Seven days a week, from eleven in the morning until six at night, the doors at 301 5th Ave SE in downtown Olympia open onto crates of vinyl that span nearly a century of recorded music. Rainy Day Records is a buy-sell-trade record shop serving Washington’s capital city, built around new and used LPs alongside a curated selection of CDs. Browsers can find early blues and jazz names like Muddy Waters and Bing Crosby shelved not far from Twenty One Pilots and Olivia Rodrigo, a spread that reflects how the store treats vinyl collecting as a hobby for every generation rather than a niche for one era. A dedicated section spotlighting Pacific Northwest artists gives local and regional musicians shelf space next to national acts, a detail that matters in a college town like Olympia, long associated with independent and DIY music culture.
Beyond new releases and used bins, Rainy Day Records operates a straightforward trade counter where customers can sell or swap records they no longer want, keeping the inventory in constant rotation and giving shoppers a reason to return often rather than once a season. The store also rents movies, stocking both DVD and VHS titles for customers who want physical media beyond music, an unusual pairing that sets it apart from most single-format record shops in the South Sound. A wishlist tool lets regulars flag titles they are hunting for, so staff can set aside a hard-to-find pressing when it comes through the door, and gift certificates are available for anyone who would rather let a music-loving friend or family member pick their own records.
Location matters here. Fifth Avenue sits in the heart of downtown Olympia, within walking distance of the farmers market, the waterfront, and the cluster of independent shops and cafes that make up the city’s compact core, so a stop at Rainy Day Records fits naturally into an afternoon spent exploring downtown on foot. The daily eleven to six schedule, posted directly on the shop’s own site, removes the guesswork that can come with small record store hours, which often shift seasonally or depend on the owner’s availability. Here the hours stay the same every day of the week, making it easy to plan a visit around a lunch break or a weekend errand run.
What differentiates Rainy Day Records from larger regional chains is its scale and its local roots. This is a single, independently run storefront rather than a franchise, with an inventory shaped by trade-ins from Olympia’s own community of collectors and sellers rather than a centralized buying office somewhere else. That means the bins change with local taste, turning each visit into a genuinely different browsing experience than the one before. For anyone driving through Thurston County hunting for a specific pressing, a first vinyl purchase, or simply a place to sell off a stack of records taking up closet space, the shop offers a low-pressure, walk-in trade counter and a daily-open schedule that make repeat visits easy. Customers can also call ahead at 360-357-4755 to ask whether a particular title is in stock before making the trip downtown.
In short, Rainy Day Records is Olympia’s seven-day-a-week vinyl and used-media shop at 301 5th Ave SE, where new and used records, a Pacific Northwest local-artist section, and a DVD and VHS rental counter share space under one downtown roof.
