Red Deer record store to open new location in Edmonton
Published 2:32 pm Friday, July 24, 2026
A popular Red Deer record store is expanding to reach a whole new group of music lovers.
Rock On Records, which is located at 4828 53 St. in Red Deer, recently announced it will open up a new store in Edmonton this August.
“I’ve always thought about opening up another store,” said Vincent Molgat, Rock On Records owner.
“The record store owner community is kind of small and we’re all friends. I’m up in Edmonton all the time to visit some of the other stores. There was ‘for lease’ sign right next to two of my favourite stores up here on White Ave. I wasn’t really looking to open a new store right away, but this location met the parameters for what I would be looking for.”
Molgat met with a broker and submitted an offer to lease the store. The owners quickly got back to him and set up a meeting.
“I met with a 92-year-old man and his son who have owned the building for 45 years. We spoke for 10-15 minutes and they said, ‘We like you. We’ll rent to you,’” he said.
“They’re really looking to bring back the charm of White Ave. I remember as a kid, it was filled with independent businesses. Then we saw the corporate chains come in and rents going up. Now we’re seeing more of those independent businesses coming back. It’s great to see. It gives the area more character.”
Molgat got the keys for the Edmonton location on June 30 and has since been working to set up the store. The goal is to open on Aug. 8.
Red Deer’s Rock On Records originally began as a charitable thrift store called Sacks Thrift Store. That business was located in a building on 48 Street, of which Molgat was a part-owner.
“We opened about six months before the pandemic and I quickly realized it wasn’t really going to work. We weren’t large enough and we didn’t have free parking,” Molgat recalled.
When the downtown Red Deer record store The Soundhouse shut down, Sacks Thrift Store got all its leftover vinyl.
“We were selling two for $5. That was the only thing selling. When we were forced to shut down during the pandemic, I sourced a bunch of records. When we re-opened, we had seven curated boxes of records. We immediately saw our sales triple. We knew there was something there,” he said.
The ownership group of the building voted to sell the building on 48 Street. Molgat was unable to work out a deal with the new owner to stay in the building, but he was able to find the current space on 53 Street. The business was rebranded “Rock On Records” upon moving to the current location, where it’s been for about three and a half years.
There’s a growing demand for records and other forms of physical media, said Molgat.
“Vinyl has been growing for a while. But right in this moment, CD sales are jumping up. We’ve seen a resurgence in the cassette tape as well,” said Molgat.
For more information on the business, visit its Facebook page: www.facebook.com/rockonrecordsrd.