Herstory ...

Mountunes began as the brainchild of Lisa Varga. She opened the doors in 1986 with an inventory of Records and Tapes. The original store was less than 1/4 of it's current size. Next door to us was an engraving shop and across the hall was Snake River Music. The engravers left and Lisa knocked down the walls and took over their half. A few years later, Snake River Music across the hall decided to relocate, Lisa took over the hallway and the front half of their space, while the back half was opened into the restaraunt next door, now Shogun Sushi, and at the time, Cyber City Internet and Gaming. In 1999, Lisa sold Mountunes to me, Susan Woodward, who had been her employee and part of the Mountunes family for six years. Soon after the buyout took place, Cyber City was no more, and Jackson was left without public internet acess. I then decided to take over what used to be the back half of Snake River Music, and was at that point part of the former Cyber City and open it into Mountunes, turning it into Bits-n-PC's Internet Cafe. Two years later, Hava Java Espresso Cafe was born, when Kate Blank came on board. She brought her experience as a Barista and former record store owner into the mix, and that is how we became Mountunes Music, Espresso, and Internet Cafe.

In January of 2005 I came to Kate with the idea of bringing in clothing to compliment the Jewelry, Belts and Bags we were already doing well with. The two of us took off to Vegas to the bi-annual Marketplace and April 15th 2005 Sub-Urban Clothing opened for business. In the spring of 2006 my love for the art of Tattoo and Body Piercing came in to the picture. For years I had been traveling all over the country to get tattoo work done. I first moved here in 1987 and for years there had not been a single tattoo shop. In the past few years three had opened but didn't last long. Those shops each had only one artist. Not much to choose from. Instead of having to travel far and wide to have work done, why couldn't we bring the artists to us? After speaking with a few very talented artists who lived close by that said they would love to spend a week tattooing in Jackson , we realized we could open a shop based soley on guest artists. And voila, we added Sub-Urban Tattoo and Piercing to our reportiore. Our store has seen many changes over the years, but the one thing that stays the same, is our staff's enthusiam for music, technology and the culture and style that is a huge part of it. In a time when the cold impersonal music mega store is the norm, we are proud to be part of a shop that has personality, warmth, knowledge, experience and a huge heart. Just try and go to one of those places and ask the kid who just sold you a pair of shoes "who does that song? You know the one, that has that guy in it, with the hair. I don't know the name of the song or the band but it goes a little like this" And see what happens. Mountunes is the place you can ask that and more often than not we'll know who you mean. So there you have it, Mountunes History and my ramblings. For those of you who made it this far, thanks for taking the time to read this and we hope to hear from you or see you soon.
Susan

Mountunes Music, Espresso & Internet Cafe