Amoeba Music, 1855 Haight Street

Amoeba Music is an independent record chain, and its store on Haight Street, which opened in 1997, is especially notable for its size. It's in a former bowling alley and stocks CDs and vinyl and even audio cassettes, all both new and used. They also stock movies, video games, music-related posters and artwork and Amoeba merchandise. The staff are all music-retail veterans, lots of whom are also musicians, and their aim is to provide a place for music-lovers to engage with music, a community of artists and listeners to counteract the corporate chains. They often host free live music events so check out their website to see if anything good is going on during your stay. Haight is a great street to hang out on - lots of fantastic restaurants, cool bars and unusual stores, so you can make a day of it.

           
(photo credit: Wikipedia)