A Montreal music institution celebrates a landmark milestone this month
Cheap Thrill's location on Metcalfe St. is an oddity in a downtown Montreal now dominated by modern chain stores.
The rickety stairs to the shop, a flashback to a bygone architectural past.
And inside the store, one could be forgiven for thinking they've boarded a time machine.
“It's amazing. I think it's a lot of good luck on our part, we just stood the test of time and we're the last one standing downtown,” says owner Gary Worsley, who bought the store from its original owner four years ago, after working there for two decades.
There was a time, 30 years ago, when people couldn't give away their record collection because CDs were all the rage.
But Cheap Thrills weathered the storm and now celebrates its 50th anniversary. The original store, on Bishop St., closed its doors in the 90s.
“We kept vinyl but it was hard to get new ones,” Morsley explains. "People weren't coming in with them used, they were coming with tons of used CDs."
But when consumers abandoned CDs and turned to digital streaming, something unusual happened.
A few customers started asking for vinyl records that were still manufactured on a smaller scale in Europe.
“It made a comeback here I'd say a decade ago. And it's really strong right now,” observes Morsley, who was just a teenager when record companies started phasing out vinyl records.
At first, most stores and record companies thought it was a fad.
But it turns out a new generation wanted to discover what it's like to hold a physical copy of recorded music -- packaged the way their parents bought music.
Fernando Diaz, 36, grew up with CDs, but now buys vinyl.
“The sound, the way you feel the music, it's different,” says Dias while holding a copy of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, a classic record that came out 48 years ago.
According to the record industry, the average vinyl record buyer is now between the ages of 25 and 34.
This has led to the opening of many new, millennial-oriented stores.
But Cheap Thrills always remained close to its 1960s hipster roots, as it enters its sixth decade in business.
It's still stocking used books from beat writers, along with musical classics from a bygone era, but adapts to its new clientele.
"We have to stock Taylor Swift and Lorde and Billie Eilish because these records are selling and they help sell the other records,” says Worsley.
And if the past is any indication, the obituary of vinyl records has yet to be written at Cheap Thrills.
Correction
A previous version of this article said the record shop was on Mansfield, not Metcalfe.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction overturned by N.Y. appeals court
New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, reversing a landmark ruling of the #MeToo era in determining the trial judge improperly allowed women to testify about allegations against the ex-movie mogul that weren't part of the case.
BREAKING Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
CTE: Researchers believe widespread brain injury may contribute to veteran suicide rate
Researchers are working to better understand if some Canadian military veterans may be suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE -- a disorder previously found in the brains of professional football and hockey players after their death.
1 arrested in northern Alberta during public shelter order
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
New deep-water channel allows first ship to pass Key bridge wreckage in Baltimore
The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore on Thursday after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, halting most maritime traffic through the city's port.
First in Canada procedure performed at London, Ont. hospital
A London man has become the first person in Canada to receive a robotic assisted surgery on his spine. Dave Myeh suffered from debilitating, chronic back pain that led to sciatica in his right now and extreme pain in his lower back.