Macon’s Fresh Produce Records has expanded into a neighboring vacant space, providing more room for customers and better display of products. The downtown record store, located at 567 Cherry Street, completed its expansion at the end of August.
Co-owners William “Willie D” Dantzler and William Lonnie Rutledge said the previous layout made it difficult to showcase their full inventory. “This is very much just us letting it all hang out after sucking our gut for about two years,” Rutledge said.
Most items have moved to the new storefront except for vinyl records, which now fill the original side. According to Rutledge, many products were previously hidden or inaccessible due to space constraints. “You couldn’t go through the store in even two or three hours … It takes days of coming in and going through, piece by piece,” he said.
The expanded section features CDs, VHS tapes, magazines, and merchandise with Fresh Produce-themed designs. A hand-drawn doodle by Dantzler—a smiling onion with a Fresh Produce yard sign—has become one of the shop’s most popular t-shirt and hat designs. “It’s really kind of dangerous giving us this much artistic expression … We’re just out here being little goofy artists and trying to make a space for other goofy, artistic music lovers and people that love media,” Rutledge said.
Combined, both storefronts now span approximately 4,000 to 4,500 square feet. Rutledge hopes to grow further: “Every single week I say, ‘What money do we have from last week to add to this and build out another section?’” He compared managing Fresh Produce Records to caring for a bonsai tree—an ongoing process shaped by his experience as a manager at a family-owned butcher shop and grocery store.
Rutledge became manager in 2018 when the shop was close to shutting down. He later became co-owner before moving the business from Martin Luther King Boulevard to Cherry Street in 2022. “They were about to get out of the business,” he said. “I was like, ‘Well let me try what I can try and see what I can do in the record business ….’ It was a whole thing.”
A full-service bar is planned for the new side but is not yet open; five refrigerators already offer sodas, energy drinks, tea and other beverages. Rutledge intends to sell convenience store staples at low prices as well. Downtown Macon currently has only two small corner stores.
“Accessibility is our whole thing,” Rutledge explained. “Downtown has a lot of things that are not being done in the core of downtown, and I’ve hit this point of, well, we got a game plan.”
He aims for Fresh Produce Records to be welcoming for all types of music fans: “I had a realization a few months ago that we’re in the American South and I didn’t have a Cajun-Creole section,” he said.
Macon has deep musical roots as home to artists such as Little Richard, Otis Redding and The Allman Brothers Band. Rutledge believes Macon deserves an inclusive media store: “Macon is long overdue for a media store that is as universal as it can be, given Macon’s music town status that we talk so much about… You can’t walk through the middle of Nashville without hitting a few record stores … and that’s what we’re trying to be.”
Rutledge expressed appreciation for physical media over digital formats: “If you love an album, sit down in front of two speakers and just listen to it… You can’t ignore something when it’s sitting on a shelf … It’s some wholesome shit.”
He also hopes Fresh Produce will inspire greater connection among listeners while challenging narrow views on music genres or quality: “I want to call Bob Dylan and just be like, ‘Man, I don’t know if you know this but, mid album bro,’” he joked. “Call Bob, tell him his album’s mid. He’d just be like, ‘Man, it was the 80s.’ God, no one tell Bob Dylan I said that.”
