Let's meet Pascal Abric, manager of the “Albi Road Records” store, a second-hand vinyl and CD sales store in the historic center of Albi.
Introduce yourself and tell us what motivated you to open a vinyl store?
I am Pascal Abric and with my brother-in-law Aymeric Soula, we opened our record store "Albi Road Records" which is located rue Augustin Malroux in the city center next to the prefecture. We are from Toulouse and now we live in Albi, we are big music fans. Aymeric is a musician and I have been scouring record stores in France and Navarre since I was 13 and so for me this is the culmination of a project that has been running through my head for several years. I left in the meantime to retire, then discovering Albi we felt that it was a city that breathed music with in particular the Guitar Break Festival and then other musical entertainment. The finding was that there were no record stores.
We felt that it was a city that breathed music.
So we embarked on the adventure, we first had to have stock, create the company and then in mid-November 2022, we were ready to open. Our opening went very well, that is to say that people were very happy that there is finally a record store in Albi. It must be said that a few years ago, vinyl had lost its luster with the arrival of the CD, then dematerialized music and then we feel that today it's starting again, even young people are getting into it. They particularly appreciate the sound differently, the cover… Transmitting the passion to future generations.
We are happy to see people antiquing and making beautiful discoveries, which sometimes bring back memories of youth...
You should know that in our shop, we only offer second-hand products, we do not want to compete with other stores on new products and we want our customers to find themselves there also in terms of price. We also bring some listening advice, sometimes enthusiasts stay up to 2 hours in our shop, we discuss and share a good time.
Is there a top request?
We have everything in terms of requests, we have a clientele for the classics that we have difficulty keeping in stock: Queen, Supertramp... We realized that a lot of people liked Jazz, there was in particular the Albi Festival Jazz in January 2023 where we were present at the vinyl fair. Then after we are eclectic, we have French variety, CDs, 45 rpm, classic. We have a clientele for everything.
Can people bring you vinyls and such?
Of course, because the problem that all second-hand record stores have is to have stock so we are interested in your nuggets hidden in an attic or other. It's also linked to word of mouth that we get records too.
We are open Tuesday to Thursday 11:30 a.m. - 13 p.m. / 14 p.m. - 18:30 p.m. and Friday-Saturday: 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. / 14 p.m. - 19 p.m., we adapt to our customers according to peaks in attendance. Also on social media Instagram et Facebook to keep up to date with the latest news.
Themes
