Come In! Audioccult for Records, Oddities and Pop Culture

True to their name, Audioccult is a place for records amidst the strange and unusual collectible items, many of which hail from the '80s. Located at 267 Main Street, next to American Gypsy and across from Max's on Main near Key Food, Audioccult is a record shop run by proprietor Sean Congdon that is as much a place to buy and sell records as it is to have a friendly experience buying those records. But records are not all that you will find in Audioccult. True to their mission of making you happy, you will find long-forgotten items from an '80s childhood, like a bright green Glo Worm (since sold), the Rainbow Brite horse, Care Bears, and G.I. Joe.

If you have never heard of the word Audioccult, that is because Sean made it up. "Audioccult is a term that encompasses our three primary passions - records (Audio), the strange, obscure, and not easily defined (Occult), and '80s pop culture (Cult)."

Normally very shy of record stores, not being a record collector or owner of a record player (yet), I challenged myself to go into the store to investigate. What I found was a delightfully playful shopping experience, which is exactly what Sean intended. "We're music and art geeks, not music and art snobs - it is our goal to make everyone feel welcome and respected, and hopefully leave the shop with a smile."

So in order to write this post and arrange these photos for your virtual walk-through of the store for A Little Beacon Blog's "Come In!" series, I unabashedly turned on Belinda Carlisle's Heaven on Earth album, and started typing.

Organized in a way that makes record browsing enjoyable, Audioccult also has a designated spot for new arrivals that just landed in the store. This is a much appreciated section for regular record crate diggers.

 

Vintage display cases line the wall and are filled with items that would be better for little hands not to touch, but are nice to look at.

Where else can you find a Rainbow Brite horse and original My Little Ponies on Main Street? And these might not even be here when you go into Audioccult, as things change in these white cases frequently.

 

Cheer Bear the Care Bear and an E.T. card game in the same shelf. Priceless.

Is your comic book collection complete without Starsky & Hutch or Dukes of Hazzard? Thought not.

Take a closer look at this picture...you are looking at collectible cards for Growing Pains and 21 Jump Street. These cards are some of the best sellers in the store.

 

Fievel. In his Fievel Goes West movie that can now be found in gas stations packaged with the original movie (and is a serious tearjerker), an American Tail. Available to you as a collectible card. Or pick G.I. Joe!

Back to the business of records. You can definitely listen to records while in the store.

 

If you wanted to take a moment to play Super Mario Brothers, Zelda, or whatever Audioccult has on hand at the moment, you could do so on their original Nintendo machine. Not that Audioccult is a store for gamers to stand around playing video games all day, but they do allow for some playing time.

Audioccult does have an online store that has a few unusual items, like a coffin key. As in the real-world shop, you just never know what you will find in there. Open from Wednesday-Sunday, you can also find Audioccult on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @audioccult.

Enjoy your shopping experience! Please take a picture of what you bought and tag A Little Beacon Blog in Instagram! @alittlebeacon.