7500 EXCELSIOR BLVD.
Coast to Coast, Musicland

COAST TO COAST

Coast to Coast Stores built a $3 million, 21 acre warehouse at 7500 Excelsior Blvd. in 1956. A grand opening was held on February 8-9, 1957, with special guest Governor Orville Freeman. 200 people struck the facility in 1961. Coast to Coast occupied the building until about 1977.

Click here for an aerial photo taken in 1962.  7500 is the very large building toward the upper right hand corner.

PICKWICK/MUSICLAND

In 1977, the building was home to Pickwick International, the folks who brought us all those record offers on TV. This infamous record company started out as Pickwick Sales before becoming Pickwick International. From 1967 to 1977, the company was located on Wayzata Blvd. in Golden Valley. In 1968 the company was merged with record companies owned by J.L. Marsh and the Heilicher Brothers. Amos and Daniel Heilicher served as industry executive advisors. At the time of the move, Pickwick was the largest record distributor in the US and UK and had 280 retail record shops. It had also just been purchased by the American Can Co.

At some point, through a series of mergers, the company merged with and changed its name to Musicland. Musicland opened its first record store in Minneapolis in 1956 and grew to operate 1,300 record stores.

JAPS-OLSON

In August 1996, the Japs-Olson Company purchased the building from Musicland and moved in in 1997. Japs-Olson is a printing company started in 1907 by Barney Japs and G.F. Olson. It was originally located in downtown Minneapolis, and moved to North Minneapolis in the 1970s.  In 2005 it employed 650 people and is one of the top 10 direct mail printers in the country. The company prints, personalizes and mails about a billion pieces of mail a year.  Clients include Charles Schwab, Sprint, and Thrivent Financial. 

2000

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This information comes from a variety of sources: newspapers, books, yearbooks, phone directories, interviews, etc. Given the varied sources, we cannot guarantee that all of this information is correct, and welcome any additions and corrections. Please contact us with your contributions and comments.