Shoreline spins Winnipeg Beach vinyl boutique helps lake-goers get in the groove By: David Sanderson Posted: 4:23 PM CDT Friday, Jul. 17, 2026

WINNIPEG BEACH — A just-released book called The Record Keepers: Digging for Stories in Canada’s Record Stores is being described as a cross-country love letter to the nation’s vinyl-record shops.

The 158-page tome, written and photographed by Carleton University professor Josh Greenberg, shines a light on 60 independently-owned operations from coast to coast, including four in Winnipeg: Old Gold Vintage Vinyl on Osborne Street, Winnipeg Record and Tape Co. on Wellington Avenue, Into the Music on McDermot Avenue and Argy’s Records on St. Mary’s Road.

Now, it’s probably too soon for Greenberg to be considering a sequel, but if the self-described audiophile ever decides to go that route, he may want to pay a visit to Winnipeg Beach, home of the province’s newest vinyl mecca.

Carlson Teakle is the owner of Beachside Vinyl, a 400-square-foot shop located at 18 Main St., a (Rolling) stone’s throw away from the shores of Lake Winnipeg. The 53-year-old father of four and grandfather of two admits to having fielded the question, “Why Winnipeg Beach?” a number of times since his grand opening earlier this year. His stock reply: why not Winnipeg Beach?

“One of the things I’ve discovered is that there’s definitely a population of people who live in the area 12 months of the year — not just in Winnipeg Beach, but Gimli, Riverton, Selkirk and Stonewall, too — who are very much into vinyl and are pumped to have a store nearby, versus having to drive to Winnipeg or order through Amazon,” says Teakle, standing near a display wall adorned with sealed titles by the likes of Michael Jackson, Björk, Radiohead and current flavour of the month Angine de Poitrine.

On the flipside, he has also heard from individuals who can’t remember the last time they were in a physical record store, and who’ve let him know how tickled they are to be getting back into the hobby, now that there’s a dedicated retailer in their neck of the woods. (According to Forbes magazine, North American record sales in 2025 surpassed US$1 billion for the first time this century, almost a 10 per cent increase over the previous year.)

“Probably the biggest compliment I receive is from customers who credit the shop as the reason they bought a new turntable for the cottage. Or how they dragged out an old turntable that had been gathering dust, so they can listen to records when they’re at the lake,” he says.

Teakle was born and raised in Niagara Falls, Ont. He remembers buying the odd record album as a youth — mainly K-Tel compilations, as it was an economical way to get multiple hits — but given the fact he turned 16 in 1988, the first year compact discs surpassed vinyl records in terms of sales, he definitely veered more towards CDs than LPs during his high school and university years.

Like a lot of music aficionados in the late ’90s and early 2000s, he got away from owning music in favour of streaming services, he says, noting he and his wife moved to Winnipeg from Ontario in 1996. A few years ago, however, he realized he wasn’t necessarily connecting with what he was listening to. At least not in the manner he had before, when he would make a point of sitting down and listening to an album in full, from start to finish. That led to what he refers to as a “rediscovery of vinyl,” as he sought to replace CDs he previously owned with vinyl copies.

It was during the COVID-19 pandemic that Teakle, a senior executive for IVC Vita Health Products, started to consider an early retirement. The problem was, he didn’t have many outside interests — he’s never been one for golf or tennis — so he wondered what he would do to stay engaged if he wasn’t reporting to the office on a regular basis.

One afternoon he shared his quandary with his son Jonathan, who often accompanied him on record-shopping trips throughout Winnipeg. That’s simple, Jonathan shot back; he could open a record store.

The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea, says Teakle, who originally owned a cottage in Grindstone before purchasing one in Winnipeg Beach two-and-a-half years ago. “And because the aim was more about having something fun to do versus making a ton of money, I started looking for potential sites around here, where I could operate just a few days a week, while I was winding down my primary career.”

By the time he signed a lease in November 2025 for a unit directly adjacent to the year-old Breakwater Beach Shop, Teakle had acquired a sizable inventory of used records — the majority coming from longtime collectors who were downsizing. He chuckles, saying the boxes were collectively so heavy, he was concerned they might cave in the floorboards of their cottage, where they were being stored.

Following almost two months of renovations, Beachside Vinyl threw open its doors on Jan. 24, a date commemorated on a hand-painted sign a local businessperson presented Teakle with as a welcome-to-the-neighbourhood gift. Although he initially carried a small volume of new records, only about 200 titles, that number has increased exponentially, he says, thanks in large part to regulars who drop in like clockwork, hunting for this or that.

“I’m lucky in the sense that I fully realize I don’t know a lot when it comes to certain music genres like country and hip-hop,” he reports. “I’m not afraid to ask, mind you, so I’m forever polling people of all ages about what they’d like to see on the shelves. It’s fun trying to figure out what to bring in, and just as much fun seeing people get excited that such-and-such is here, when they walk through the door.”

Dillon McCaffrey lives in Winnipeg Beach year-round. The 36-year-old actively collected records in his early 20s but stopped about a decade ago, largely because of availability.

“If there was something I really wanted, I had to make a special trip to the city but you don’t always want to do that, especially during the winter,” he says.

McCaffrey was “over the moon” when he discovered through a Winnipeg Beach Facebook group that a record store was coming to the community. He was one of the first people to visit, and he guesses he’s been there every weekend since the end of January, the result being that his record hoard has subsequently increased tenfold.

“He has a great mix of new and old stuff and even though I’m not that old, I’ve been scooping up a lot of ’70s rock and ’80s new-wave classics I never managed to get my hands on before,” says McCaffrey, whose home is a four-minute walk from the store.

And as overjoyed as he is to have a record shop close by, he’s even more pleased Teakle chose Winnipeg Beach for his venture.

“For a while, there wasn’t a lot of action around here. People would drive up from Winnipeg, jump in the water then go for a stroll on the boardwalk and that was about it,” McCaffrey says. “Lately though, there’s been a rash of new things sprouting up — a coffee shop, a bar and grill… even the old Playland arcade is up and running again. Having a record store feels like the cherry on top.”

“He has a great mix of new and old stuff.”

Teakle, whose favourite band is Rush, says one of the best parts of the job is seeing what records and artists people gravitate towards. He wasn’t shocked to learn he can never have enough copies of Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 blockbuster Rumours, but because he’s not originally from these parts, he was surprised by how popular the Phantom of the Paradise soundtrack is with Manitobans of a certain vintage.

“What’s also interesting is how Streetheart sells consistently but Loverboy hardly at all,” he continues, dropping the needle on Green Day’s American Idiot. “Or how Tom Petty is huge but Neil Young barely moves. I’d have thought the opposite, given the Winnipeg connection.”

Teakle, who expects to be fully retired by the fall, intends to remain open year-round, though he guesses he’ll scale back his hours slightly come mid-September — likely Friday to Sunday versus the current Friday to Monday.

“There will probably be a few weekends when I’m closed altogether to get back to Ontario to visit family, but yeah, it’ll be nice to have something to do during the winter,” he says.

One more thing; if you’re new to records, you should be aware that vinyl and a day at the beach isn’t exactly a match made in heaven.

“Yes, I regularly mention the heat thing to younger buyers — how their albums will warp in the sun — and offer to keep their purchases here until later in the day, when they are heading out,” Teakle says with a chuckle.

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