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America's Biggest Vinyl Deserts, 2026
Vinyl is booming — and yet 30 US cities over 100,000 people still have one record store or none at all (9 have zero). If you've ever daydreamed about opening a shop, this is the market-gap list: big populations, empty crates. Updated July 15, 2026.
The largest cities with one or no record store
| # | City | Population | Record stores |
| 1 | Henderson, NV | 350,039 | 1 |
| 2 | Anaheim, CA | 344,561 | 1 |
| 3 | Stockton, CA | 324,975 | 1 |
| 4 | Irvine, CA | 318,683 | 1 |
| 5 | Santa Ana, CA | 316,184 | 1 |
| 6 | North Las Vegas, NV | 294,034 | 1 |
| 7 | Plano, TX | 293,286 | 1 |
| 8 | Anchorage, AK | 289,600 | 1 |
| 9 | Gilbert, AZ | 288,790 | 1 |
| 10 | Chula Vista, CA | 278,546 | 1 |
| 11 | Laredo, TX | 261,260 | none |
| 12 | Glendale, AZ | 258,143 | 1 |
| 13 | Irving, TX | 258,060 | 1 |
| 14 | Chesapeake, VA | 254,997 | 1 |
| 15 | Hialeah, FL | 235,388 | none |
| 16 | Santa Clarita, CA | 229,159 | 1 |
| 17 | McKinney, TX | 227,526 | 1 |
| 18 | San Bernardino, CA | 224,775 | none |
| 19 | Fontana, CA | 218,455 | none |
| 20 | Moreno Valley, CA | 213,919 | none |
| 21 | Yonkers, NY | 211,040 | 1 |
| 22 | Grand Prairie, TX | 207,331 | 1 |
| 23 | Oxnard, CA | 200,616 | 1 |
| 24 | Peoria, AZ | 199,924 | 1 |
| 25 | Montgomery, AL | 195,818 | 1 |
| 26 | Brownsville, TX | 191,967 | none |
| 27 | Glendale, CA | 187,823 | none |
| 28 | Clarksville, TN | 185,690 | 1 |
| 29 | Ontario, CA | 185,285 | none |
| 30 | Elk Grove, CA | 182,797 | none |
What this list actually means
Most of these cities aren't culture-free — they're big suburbs (Anaheim, Plano, Gilbert) whose collectors drive to the anchor city's shops. That's exactly what makes them interesting: each one is a six-figure population already trained to buy vinyl somewhere less convenient. For comparison, the national average is roughly one record store per 93,000 people; every city here is at least twice as underserved as that.
Thinking about which markets do support shops? See America's vinyl capitals — cities a fraction of this size sustaining 6–10 stores each.
Methodology
Store counts come from our continuously maintained national directory of 3,661 US record stores, matched to US Census incorporated places and consolidated cities (2024 population estimates), with census naming normalized to everyday city names. Counts are stores listed within the city proper — a shop one town over doesn't count, which is rather the point. A brand-new shop we haven't indexed yet could nudge a row; tell us and we'll fix it.
Cite this data
Free to use with attribution (CC BY 4.0). Suggested line:
"According to RecordShops.net's 2026 vinyl-desert data (recordshops.net/vinyl-stats/underserved/), Henderson, NV is the largest US city with only one record store."