When he was in high school in the ’70s, Jeff Gallagher used to make a weekly trek down from Butler to buy new punk and indie releases from the one-of-a-kind Jim’s Records in Bloomfield.

Now, he’ll be coming down from his home in Saxonburg just about every day as the new owner of the store at 4526 Liberty Ave.

Mr. Gallagher, who recently retired from CVS Health’s specialty pharmacy division, has made the bold move of buying a record store in the 21st century and will become the fourth owner at the site next week when Sound Cat Records turns into Juke Records.

Sound Cat owner Karl Hendricks, also a nationally known indie rocker and former University of Pittsburgh English instructor, had been an employee at Jim’s Records, which opened there in 1973, and at Paul’s CDs, which took over in 1993. He purchased Paul’s from Paul Olszewski in 2012, but now health concerns are forcing him to step aside.

Sound Cat will close on Sunday and reopen as Juke Records on Tuesday. Mr. Gallagher has been there preparing for the transition.

What is your history with the store?

My history is all on the customer side of the counter. I started going there before I graduated high school. I’m 55, so I started going to Jim’s way back when, and I’ve been a pretty loyal customer. I’ve been to record stores all over the country, and that’s always been my favorite one.

What made it your favorite store?

When I first started going there, back when it was Jim’s, they had a lot of hard-to-find stuff. So, when I was in high school, that’s when there was an explosion of punk and independent bands, and that was really the only place in Pittsburgh where you could find a lot of stuff like that. And then as you get older and start to expand your tastes that way, at least I did anyway, they had other interesting types of music. They always had reggae there. I became a bit of a blues fan, as well, and they had a good blues section. Jazz as well. So for a relatively small store, they curated it pretty well over the years.

Did you ever think about owning a record store?

I knew I was going to take an early retirement. That was a corporate job, and I was killing myself working really long hours. They treated me well, but I knew I didn’t want to do that for the rest of my life. I don’t have any real talent to speak of, so I started to think about the things I like to do. So, I’m a little bit of a record collector and like to cook as well, so I thought about maybe doing a food truck or starting a small restaurant, but I thought that would be sort of the same 80-hours-a-week, repetitive, doing the same thing every day. I thought owning a record store would be a lot more interesting, so I reached out to Karl earlier this year just to see if he had any interest. I sent a blind letter to some other stores but never heard anything back.

Record stores are obviously on the downswing, although the indie stores in Pittsburgh have been steady. Is it financially viable?

I think it’s tough, and certainly I’m going into this with my eyes wide open. I have a plan to make some relatively minor changes to the store. But when I worked for CVS I had the advantage of travel and I would go to a lot of record stores in other cities, and I found some seemed to be more lively than others. I think part of the industry is coming back in a big way, and that is vinyl. Certainly, it’s a niche, and certainly it’s a really tiny portion of all music sales, but those stores that I visited that had a really healthy vinyl selection, including a really healthy new vinyl selection, seemed to be doing pretty well. The advice I’ve gotten from owners is that you can make a go of it by selling new vinyl, and certainly you have to carry some used as well. That's sort of my intent. I’m putting part of my own collection [600 albums] in the store next week in the used section. Certainly, in Pittsburgh I’m not going to compete with Jerry’s or The Attic in used records because those stores are awesome, they’re terrific. I shop there myself. But I think there is a market for what Sound Cat and Paul’s and Jim’s have done historically, and that is have a well-curated store that covers a lot of different genres, and maybe tilts back toward new vinyl.

What are your thoughts on new vinyl, considering the high retail prices?

That’s right. The prices aren’t great. It seems to me, based on everything I’ve read, that the music industry loves to shoot itself in the foot. They have part of the industry that’s growing, like new vinyl is, and they’re just sort of relentless with high prices. I think there is a market, though, for people — even young people, which is still sort of surprising to me — who like the experience of going into a record store. They like the tactile feel of a new vinyl record because the artwork is better. My oldest son is grown and has moved to Charlotte and he was a kid who never bought a CD or a record, all he did was download music. He’s now buying vinyl records, and he bought a turntable, so I think there’s a market for that.

What changes do you plan to make to the store?

Well, I’m going to quadruple (or more) the number of used records as soon as I take my collection in there, but I think we’ll be more than 50 percent new vinyl within a few months. And I’m coming in with a little bit of money to beef up the stock of the store. I want to jump-start it a little bit. And we’re going to stock some turntables, targeting that younger market. They’ll have a USB port so they can put it right into their computers. And some mid-priced and lower-priced portable ones.

How many employees are you going to have?

The two guys who have been working with Karl are going to stay on. Jason [Baldinger] will stay on full time and Bob [Jung-kunz] will stay on part time. It’s funny. I thought I knew a fair amount about music and then I met those two guys, and all of a sudden, I don’t think I know so much, so I’m glad they’re sticking around.

Scott Mervis: smervis@post-gazette.com; 412-263-2576. Twitter: @scottmervis_pg.

First Published: August 11, 2016, 4:00 a.m.