{"id":386558,"date":"2026-07-25T20:48:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T20:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/386558\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T20:48:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T20:48:32","slug":"iconic-san-antonio-record-shop-could-close-after-decades-in-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/386558\/","title":{"rendered":"Iconic San Antonio record shop could close after decades in business"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 54-year-old record store on San Antonio’s Southside<\/a> is asking the community for help keeping its doors open.<\/p>\n

In a July 23 Facebook <\/a>post, Flip Side Record Parlor on SW Military Drive called on locals to “save our doors from closing\u00a0for good.” According to owner Roman Cuellar, the store’s doors were locked out amid a difficult financial situation back in May, which has put it on the brink of a permanent closure.<\/p>\n

“Like many small businesses, the recent closure hit us incredibly hard. Because our doors were locked, we lost our income, which inevitably increased our amount due on back rent. We have been reaching out to many financial institutions for grants and loans, but to no avail,” Cuellar wrote. “I have pleaded with the new management to let us open our doors, but those requests have fallen on deaf ears. They have given us an ultimatum: come up with the remaining balance by this Friday, or, in their words, they ‘will need to move forward with moving you out.'”<\/p>\n

In the post,\u00a0Cuellar claimed that management is asking for $13,000 and the store has already paid $5,000 of that, leaving an $8,000 deficit with a Friday, July 24 deadline. Cuellar called on any philanthropists or investors willing to pitch in, as well as saying he will be “reluctantly”\u00a0selling his 1964 Ford Mustang.<\/p>\n

It’s not the first time the store has faced hardships. Founded in 1972, former owner Clarisa Renae Pe\u00f1a<\/a>\u00a0died from colon cancer at 46 years old back in 2020. Pe\u00f1a had managed the store for 20 years, taking it over after original owner Doug Lease died in 2011. In 2021, Cuellar (Pe\u00f1a’s brother) said the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic had dealt a blow to business<\/a> from which they were trying to recover. To help out, a group of friends and musicians, the Sticks & Stingers Family Foundation, organized a plate sale to raise money for the store.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In May, Cuellar said “the squeeze of the current economy and rising costs of living” were taking its toll as the store’s rent was “drastically increased.” It seems that months since Flip Side’s original plea for help haven’t provided much relief. “Keep us in your prayers,” Cuellar wrote on Thursday. “We hope to see you all soon on the Flip Side of this situation and back at the shop where we belong!\u00a0Long live Flip Side!!!!”\u00a0<\/p>\n

For those interested in donating to the store,\u00a0GoFundMe and Venmo links <\/a>are posted on the record parlor’s Facebook page.<\/p>\n

Find it: 840 SW Military Drive, San Antonio, TX 78221<\/p>\n

Sign up for Afternoon Headlines, MySA’s free newsletter bringing you San Antonio’s top stories of the day.<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally published at Iconic San Antonio record shop could close after decades in business<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 54-year-old record store on San Antonio’s Southside is asking the community for help keeping its doors open.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[33382,136277,95043,136278,82,3402,84,83],"class_list":["post-386558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-facebook-post","tag-flip-side","tag-record-stores","tag-roman-cuellar","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-express-news","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}