Sam Ash is closing 18 stores

[bassfiddlesteve]

I can't say that I am surprised at this news but it sucks on a personal level. I bought my first bass at Sam Ash when I was living on Long Island and my daughter worked for years at the Clearwater store where we both gave lessons. We have several friends who we met there and a few that are still working there.

The Clearwater store has looked pretty bad for the past few years and I guess this is true of some other locations. The Tampa store is staying open.

- Steve

 

[Watchootognbout]

Both of the ones in the Chicago area.
Buffalo Grove and Lombard.
The ONLY two that we have!

I bought my first two Tune TWB's from the Buffalo Grove store in 2007 and 2008.
The last time I was there was in 2017.

 

[Topkat13]

Glad it's not 19!

 

[GregC]

In my 15 years of gear shopping in the Chicago area, I went to the local Sam Ash once. They didn't have many basses, and they literally had just two brands of bass amps, Hartke and...well, I forget. And the place was a ghost town. This was over a decade ago.

In 2021, I called the national Sam Ash line about buying a Stingray Special that, based on the color, was built two years prior. They wouldn't budge on the retail price.

So I'm not surprised about this.

 

[sunbeast]

i don't know if GC impacted them as much as how their store functioned.

one of the sales guys used to play guitars at super loud volume, and he encouraged others to do the same, so whenever i was trying to actually test amps or cabs, i couldn't really get an idea of how they sounded. only once in over 20 years have i managed to buy something - not even when using cash - in under 40 minutes. the one exception a bag of picks i paid for with cash, and it took about 25 minutes. there were always issues, someone would need to confer with another sales guy or call the manager, their own system would confuse them, something had been changed in the system. yet i could trade a guitar at guitar center, pay for one i had had my eye on, and be out the door in 20 minutes with no weirdness at all.

we had a layaway at hollywood sam ash, and when we went to pay it off, they couldn't find the guitar for an hour - it turned out to be somewhere it wasn't supposed to be. the case for that guitar was so lost that they had to call us after they found it days later.

once, we traded them 3 basses and guitars to pay for a guitar my husband fell i love with, it took about 2 hours - the store had been closed for some time by the time we were done.

i could go on and on - oh, wait - i did! - with stories about sam ash hollywood. according to many musicians i've played known, my experiences were pretty typical.

When I lived in LA my main reason for going into the Hollywood Sam Ash was to put my hands on some Rickenbackers as they were one of the few stores around that had a big stock of them most of the time. I do recall that every time I had a question about something or the few times I actually bought something (usually accessories) it ended up being unnecessarily tedious and seemed like I ended up having to talk to multiple people to get what I wanted. I am frankly amazed that any of those big-box stores have survived the internet age

 

[RichardW]

Closing the one nearest me, in King of Prussia, PA, which is a drag. That's where I picked both the Hartke "starter" bass kit that I learned on in 2004 and then, in 2008, my Fender American Jazz Standard--still my #1 bass.

It sucks, but it's no surprise. Why would kids bother to purchase and play a real instrument, which takes work and discipline, when they can wank off on TikTok and have "influence."

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go shout at some clouds...

 

[dbsfgyd1]

This is a partial list:

02, Huntington, NY
07, 34th Street, NYC
13, Edison, NJ
20, Lombard, IL
33, Miami Lakes, FL
42, Clearwater, FL
60, City of Industry, CA
63, Atlanta, GA
56, Orlando, FL

...and 9 more

- Steve

Not to be a Debbie downer, but brick and mortar music instrument stores are also going the way the dodo, and the main reason is how many of us obsolete dinosaurs are steadily trudging to the tar pits of history having been replaced largely by automation. JMO!

 

[skyline_01]

Heard Cincinnati is on the list as well (it's in the old Mars Music)

I tried to support my local Samash. Gave up on the local Guitar Center long before. They just never really had what I needed and no one was really helpful. It's unfortunate but not at all surprising.

Disappointing, but I'm not surprised. And yeah, GC can go pound dirt.

I've given Cinci Sam Ash some business here and there, with the largest purchase being a really nice L2500 Tribute. I later traded that same bass plus a cab back to them in exchange for a pristine EA rig.

I may keep an eye on the situation and look for potential deals as they wind things down. I work in Sharonville so it's just a short hop up the road!

 

[Grinderman]

It's been years since I last set foot in the Hollywood store. I had no idea there was one in the City of Industry, not that's an attractive option to me.

Retail In Privacy? (online)

 

[groooooove]

It's not surprising. I wonder if the Long Island store and Queens store are on the rest of the list.

the carle place (long island) location is across the street from a guitar center, yet somehow seems busy every time i've popped in. admittedly, that is not very often.

 

[Relayer71]

It's not surprising. I wonder if the Long Island store and Queens store are on the rest of the list.

I bought my first guitar in the Queens store. Haven't been in a Sam Ash in decades, but at one point in my youth, I lived in that store so it's sad to hear they're closing stores.

On the other hand, I didn't know Sam Ash had that many locations. I always thought it was just a handful. Most stores that expand always seem to end up having to close up shop eventually, it seems.

 

[Relayer71]

I just went to the one on 34th street in November… I never even realized it had moved there. It was actually half decent. The one in Carle Place has sucked for awhile. The one out near me in Neshaminy Pa and King of Prussia are pretty decent.

Yeah, I read that and kept thinking, "I don't remember a store on 34th"!

 

[ClusterFlux]

I'm a bit saddened, but not surprised.

I bought a bass there last year, and the store was both large and nearly empty.

I've been to the 34th Street store and it was pretty good, definitely better than the GC on 14th Street. I'm a little surprised it's closing, but maybe the rent is just too damned high....

 

[Michedelic]

i don't know if GC impacted them as much as how their store functioned.

one of the sales guys used to play guitars at super loud volume, and he encouraged others to do the same, so whenever i was trying to actually test amps or cabs, i couldn't really get an idea of how they sounded. only once in over 20 years have i managed to buy something - not even when using cash - in under 40 minutes. the one exception a bag of picks i paid for with cash, and it took about 25 minutes. there were always issues, someone would need to confer with another sales guy or call the manager, their own system would confuse them, something had been changed in the system. yet i could trade a guitar at guitar center, pay for one i had had my eye on, and be out the door in 20 minutes with no weirdness at all.

we had a layaway at hollywood sam ash, and when we went to pay it off, they couldn't find the guitar for an hour - it turned out to be somewhere it wasn't supposed to be. the case for that guitar was so lost that they had to call us after they found it days later.

once, we traded them 3 basses and guitars to pay for a guitar my husband fell i love with, it took about 2 hours - the store had been closed for some time by the time we were done.

i could go on and on - oh, wait - i did! - with stories about sam ash hollywood. according to many musicians i've played known, my experiences were pretty typical.

If they were trying to be Pepsi to GC’s Coke, they might have been with their stock, at least for a little while, but yeah, the staff was out to lunch most of the time. I don’t think I ever bought anything. The fact that SA expanded the way they did surprised me, especially after the Mars failure.
Do you remember what music store was in the big shopping complex at Sunset and Fairfax, SE corner, where the Virgin Megastore was?

 

[Rojd]

I bought a cool, discontinued compressor pedal on reverb from a Florida Sam Ash a few years ago. It came with the original box and manual too. They gave me a good deal.

 

[micguy]

Stores come, stores go. There was a time when Mars music was going to take over. How long were they around?

 

[B-Mac]

i just got an email from samash that they're closing the hollywood store - they didn't mention the others. it came with the attached graphic

View attachment 5370350

it's sad, but it's not surprising as that store has been grossly mismanaged for over 2 decades that i've been going there.

Last bass I got from them (King of Prussia, PA) through Reverb was damaged. Pictures posted showed now damage.

Box it came in showed no damage.

Skimped on bubble wrap.

No sympathy from me.

 

[Michedelic]

It's been years since I last set foot in the Hollywood store. I had no idea there was one in the City of Industry, not that's an attractive option to me.

Retail In Privacy? (online)

Lately I’ve been selling nickel and dime stuff to the one in the Ontario Mills Mall, at the 10 and 15, pitting them against the Rancho Cucamonga GC just to the north. It’s actually a happening place. In fact, with all this talk about “the death of shopping malls”, that whole complex is usually mobbed.

 

[Pimpernel Smith]

That's sad, the end of an era for many a budding musician.

 

[Crackle]

I remember when the Sam Ash store in Dallas first opened in 2013. The inventory was pretty awesome for several years. More recently, the inventory is very poor. Although the Dallas store isn't specifically listed, I expect that one will be closing.