Photo by Maryland Route 5

Come September, Adams Morgan will be one used music shop lighter. The City Paper reports that Red Onion Records & Books is shutting down after nearly six years at 1901 18th Street NW.

But Red Onion isn’t going away because the rent is too high or because of burdensome District regulations—the shop has a secondhand dealer’s license and wasn’t a target of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs’ enforcement activities earlier this year. Instead, owner Josh Harkavy is just tired of it all, the City Paper’s Ally Schweitzer reports:

“I’m just not really happy anymore, owning a brick-and-mortar business,” Harkavy told City Paper last week. Unlike Dupont’s Melody Records, which shuttered last year citing a cash shortage, making rent hasn’t been a big problem for Red Onion. Harkavy now pays $1,675 a month, which he considers affordable. He wasn’t affected by the recent hubbub over licenses for used-goods shops, either; the shop already had a secondhand business license. It’s just that working alone out of a basement six days a week has gotten a little tiring for the 35-year-old Hyattsville resident. “I think it’s time to move on, see what else is out there.”

He plans to continue selling vinyl. “I still want to sell records. I’ll always want to find and sell records—I think it’s kind of fun,” he says. “I’m just going to work on some strategies.”

Those strategies include a station at the flea market at 14th Street and Florida Avenue NW, selling via an email list and maybe even a “record truck.”