Music. Croc Vinyl, the oldest record store in Toulouse, closes its doors

On December 29, Croc Vinyl will close its doors for good. For vinyl lovers, a whole section of the musical culture of recent decades is disappearing in Toulouse. Because the store, located at the top of rue des Lois, was not just a simple shop. It was a meeting place for record lovers, who discussed their passion. It was also the oldest record store in Toulouse, since the creation of Croc Vinyl dates back to 1987, with a first establishment on rue Pargaminières.

At 67, Eugène Corona-Pineda wanted to bow out and go on a trip with his wife, behind the wheel of a truck. Failing to have found a buyer in the business to buy his business and his incredible collection of LPs, he will give way to a clothing brand at the start of the year. In the meantime, he is liquidating his stock with discounts of -50%, and his store is always full. “I am very divided, I am both happy to leave and at the same time I feel a huge pang in my heart,” he confides, behind his counter. “I did a great job, I met people fantastic. I’ve never been reluctant to get up in the morning to go to work. A record store is like a bookstore, it’s important in a city.

“Discoverer’s job”

Eugène loved his “discoverer’s job”, in search of these collections that he would unearth from individuals, these encounters and these inheritances of small treasures fueled solely by word of mouth. In the middle of his baccalaureate, he met Etienne Daho, Pascal Comelade, Laurent Voulzy, Renaud, Pierre Arditi and Jules-Edouard Moustic. It spanned four decades, during which vinyl experienced a golden age, collapse and rebirth.

In the mid-1980s, he began to get his hands on second-hand markets, in Capitole and Saint-Sernin. Convicted of selling pirated albums, he opened a store specializing in second-hand records, rue Pargaminières, with an associate, to pay his fine. “It worked so well that we opened others, a second one in the street, then rue des Lois, in 1990, and rue de la Colombette, in 1993,” remembers Eugène.

The thriving Croc Vinyl company hires up to ten employees. But she will also experience “all the troubles”. “When the record market began to fail, it was necessary to lay off people, then close stores…” Eugène separated from his partner, remained alone with an employee, and faced the great trend of downloading and competition from Internet. He is approached by a “small platform” which is launching, PriceMinister. The web becomes a partner that saves it from bankruptcy and keeps it afloat, by hosting its catalog. During this crossing of the desert, he remained alone on board, in his store on rue des Lois.

When the record came back into favor in 2010, he decided to attack the new market. “A new clientele was arriving, we couldn’t ignore it. But what saved us was that we never gave up the opportunity,” he continues. He moves from 12 to 7 rue des Lois, just opposite. The larger premises allow it to develop a larger clientele, and to definitively establish its aura. This is where his most loyal customers come to say goodbye. Regulars that he now refers to his Toulouse colleagues, the Laboratory, Vicious Circle and Bullit.