If any Oak Park business deserves to be called an “institution” in our town, it’s Val’s halla Records.
Next week, Val Camilletti will mark her store’s 40th anniversary with a celebration at her 239 Harrison Street shop. Her record store was a fixture for decades on South Boulevard just east of Oak Park Avenue before that building was sold and she was forced to move. Many feared she might close altogether. The latter, thankfully, didn’t happen.
Since 2006, she’s been a fixture in the Oak Park Arts District, and it’s a testament to her and her loyal following that she has endured.
It’s a digital world we live in now. Vinyl records aren’t flying off the shelves like they used to. Go to a website, click a link and download tons of music on your hand-held device or phone. Actual record stores, big and small, have folded around the country in just the last decade. But Val’s halla Records is a survivor. It has survived for four decades and, we hope, for many more years to come.