NEWS
Pair of York Region men spin their passion for music into Newmarket’s Wrong Way Records
Simone Joseph, Newmarket Era | YorkRegion.com
Thursday, February 26, 2026
Wrong Way Records owner Ray Pelletier and manager Adam Rayfield first met at a Newmarket record store and decided to open a new store in Newmarket.
Newmarket record store Wrong Way Records is the product of two men finally moving the right way in their careers.
Store manager Adam Rayfield and owner/general manager Ray Pelletier can both testify to this.
Before opening this store, both men were unhappy at work. They also both had women in their lives telling them to pursue their passion.
Pelletier was unsatisfied working in business development for a consulting company.
He remembers telling his wife: “I don’t want to do this anymore.”
Her response? “So don’t.”
The fact was that Pelletier just really wanted to start his own business. So, he quit his job.
As for Rayfield, he had been working in marketing for Jaguar Land Rover, then worked for a Scarborough record distribution company and a Newmarket record store.
At one point, his girlfriend asked him: “When was the last time you were happy?”
He replied that he was happiest when he ran a record store.
Back when he lived in Woodbridge, Rayfield had owned a Thornhill record store in the ’90s called House of Wax.
He also had experience working in marketing for big-name companies, including Cineplex, Evian and Chrysler.
“(I was happiest) when I worked with music as opposed to capitalism and the corporate world, which wasn’t my bag,” Rayfield said.
Rayfield met Pelletier at a Newmarket record store in the Harry Walker Parkway and Davis Drive area where Rayfield worked and Pelletier was a regular customer.
The men discovered a mutual passion for music and records and eventually decided to open a record store.
“It was going to be all about location,” Pelletier said. “The store had to have a vibe. We wanted a store we would shop at.”
Pelletier, 53, found a property he wanted to buy on Main Street. It had been built around 1880, he said.
He took over the property on Sept. 1, 2025.
For both men, a passion for music had been etched into their lives practically from the beginning.
One of Rayfield’s teachers said she didn’t know what to do with him back in 1973, early in his education. Apparently, his report card reflected this. His teacher said all he wanted to do was bring in his bag of records and sit and play them during class.
Referring to his passion for music, Rayfield said: “I’ve been a (music) junkie since I was a little kid … it’s an addiction.”
Rayfield started working in the music industry as a teenager, working the sound board for bands. He went on to attend London’s Fanshawe College for music recording and engineering.
As for Pelletier, he has worked for the past four or five winters on ski patrol at the Mount St. Louis Moonstone ski resort north of Barrie.
These days, he’s been working seven days a week at the store. The duo plan to hire more staff.
So, what’s with the store’s name — Wrong Way Records?
When Pelletier saw the property, it was surrounded by wrong-way signs. The landowner asked if Pelletier wanted them moved.
Pelletier’s answer: “Don’t touch it.” He thought the signs looked pretty cool.
The store has a special day coming up: April 18 — Record Store Day Canada.
On this day, a list of special releases comes to record stores as part of the 19th annual celebration of independent record stores. Wrong Way Records will feature limited-edition and rare albums, as well as albums that have been reissued.
The store is also a venue for live music. Bands perform at the store, and the duo plans to invite plenty more to play in the future. They also want to build an outdoor stage to accommodate this.
Also, throughout the year, people can bring in records and sell them on consignment.
While Wrong Way Records has been around less than five months, it has started drawing plenty of customers, including customers from outside of Newmarket.
A few weeks after the store’s opening on Nov. 15, 2025, a Sudbury couple in their 60s visited the store. The husband collects records and the couple had read an article about Wrong Way Records. So, the couple had hopped in their car and made the trek to Newmarket.
Pelletier and Rayfield said they aspire to draw both hardcore record collectors like this Sudbury man and everyday music lovers to their store.
Rayfield explains the special mission of the record collector in their natural habitat.
“They’re looking for their Holy Grail … They’re looking for an album they’ve been looking for forever — that might be here.”
April 18 will be a special day because it’s Record Store Day. The store will feature limited edition and rare albums.
Main Street store taps into returning passion for collecting vinyl records
Christina Chkarboul, NewmarketToday.ca
Oct 29, 2025 2:00 PM
Wrong Way Records owner Ray Pelletier left his tech job in 2020 with dreams of creating something "local and cool."
The store is sourcing its records from new releases, online used records sellers and the owner and manager's own collections.
The store takes up a corner spot of a historic, recently renovated building at 197b Main Street S.
There are still vinyls to unbox, stock to categorize and posters to put up at Ray Pelletier’s in-progress record shop on Main Street Newmarket.
But sometimes, amid the chaos of boxes, crates and wires, the Newmarket resident stops in his tracks to hear the crackle and pop of an old record cut through. He stands with his back against the pole by the register, a prime acoustic spot, and lets the sounds wash over him.
Music is one of Pelletier’s great loves. After years of work for a local tech consulting group, the Montreal native decided it was time to pursue a passion he’s nurtured throughout his life and give back to the community he’s called home since 2008.
To Pelletier, nothing matches the feeling of hearing a record that no one’s put on in decades reverberate in a room.
“It’s finding this buried treasure and then experiencing it,” he said.
At Wrong Way Records, tucked into a corner spot of a recently renovated building at 197 Main Street S., the enthusiast hopes to bring that magic to life. The store plans to celebrate its opening Nov. 15 as not only a record destination, but a “community hub” with live music events.
Pelletier aspired to run a local store after leaving his tech job in early 2020, just weeks before pandemic shutdown started. He set his sights on a Main Street storefront that was “local and cool,” but his plan hit the back burner with uncertainty over the future of brick-and-mortar retail.
A few years off gave Pelletier time to dive into volunteering for the Newmarket Food Pantry and ski patrol work at Mount St. Louis. Then, this September, opportunity struck when he saw a unit at Main Street South and Doug Duncan Drive open up.
Working with a friend, Adam Rayfield, whose vision and goals for the store aligned with his, Pelletier is on the verge of realizing a longtime dream.
“This would be a place where people can come and feel comfortable sitting down, talking music, listening to music, and not feel rushed out," he said. "Everything is here, all the best music.”
The store will balance collector’s items with affordable used records and freshly pressed vinyls from the artists of today. It’ll carry “well-curated” sections of punk, post-punk, alternative and heavy metal music alongside diverse selections across a range of genres. Record-owners in the area can come by to sell their vinyl on consignment, Pelletier said.
Wrong Way Records won’t be Newmarket’s first record store, joining 33 1/3 Record Store, Neon Flamingo Record Emporium and Sunrise Records. Pelletier doesn’t see the other shops as competition, but rather an opportunity for shoppers to make record-shopping a whole outing with several stops — just like he did as a kid in the ’70s and ’80s.
“The way our generation used to do it, on weekends, when we were kids, we’d go record-shopping, and that meant going into the city … and you're going to four or five different places,” he said. “That's a tradition that I can see coming back.”
Pelletier now owns about 3,000 records, which he started buying as a teenager. As a young man, he went out West to be a “ski bum,” as he says, and came home to find his parents had got rid of the bulk of his collection while he was away.
The music lover found his way back to records about 20 years ago, when vinyl was just starting to pick back up, and hasn’t stopped since.
“Everything started getting repressed and reprinted, and record stores were popping up in the city,” Pelletier said. “That's when it really kind of took off.”
Vinylheads like Pelletier and Rayfield see records as a tangible piece of history that can transport a listener back to a song or album’s physical conception. As the friends went through their extensive collections, they found pieces that took them back “like a time machine,” Pelletier said — including an original pressing of the Beatles’ Abbey Road with photo inserts of the band members.
Sounds from that album and more will soon play at Wrong Way Records, which hopes to be a welcoming haven for music lovers.
“I'm so proud of this place," Pelletier said, "and I love it so much.”