Casting his eye around the downtown, he named Don Stewart Jewellers, Books A Plenty and Cabbages and Kings as businesses where the same owners had served generations of customers. He suspected there were not too many more.
Mr Clay has enjoyed the back to the future irony which ushered in the cool music newcomer to the downtown 18 months ago, Vinyl Destination.
He liked that it was keeping the music flag flying, with Traks responding to the resurgence in popularity of vinyl by stocking an ever-expanding range of new LPs.
But in the end he bowed to the feeling that it was time to get out. It was not as hard a decision as he imagined, even although closing a shop that he was tied to seven days a week had been a massive lifestyle change.
"I've already put on a couple of kg."
When Tracs, as it was then spelt, was put up for sale in 1996, Mr Clay seized the opportunity to get into an industry where he sensed he belonged.
In those days CDs were king and vinyl had been relegated to the pages of history. Legend had it that New Zealand's last record pressing plant was dumped in the sea to ensure LPs and 45s never made a comeback.
Mr Clay said Tracs employed three fulltime staff and a part-timer when he bought the business, competing against three other specialist music stores in the downtown. "The business was at the top of the mountain."
The rot set in with the growth of the internet marketplace and people downloading and then streaming their music. "It has been a slow grind since then."
Other challenges had been the decline of the average person's spending power and the technology that allowed a mobile phone and a set of blue tooth speakers to become a mini stereo system, he said.
Mr Clay said things really started to slide when the credit crunch hit in 2008, followed by a recession.
He regretted that the only glimmer of hope, the rise of vinyl, had slowed because suppliers were hiking prices. Records that he was selling for $30 a couple of years ago were now $50 or even $60.
"Prices are going up so much that people are falling off vinyl."
He was a caustic observer of the changing character of Tauranga and society in general. "You can tell dorklanders [Aucklanders]. They blow their horns when someone tries to get out of a carpark."
And he could not fathom why people no longer had the time to come into town and browse the shops.
It meant everything fell into place for Mr Clay when he faced the prospect of renewing the shop's lease. He was turning 65 in January and had a few health niggles.
"I had my loyal customers, but there were not enough of them to keep going. Everything was getting harder, and I mean everything - the way the industry was being run. A big thing was not being able to buy what I wanted to sell."
"Change has hit me...I felt it was time to go.''
Mr Clay will exchange the pace of Tauranga for the laidback groove of the little beachfront town of Mokau, an hour's drive north of New Plymouth.
Tauranga downtown's main music outlets in 1996
- Tracs
- Sounds
- Jim's Music Room
- Record Roundabout
- Deka