had been working with him since I was ten and shopping there since I was eight.
But that didn’t work out for — shall we say reasons that no sixteen year old boy should know certain things about his 48 year old employer.
And now I own one of the biggest surviving record dealerships featuring the largest collection of 78’s on the West Coast. Which i specialized in because Bill never let me touch any of HIS 78’s — he said they were too fragile. Well I guess Leo’s hold grudges longer than our star charts say. (LOL)
Where I let little a new generation of fat half-​blind and/​or handicapped dork-​boys lay around in jeans and plaid flannel on my floor inbetween the aisles looking at and talking about records and books and comics and art and…
Just to let you know life ain’t changed much and there’s still some guys that care about the guys that buy i just as much as they care about the gear.

This place is really something else. Living with my roommate in college, we often went to the nearby salvation army for deals on Saturdays. My roomie thought we should check out the book store just up the block. We stopped in and were overwhelmed by the amount of merchandise. It is organized by topic, however, and i was quickly sifting through education books and my roommate was perusing the biology and anatomy section. She was hoping to grab some old textbooks for some fun reads — that’s just her… As there are no prices on anything we were looking at, she brought her books to the front to ask the strange old lady how much they would be. The lady actually wanted the list price on the books! She said the science textbooks my roommate brought up were $ 70 – 90 each! My roomie will wheel and deal with people more than i would and attempted with this lady. She tried arguing that there are several newer editions of these books and with the progression of scientific studies, books quickly become out of date and are nearly worthless. She just wanted them to read at her leisure — they were too outdated to use in school and were not even a textbook she was using for any class. The lady got very irate and told her the prices weren’t negotiable. With the stock available and the low number of customers, you think the lady would jump at offers to sell anything.
I have only been in that one time but whenever i walk or drive by i see her eerie, slumped form hunched in the doorway. I have walked by late at night in the summer leaving state fair and seen her sleeping in the doorway. One time walking by with my family, she was hunched over and she is so old and still we thought she was dead. She literally reminds me of the old woman in Jeepers Creepers the monster kills in the house when the kids are running from him. The monster could easily be living in Schroeders Used Books and Music… Controlling this old lady from the dead…
Regardless, I will look for her each time i go by as she is certainly a West Allis icon. As their existence remains a mystery, i hope to see creepy lady in the doorway for many more years to come.

How do you even review this place? Like marmite it’s an acquired taste.
You can believe the signs. It’s open. It’s just that all the doors are locked and there is a sign telling you to knock. She probably won’t hear it because she didn’t hear me. I went to another locked door and saw her and signaled to the door. She let me in. Then sometime after I started browsing she locked the door again. Sealing me in with all of these items.
A word of warning to not bring curious little children with you. There is a bevy of porn at the front of the store stacked all over. This ranged from vintage adult magazines to XXX VHS/​DVD with rather explicit covers in plain view.
Secondly let’s be honest. This place is a bit of a hazard. Books, Tapes and whatever else stacked upon stacks and stacks of stacks. I could easily see kids getting toppled by items.
So now we have covered that let’s move on.
A lot of the books here vary in terms of usefulness. There are some beat up and outdated resources. But if there is anything useful you will need to dig and scrounge. It seems that the eastern side of the store has things haphazardly stacked around the parameter. One aisle is blocked by boxes which I assume contain books. I will upload the pictures I took.
There is a type of person out there who likes to rummage around to find «gems». Perhaps you watched American Pickers on TV and you decided you wanted to enter a hoarders den in search of something worthwhile. This store caters to that person.
Most people will be turned off by the disorganization of it all. You will need time to comb through the materials in search of whatever it is you need.
Maybe it was the dreary overcast day. I couldn’t help but feel there was something hidden and sinister here. There was a dark room in the back with more books that triggered my imagination. What horrid atrocities occur back there? What is this an episode of Law and Order SVU? Why am i locked in?
I am going to rate this one straight down the middle. The experience is entirely subjective outside of the creepiness factor. Some people like digging through crap to find things. Some people don’t. Most people are going to wonder if that woman ever leaves the store.
It’s an experience. That much I’ll say. As to what kind of experience… you be the judge.

How this place is still in business is beyond me. West Allis must have grandfathered in businesses that have completely lost touch with reality. This store is about as creepy as you can get.
A long time ago my friends and I were in there and the old man working (who I’m assuming is dead now), started hollering at us when we were looking at the condition of records. He told us they were all in perfect shape. When my friend said «actually, I’ve had to put a few back because they were scratched» the guy just about had a stroke and damn near tried to punch my buddy.
I went back in there not too long ago, and I can’t believe that woman is still alive too. She kinda wears a wig and was eating coffee cake straight from the pan while sitting on a stoop or pile of magazines or clothes or something.
She did tell me where I could look for the old magazines I was interested in. They were there, but so were hundreds of other magazines mixed in.
The entire time in there I could smell cat urine (which makes me believe that the cats haven’t yet died, but who knows).
At the end of my visit I bought a few things, and she randomly scribbled down some made up prices on a notebook and took my cash. UNBELIEVABLE!
Any rate, I’ll go back, probably, but I’ll still be completely weirded out the entire time I’m there.

If you are into decorating your house in the mid-​century Retro style, here is a tip for inexpensive wall art. In the back of this store (which is hard to get to because this store should be on the show Hoarders) are hundreds of old 1950’s and 1960’s magazines. Most of these magazines are large and filled with awesome old-​school ads. Take a bunch up front and she will give you a price so unbelievably cheap. Not antique store prices. Crazy lady prices. Frame the ads and put them on the wall. Great for any vintage style home.
Warning: this store is pretty creepy and gross. It doesn’t really seem like a store. You can barely walk through it and there is an old lady (in a bad wig) sitting on the floor in the doorway. Very strange. So needless to say, I like it.

Glad to see that this place is still open. Back when we used to live in Milwaukee, we stopped here and looked through the stacks and stacks of books and movies stacked floor to ceiling.
After 6 years. Not a whole lot has changed. The stacks have just grown even taller. The same lady is still sitting in a pile on the floor surrounded by piles of food, books, movies and other…
Seriously, it is packed wall to wall. Its a bit hard to maneuver through because there are piles everywhere. Kind of a hazard, but you should be all right if you don’t go in too far.
There are tons of VHS movies @ 2.00 a pop. It would take forever to sift through all the piles. There has to be at least three copies of almost every movie made.
There are stacks of singles (audio tapes) that look like they might topple down. Some interesting titles.
Books, records, magazines, movies, stuffed animals, old creepy dolls and just piles and piles of stuff. The Hoarders crew would have a good time filming this place. It is completely chaotic with absolutely no sense of order, but still an adventure into once loved movies, books and music.
The little lady who I can only assume is Mrs. Schroeder is quite interesting to say the least, but was quite helpful and sweet in helping me find some box sets to add to my collection.
It’s an experience to say the least…

You simply have to check out this store. I recommend this business as an «experience»! This is a huge collection of books and you can make an offer on your purchases. The collection is so huge, that the checkout counter was eaten up by inventory and the owner is forced to sit on the floor in the corner of the front entrance of the store. She is very nice and a very unique individual.

This is quite possibly the most bizarre shop I have ever been to (I mean that in a creepy/​cool way). There are books, magazines, cassette tapes (even 8-​track), stuffed animals, LP’s, and old board games precariously stacked floor to ceiling and wall –to-​wall. I am sure they have exactly what you are looking for but your chances of finding it, while wandering the narrow maze of media, are slim. There does not appear to be any real organization to the chaos. The place is often open well past midnight, just knock. The seemingly inanimate pile of clothing with the wig on top that is propped in the corner when you peek inside will suddenly stand, shuffle to the door, and let you in. There are no set prices. I asked the price of an anatomy book and when I told her I did not have the money she was asking, she asked me how much I had. when I told her, she asked if I wanted to check out her adult books and videos instead. Uh. no thanks? The place is weird enough to justify an occasional visit just to see what you find. I always see bunches of old, interesting stuff.