![Archambault Musique 08](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Archambault_Musique_08.jpg)
Archambault, is the largest music retailer in the province of
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, Canada, as well as a major retailer of books, DVDs, periodicals, musical instruments, sheet music, games, toys and gift ideas. Its e-commerce site, www.archambault.ca, is the largest French-language retail site in North America. Archambault currently operates 14 stores in Quebec.
Paragraphe Bookstore, an English-language bookstore, is also part of Archambault Group.
History
Archambault was founded in 1896 by Edmond Archambault, who had originally wanted to open a sheet music store.
In partnership with J.A. Hurteau, a major retailer of pianos, instruments and music accessories, Mr. Archambault opened his first store on the corner of Saint Denis and
Sainte Catherine Streets in Montreal. In 1919, Edmond Archambault became the store's sole owner, and in 1930, he decided to move to the corner of Berri and Sainte Catherine Streets, where he built a seven-storey building, which he dubbed the "House of the Future" and served as the home of Archambault Group's main office.
Mr. Archambault's died in 1947 and nephews, Rosaire Sr. and Edmond Sr., took over the reins of the business. In the 1980s, the son of Rosaire Sr., Rosaire Jr., became president. Then began a period of expansion during which many new Archambault stores opened across Quebec. The 1984 saw also the creation of
Distribution Select Distribution Select (formerly Distribution Musicor, Distribution GAM and Distribution Trans-Canada) was a Canadian music distribution company based in Montréal, Quebec, originally founded in 1965 as Disques Select. It was owned by Quebecor. On Dec ...
, the largest distributor of music in Quebec.
![Archambault 2001 logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Archambault_2001_logo.png)
The Archambault family sold the family-owned company to
Quebecor
Quebecor Inc. is a Canadian diversified media and telecommunications company serving Québec based in Montreal. It was spelled Quebecor in both English and French until May 2012, when shareholders voted to add the acute accent, Québecor, in F ...
in 1995.
Rosaire Archambault Jr. was kept on as president of the Quebecor subsidiary Archambault Group Inc. until his retirement in 2000 when he was replaced by Natalie Larivière.
Larivière left in 2007 and replaced by Pierre Marchand.
Marchand served as president of Archambault until 2013.
Camelot-Info, a computer bookstore, was acquired by Archambault in 2000.
Started in 1978, at its peak, Camelot-Info had six stores and an online shopping site, with 10,000 titles in its inventory. By 2007, however, in face of competition from large chain stores and the Internet, only the original flagship Phillips Square store remained.
Camelot-Info's last store closed in January 2009.
![Archambault 2012 logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Archambault_2012_logo.png)
On May 19, 2015, Quebecor announced the sale of 14 stores Archambault and the single store Paragraph Anglophone bookstore to
Renaud-Bray
Renaud-Bray is the largest chain of French-language bookstores in North America, and the largest bookstore chain in Canada after Chapters/Indigo.
The chain was founded in 1965 by Pierre Renaud and Edmond Bray, with the opening of its first sto ...
Group.
The sale of the retail stores was completed in September 2015.
For decades, the flagship store of Archambault was located at 500 Saint Catherine Street East.
It extended on adjacent infrastructures at 510 Saint Catherine Street East and 1275 Berri Streets, forming one big store that allowed customers to go from one interconnected building to another without the need to go outside. In early 2018, the total size of the flagship store was reduced by almost 25 percent due to decrease in sales attributed to the rise of
e-commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain managem ...
.
Among the portion of the store that was shut down was the historic 500 Saint Catherine East building that had been home to Archambault since 1930.
The store remains open at 510 Saint Catherine Street East and on Berri Street.
References
External links
* {{Official website, https://www.archambault.ca/
Institutional and Corporate services web page
Bookstores of Canada
Canadian culture
Culture of Quebec
Music retailers of Canada
Companies based in Montreal
Quartier Latin, Montreal