A Paul Boutique

This place is great. There’s something for everyone to enjoy. Paul has the best vibe and his store is simply amazing. It is a small place but it holds a lot of treasures for you all to discover. He doesn’t just sell it to you, he knows and feels the music on another level. If you’re lucky enough he might show you the backstory where the selection of vinyls and other discs just doesn’t seem to end. His records are well priced as well. Some of them seem too cheap sometimes when compared to online prices and offers. From what I’ve seen most of them are between 15-30$ each and anyone that knows a bit about vinyls will tell you that they’re extremely well priced. The owner is one of the kindest souls I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. He has a positive outlook on the harsh times some are living and he spreads his ideas and positivity in a nice and supportive way

If you're a woman, I would strongly advise avoiding this place. It felt unsafe and deeply unsettling. I went to this place looking for vinyl, but the experience was incredibly uncomfortable. The guy working there wanted me to go to the door backstore and said, "Come in the back; it's all new, I make great parties there." It was so off-putting and creepy that I left immediately. I just saw another review from someone who had a similar experience, so it seems like a pattern. Be careful

I’m only posting this review because I don’t imagine Paul uses the internet. If he did, I’m certain he would somehow find me and take one of my kidneys. Paul’s selection of vintage VHS tapes, records and Super Nintendo games is very impressive. While I was talking to Paul about his wares, he abruptly ended our conversation to chase an apparently unknown passer-by half way down the road and start tussling with them. Upon returning and seeing my perplexed face, the only explanation forthcoming was to say, in a heavy French accent, “street-fighting”. Judging by the other reviews here, my experience was not atypical.

Great selection of records and nostalgic feeling. Amazing fun owner, definitely someone to strike up a conversation with. A must for those who love retro and records!

This is a pretty cool shop to hunt for DVDs and vinyl, but it was pretty overwhelming when I went in. It's very dark, cramped, disorganized and musty. And in the summer very hot. If the owners add some lighting, a couple nice fans, and made it a bit easier to get around and find things, it would be a better experience to shop here.

I’ve gone to this place twice, when I was 19 me and my friend didn’t realize this was a cash only place- so we explained to PAUL that we were going to an ATM. Then this old man was like let’s figure something out in the back. Ew. Anyways we wanted our vinyls so we came back with 100$ Paul then took that 100$ and we waited 20 minutes for him to give us our ~75$ change. He pretended to forget and put up an act of ‘oh so sorry should’ve told me’ when we were right there WAITING. Next to him. We got our money but not until this 60 year old man was flexing about ‘having parties there’ and so many ‘college students come’.. weird vibe didn’t like it but TODAY I learnt from a friend that this guy allegedly sells videos of women using the bathroom (hidden cameras) and honestly my experience didn’t put much faith into the fact that this wasn’t true? when this old man is OBSESSED with barely legal people what do you expect. Stay away, plenty more CLEAN and not shady record stores in MTL. Stay safe

Came here looking for some new Vinyl and found out they don't even have a debit machine yet still charge tax on all the records, the store was dirty and some hip hop records were left on the floor in water from peoples shoes. The guy I spoke too was very friendly, the prices were a little over priced too. With the vinyl record industry rising again I won't be wasting my time at this dump, sorry bud but clean up your shop

I've never seen so much vinyls in a shop of this size! This place is amazing you can find all the CD/vinyl you want!

Great little dive bar Down side is the clientele, no old school characters remain Cramped inside Oooops, that was the bar in Toronto! This is a cool used record and CD store in Montreal Fortunately, also 4 stars!

Dirty store and way overpriced. $10 for used Cd's. Don't waste your time going in this place.

I was having a lovely day walking down mount royal street when my friends and I neared Paul Boutique. One of my friends delighted me with a fun fact that Paul Boutique looks small but has an impressive back room with a collection of vinyls that just had to be seen! I was especially delighted since i've been a Montrealer since 2013 and have never known about this boutique. We were a group of four, with only one of us having been to the location once before. We walked in and shared a casual smile and nod with the men in the front of the store and made our way to the back. We were in awe...for just about 5 seconds until a man from the front confronted us and said "..this is a privileged area..." "...you can't have bags..." etc. all in a quite unpleasant tone. We quickly apologized, returned to the front of the store and stated that we didn't know there were rules. He continued by saying "...this isn't some public government place where you can go anywhere you like..." "...people these days just feel so privilege and that they can go anywhere..." "...you don't even say hi to us and you just walk into the back of the store..." "...you have to be invited to the back..." and finally as we were attempting to leave the store after profusely apologizing, he tried to continue his sermon but ended with "...no, this conversation is over." I would have stayed and browsed the front of the store but unfortunately the only way to end his tirade was to leave the store. I want to address those that think "if he's mean to you it's because you deserve it". That's not true, if he doesn't want people walking in the back then there should be some CLEAR signage stating "do not enter" or "staff only." Yelling at new customers who wander into his "privileged" area without the knowledge that it's "privilege" is not the solution. I felt that we were treated quite arbitrarily in this store. I love small businesses but I would not advise shopping here and supporting a store that focuses more on their arbitrary rules than fostering positive relationships with curious music lovers.

Came here looking for some new Vinyl and found out they don't even have a debit machine yet still charge tax on all the records, the store was dirty and some hip hop records were left on the floor in water from peoples shoes. The guy I spoke too was very friendly, the prices were a little over priced too. With the vinyl record industry rising again I won't be wasting my time at this dump, sorry bud but clean up your shop.

Extremely rude, racist and arrogant owner. Made fun of us and shooed us out the store when we are trying to make a purchase. Horrible customer service and unpleasant experience. Overpriced too. Avoid at all costs!

If you're from out of town, you may see this store's funky outside as intriguing (it does look cool, as it has a prime location on Mont Royal). Appearances are quite deceiving. In this case, you walk in, and it's extremely cluttered, the records are jammed into their respective sections, and the prices are WAY out of line (especially compared to the MANY excellent shops you have in the area). Many prototypical record shops in the U.S have similar aesthetic properties (interesting exterior, hoarder's interior, useless clutter) and so, many tourists might drop in due to the window display, attractive lettering, or the fact that it's a small yellow building in a cool Montreal neighborhood... Avoid. This is in no way meant to be a vindictive review, nor is it motivated by that HILARIOUS South Park episode (You're not Yelping). The owner is a nice guy, and he knows his music. Problem is, his stock is wayyy over-priced and in (mostly) lousy condition. New records cost (on average 5-10$ more here... it just doesn't make sense. Also, there's no debit / credit card machines which is also a bit of a red-flag. This place relies squarely on walk-by's and tourists... otherwise, no actual record/music fan from Montreal would voluntarily go there. Want a good shop or two, or six to check out if you're in Montreal? -Beatnick -Aux 33 Tours -Cheap Thrills -Phonopolis -Death of Vinyl / Fin du Vinyl -Sonik Good prices, excellent selection, knowledgeable staff... (Aux 33, Phono & Cheap Thrills are my top 3) Cheers!

Went here with my roommate and a friend of mine since my roommate was raving about the amount of records in store. The store itself is well organized but not well kept and quite dirty. The owner and employees were not wearing a mask, not to mention the owner was coughing constantly. I ended up finding 2 used t-shirts that I liked and patiently waited for the owner to finish his conversation, which lasted about 10 minutes. I offered him a price for the 2 shirts since there were no price tags. He laughed in my face and proceeded to ask me "what do I look like??" Completely rude! He walked away after with his buddies he was talking to and that was that. Needless to say, I will not be returning!

I moved away from Montreal a couple of years ago because of people like this shop owner. I was showing my girlfriend the city, I occasionally come back to Montreal to visit family and had brought her with me this time. She 's from New Zealand, and quite understandably, doesn't speak a word of French. Anyways, we were wandering around the Plateau, playing tourist in my own city, and wound up strolling into Paul Boutique. At first, we were amazed by the vast selection of hidden treasures and quaint appearance - that changed VERY quickly. I could deal with his overpriced vinyl, which honestly was a mess and somehow more expensive than the pricier places in Toronto; I could deal with the absolute clutter and, in hindsight, general lack of f***s given to how a business should be run, but what I can't excuse is how excessively bigoted and irate the shop owner was. I'm perfectly bilingual - I'm from Montreal - French and English are virtually the same language to me, but as I mentioned, my girlfriend is from the other side of the world and doesn't speak a word of French. He did not seem to like that. I was sifting through his huge piles of vintage comics, happy like a pig in s**t because I'm a collector, and would have absolutely come back and spent a lot of money on them. I decided to only buy one because I could tell my girlfriend wanted to get going and explore more of the city rather than watch me sort through a pile of old comics. We went to pay and that's when the s**t hit the fan. So my first red flag came up when a comic from the $1 bin was $2, but hey, no big deal right. He didn't like the fact that I assumed it was a dollar (when it was in a bin that clearly said $1). I asked if he had debit, seeing as I only had a looney on me in cash in the first place (hence why I'd been sorting through the bin in the first place), he aggressively said no. Ok, still no biggie, right? My girlfriend pulled out some cash and we paid him. The whole time he sat making disgusted faces at us because I'd been speaking in English to her. Finally, I ask him for a bag. Just a bag to put the loose comic book in so I don't crumple it while I walk around. He lost his F***ing mind. He began to huff and puff, cursing me for asking for a bag for a $2 comic. I attempted to de-escalate and politely asked that he chill out and told him I don't need a bag and that it's no big deal. But he just kept going and going, ranting on and on about random S**t that made no sense, mocking us the entire way through as he threw us out of his shop. I wish I'd never given this guy even the $2.00 of business that I had. He's an outright Anglophobe, that's a given, but I'm pretty sure that he's also bats**t crazy. I would have gone back there and spent a lot of money, I would have even told my friends (who are fellow collectors with deep pockets) to go. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. DON'T GIVE THIS PSYCHOPATH YOUR BUSINESS. Racists and bigots like him give this province a bad reputation and are the same reason I moved to Toronto in the first place. There are a ton of wonderful people in the city and province, it's not about language. But the owner of Paul Boutique is an outright backwards minded f***ing loser that ruins this beautiful city for everyone else. DO NOT SHOP HERE.

A solid 4.5 stars! I just visited Montreal for the first time this past weekend and made some great record shop discoveries with Paul's Boutique being one of them. It was easy to find some great finds-- found a bunch of 60s garage/ soul 45s front and center. If you're American, you might find the prices a bit outrageous. Ma oui, they're charging $8+ for a Beatles 45 but dig deeper and you'll find some cool ass gems you won't find in the States. They also have some solid funk selections as well. Took points off for not being 45 crate digger friendly-- the boxes were on the ground facing the door and customers came close to tripping over me. Bonus-- the friendly shop keep really knows his soul. He was blasting a soul mix by Canadian DJ, Skratch Bastid. Awesome choice of music.

This is a small store with a lot of inventory, however every LP I pulled out of any bin was in poor condition AND overpriced (FYI - I collect Classic Rock and Metal). I've been to every used vinyl store in Montreal and the quality to price ratio at Paul Boutique is the worst. Albums I've found in dollar bins elsewhere are priced at $12 and up here - and in worse condition. Not a place I would bother visiting again when there are a half dozen other great record stores in the Plateau.

This record store has got to be the biggest rip off in town. The owner not only charges at least double the price of his closest used or new record competitor. He is also absolutely ok with paying you peanuts for your records and then selling them for at least 5 times the amount. The proper etiquette when buying used records is to tell the seller how much he will be selling and then offer the seller 50% to 40% bare minimum. Do not accept anything less and demand to know how much they are selling them for and then return to the store to check up your item. I had to learn the hard way.

Obscurity galore. From video games, to vinyl to my favorite, vhs. They have the best collection of vhs tapes I have ever seen. Helpful staff, they have been around since 2001. Highly recommended if you're into niche and obscure media.

Overpriced records, poor selection, rude staff. What else can I say? As I went to enter, some staff-member blocked my way and joked "you're not cool enough to come in here" now I have a sense of humor, but a sense of humor is a double edged sword because it tells you when a joke is unfunny, this was one of those occasions. When I stepped around this short, bizarre person, another member of staff or perhaps the owner said "I have that Tom Jones record you ordered". Again, not very funny. He then glanced at my wife and seeing she had pink hair, immediately starting trying to sell her a punk record by some generic Montreal band. My wife isn't into punk so it was kinda awkward. Never before have I entered a record store to have a member of staff try to sell me a specific record and list its price in the process. I spent years working in record stores too so to me this is just strange and uncomfortable way to treat a new customer. We saw they had a Venetian Snares album we liked so we asked them to take it down from the impossibly high shelf, we pointed to the clearly titled LP but he still made sure to say "what that one with the crying thing on the cover?" in very condescending tones. The record cost 35 dollars which is pricey but I was tempted to buy it, in the end the poor atmosphere of the store and the rudeness of the salesmen ultimately made me put the record back on a shelf and leave.

Haha this Paul guy is a riot. Always pushing the sale. Vinyl. 8 tracks. Playboy. Video games. Catch all shop for unashamed nerds. Pop in to check it out. Ask him to play something (assuming it's opened) if it tickles your fancy.

don't even bother. records are heavily damaged and overpriced. the staff are useless without their boss, and they don't know when he'll be back. it's no fun here. if you want to buy a damaged Lionel Richie record for $10 this is your place.