1 week Ago By John Lamb
MOORHEAD — After more than 50 years in business, the Moorhead-based record and gift store, Mother’s, will close on March 1. Owner Brady Bredell announced the news in a Facebook post. “It’s with great sadness that I’m announcing that Mother’s will be closing on March 1 after 55 years in business.
As one of the oldest record stores in the 8 state region, this was an incredibly difficult decision.” Bredell said changing consumer shopping habits and decreased profit margins hurt the business, at 431 Main Ave., Moorhead.
He said the store never recovered from the COVID pandemic and shutdown. He also said personal health problems led to his decision, but declined to get into specifics. On May 15, Bredell took to Facebook to say that the business needed to raise $5,000 or faced eviction.
He started a Go Fund Me and within a few days, the store's fortunes had improved thanks to donations and increased business, but only slightly. “Things improved. We went from losing money to maybe breaking even,” Bredell said on Jan.
2. “It’s a lot of work for little resolve. It’s a really tough decision.
” Bredell’s father, Dan Bredell, bought the business, then called Mother’s Records and located in an old red church in downtown Fargo, in 1973 and would go on to open as many as eight branches in North Dakota and Minnesota. Twenty years later the store rebranded as Mother’s Music. When Dan died in 2021, the Moorhead location was the last remaining store.
About a year ago Brady stopped ordering new music and instead focused on used albums, CDs and cassettes as well as posters, T-shirts, gifts and smoking paraphernalia. “It’s devastating. It’s my dad’s legacy.
It’s my legacy,” Brady said on Jan. 2. In May, Brady planned a number of concerts to bring people out to the store, but he won’t do that this time around.
He said any music left after March 1 will be donated to local charities. “This community gave to me and I want to give back,” he said. He recently started a new job, which he said will limit the store's hours of operations.
In the future, he may ultimately open an online shop and is thinking of moving to Santa Fe, N.M., after he closes Mother’s, where he is in a month-to-month lease.
“It was my dream job. But sometimes that becomes a job more than something you love,” Brady said of his feelings running the physical store..
