You’ve seen the commercials – manic montages of store employees goofing around in Marx Brothers-type antics. For Natalie Hayden, manager of the Bardstown Road Book and Music Exchange, this scenario was real. She grew up in the business her family started over 30 years ago. “I was actually raised in the stores,” the Owensboro native says. “It was my first job.”

Book and Music Exchange – or BME, as the logo brands it – has locations on Bardstown Road, Preston Highway and New Cut Road in Louisville, as well as other shops in Owensboro, Henderson and Evansville.

Since the early ‘80s, BME has rolled with the changing formats and market. Vinyl LPs continue to sell well due to the nostalgia factor; comic books remain timeless. Still, even with the rise of iTunes, Hayden says, “There is a market for CDs, believe it or not. We actually cater to the fact that people can download.” The extremely liberal exchange policy allows buyers to exchange their CDs up to three times in seven days – and BME is fully aware that there may be some ripping going on at home. “Our CDs are $4 on average, and if you exchange them you can get three CDs for that,” Hayden says. “We just want everyone to get something they enjoy, if they find it on the first try or if it takes three times.” She explains that people still would rather buy the CD and rip it rather than pirate it.

Books are also available for exchange on a similarly generous basis. “We’re two for one on all our books,” Hayden says. “If you get a book and finish it and bring it back in, you can get another book.” She says that BME keeps credit on file and notes customers who bring in boxes of books once or twice a year and then put the value on a store credit. “You can shop all year long and never have to pay for a book,” she says. Or, for those who prefer less passive entertainment, BME has a significant video gaming section. “We carry video games from the originals, back to Game Boy and regular Nintendo, up to Xbox 360 and PlayStation3, and we carry the systems too.” BME doesn’t rent the systems, but the games and systems also come with a 30-day guarantee. “If you buy a Wii and don’t like it, try a PS3 or a 360.”

Hayden rotates among all three Louisville stores, but makes her home in Germantown. Her sister Selena, who came to Louisville to attend the University of Louisville, recently joined her – and seems to be following in her big sister’s footsteps by working in the New Cut store, which opened in 2000 as the youngest member of the BME empire.

And unlike Jack Black’s mocking record store clerk in the movie “High Fidelity,” no BME employees will belittle anyone’s guilty pleasure – as they have one of their own. The nine-person Bardstown Road staff maintains what Hayden refers to as “a shrine” to Lionel Richie. (For you younger folks, that’s Nicole’s dad. He was in a group called The Commodores and was a massively successful solo artist in the ‘80s.) “We just love him,” she says. “Everybody here does. It started out as one or two albums and just snowballed.”

And those commercials? “We’re looking to come up with a new one,” Hayden says, noting that the most recent one dates back to before she came to Louisville to attend U of L as a criminal psychology major. Will it be just as cheesy as its predecessors? “I’m sure it will be,” she says. “And everyone knows us for it.”

Stay tuned.

Book and Music Exchange locations are: 1616 Bardstown Road, (502) 454-3328); 5534 New Cut Road, (502) 364-8944); and 5400 Preston Highway, (502) 969-4403). Hours vary by location. Call for more information.

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