Record Bar

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The Record Bar is a former U.S. retail music/entertainment store chain founded in Durham, North Carolina. The company eventually grew from a single location to 180 stores. One of the largest music retailing chains, it was located primarily in the southeastern United States. From 1960 until the late 1980s, the owners were the (Barrie) Bergman family of Durham. In the mid-to-late 1980s, Record Bar began opening large new stores and remodeled Record Bar stores under the Tracks name, to better reflect the changes taking place in retail music merchandising (e.g.- large freestanding "super" stores like Peaches and Tower).

In October 1989, the company was sold to Super Club N.V., a Brussels, Belgium, video distribution company, by Barrie and his partners for $92 million (~$197 million in 2023). At that time, the Record Bar operated 167 stores in the southeastern United States and middle Atlantic states.^[1] In the early 1990s, Super Club sold Record Bar, Turtle's Records & Tapes and its other U.S. music and video rental acquisitions to Blockbuster Video. Blockbuster converted its music retail outlets to Blockbuster Music stores, ending the Record Bar chain name. By 2007, no entity using the Record Bar name had a previous affiliation with the Durham-based chain.

After selling Record Bar, Barrie Bergman and John Hansen purchased Bare Escentuals which was bankrupt. This four-store skin care company was consolidated into two stores. Mineral make-up became the focus instead of body lotions. After being featured on QVC and twenty-four stores later, Bare Escentuals was rescued from economic ruin and recapitalized for over $200 million 14 years later.