Sam Ash is closing 18 stores

[3bc]

In my area Sam ash was always a bit better for pro audio and studio gear than GC, so I spent a lot of time in there. Their bass department always sucked. Was just there buying some Mogami cables last week. The girl at the counter was playing computer games and wholly uninterested in ringing my purchase. This store is on the list.

was in a local GC the following day getting some more cables Sam ash didn’t have and the experience was similarly depressing.

I honestly don’t believe any of these stores are going to make it long term. Maybe a few popular one off or specialty stores in specific markets like Vintage King, Chicago Music Exchange, Alamo Music, Sweetwater, etc.

 

[Fight4Bottom]

That's correct. It was originally the Kapok Tree restaurant and then became Thoroughbred Music.

Oh wow. I remember going to the Kapok Tree when I was a kid. It was surreal, like someplace in a movie. Not being from that part of the state, I hadn’t realized it became a music store.

 

[Herrick]

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

Queens and Long Island (Huntington) are both on the list.

My Dad bought me my first bass at the Huntington store. It was a 199-something MIM P Bass. This saddens Herrick.

 

[Lo-E]

Mixed feelings here, too. I’ve shopped at SA since the early 1980s, when they were still on 48th St., and I’ve gotten good deals and good service from time to time but, to be honest, they weren’t my favorite store on the block even then. Aside from some great chats with Larry I don’t have much nostalgia about it. Their NY stores haven’t been great for a long time. I hope the Brooklyn store survives, if only because the people who work there are usually nice.

 

[bobba66]

I think they have one in Dallas. I've never been there.

 

[ELG60]

Very sad. The Clearwater location is my local store. Sad to see them go.

I bought my 74 Rick 4001cs at the White Plains NY store back in 78. Wonder if they are closing.

I'm closer to the Carrollwood store, but it seems like the Clearwater location is a lot larger. I'm looking for a multi guitar stand so I may swing by next week and see if they'll deal.

 

[Laurent]

- That's probably 400 to 500 jobs lost. I am sorry for these folks.
- Instrument sales experienced a surge during Covid (mostly captured online) and going back to normal has challenged companies.
- The environment has been super competitive: online stores, Reverb, Ebay, GC, independents.
- The US has the highest number of retail square foot per person, despite the slow death of retail, we're still ahead of many countries.
- Sam Ash has been experiencing generational transitions and it's always complicated.
- The chain has 40 some stores so they are sizing down, keeping the most profitable stores, they're not going out of business.

 

[Jeff Elkins]

I bought a mandolin at Sam ash in Nashville. I hope that store survives.

Same—I bought my first 5 string bass there, reeds and books for the kids’ HS band instruments, cables and strings across a couple decades before I moved away. They also gave me boxes to ship basses in.

I don’t recall ever getting bad service there.

 

[ELG60]

That's correct. It was originally the Kapok Tree restaurant and then became Thoroughbred Music. Jeff Berlin had his Players School of Music in the adjacent building. The owner of Thoroughbred sold his stores to Sam Ash when he revived the Dean Guitars brand name. His family still owns the building which is unfortunately in bad shape.

- Steve

I remember. Got a couple of my Jazz Basses from Elliott at the Thoroughbred store after they moved to Hillsborough during the early 80s. The building has looked pretty rough for years.

I would urge all my fellow stringed instrument players in the Bay area to pay a visit to Replay Guitars on SDM. They are a locally owned business and Shawn in the bass room is knowledgeable, nice, and always helpful. Good selection as well. (I have no affiliation with the store or Shawn)

Kent is the GM and he used to work at Ed's Guitars on Bird Road in Miami where I bought my first pro quality bass (a '69 Jazz bass) back in '79. Still have it:

Unfortunately, the '60 Blonde Fender Showman I got from them had to be consigned at Thoroughbred during my time at University.

 

[ELG60]

Oh wow. I remember going to the Kapok Tree when I was a kid. It was surreal, like someplace in a movie. Not being from that part of the state, I hadn’t realized it became a music store.

If memory serves, the restaurant pre-dated the music store/school but I only knew of it from reputation back then. It was famous in the Bay area.

 

[Antman3820]

Sam Ash in Edison, NJ. Just passed it the other day. Early ‘90’s Worked a couple miles away and would stop in…. Bought a few big items there. They would always throw in some cables and strings occasionally to sweeten the deal.

Miss those days

 

[MCF]

I don't buy enough stuff to help any of them much anymore.
It happened years ago now to the Stereo places. Circuit city, The Federated.
Its a changing world.
Brick and mortar is on its arse in every sector.

I’m waiting to hear that the Macy’s in Valley Plaza will close. It’s only a matter of time. Very sad.

 

[MCF]

Bummer, the Industry store is the closest "big" music store to my house. There's a GC in Brea but it's relatively small.

That Brea GC is pretty bad. I stopped in for a set of strings I wanted because I was at the in-laws and doing a set up. The only strings they had were Slinky’s. I passed.

 

[MuseChaser]

Got my first bass & amp ever at the White Plains, NY Sam Ash.
1985 Kramer Pioneer JJ with a Peavey TKO65 1x15 amp!

I bought a new PolyMoog at that store back in either 1978 or 1979. Haven't been there since... Have lived out of that area ever since. Decent price at the time.

I really DO miss having a good brick-and-mortar store staffed by knowledgeable, interested personnel. We lived up near Potsdam, NY for many years and there was a great music store there, originally named "Northern Music," but it added more audio-video stuff and became "Northern Music and Video." The guy there that took care of keyboards, guitars, and recording/PA gear was Alex Vangellow and he was phenomenal. Always happy to talk shop, share tips, let you try stuff, and NEVER treated anyone as anything other than a valued customer and friend. Bill Robbins was their head repair technician, trained in the armed services... He was incredible, too. I REALLY miss that place. Wally Siebel co-owned the place (with Alex) and took care of the overall running of the business and the band and orchestra instruments, rentals, and sheet music. All very giving, kind people that I was proud to call good friends.

Online merchants are fine if you already know exactly what you need or want, but they can't replace the education, advice, and hands-on experience with various instruments of a great local shop. Nothing can.

 

[socialleper]

The Hollywood store just verified that 18 stores are closing, including Hollywood, CA.

That blows my mind.
And yet it isn't too surprising. I have every other Friday off and one of my favorite things to do was drive around to the GCs and SAs near me to see what they had. After a while I was only looking at their used stuff because their new stock was boring junk. Then they stopped even having interesting used gear.
With music dying I suppose the dying of retail music stores will only get accelerated.

 

[MCF]

- That's probably 400 to 500 jobs lost. I am sorry for these folks.
- Instrument sales experienced a surge during Covid (mostly captured online) and going back to normal has challenged companies.
- The environment has been super competitive: online stores, Reverb, Ebay, GC, independents.
- The US has the highest number of retail square foot per person, despite the slow death of retail, we're still ahead of many countries.
- Sam Ash has been experiencing generational transitions and it's always complicated.
- The chain has 40 some stores so they are sizing down, keeping the most profitable stores, they're not going out of business.

My guess is they’ll hang around and transition to a Sweetwater model. Sweetwater has only become better since opening a distribution center in Arizona. We get stuff in SoCal within one or two days now. Don’t have to fight traffic or deal with clueless employees.

 

[Michael Stanley 2112]

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

I am familiar with the Edison location because they drove a friend's 50 year music store out of business.

I am sure this is a Sam Ash policy; not that particular location, but here's how the story breaks down.

My friends' dad had the music store forever. I met Eddie Van Halen, Floyd Rose, The guy who owned Kramer guitars (I forget his name) and Carol Miller (a popular "local" Radio DJ) from WPLJ FM in New York city at that location in 1979. There was a big hoopla because the three "biggies" were making the rounds to promote Kramer starting to make (and being able to use, royalty-free) the Floyd Rose trem system.

Anyway ... in 1981, my friend's dad petitioned 7ender to become an authorized repair agent.

7ender told him a repair facility could not be a retail store. So, he spent $45,000.00 (in 1981 money) to completely section off the repair portion of the store. This included new bathrooms (male and female) and a separate entrance.

Modifications made, they got their approval.

Three years later, Sam Ash opens a store about a mile down the road. All is good, right? No.

Sam Ash had an agreement with 7ender, Gibson, Ibanez, and a multitude of the other "most popular" guitar manufacturers that there could be no other sales of those models within 10 miles of their locations.

My friend's small, family-owned music store was screwed. They could no longer sell those brands. They were reduced from selling top-of-the-line brands models (A $1,500 Gibson Les Paul in silver burst) to selling Cort, Stagg, and other much lesser-known (at the time) brands/models.

They also lost their authorized repair status.

It devastated the business and helped to bring about the death of the founder (my friend's father).

The name of the music store was Lou Rose Music. They were located: map.*(photo of map)

I hope I live long enough to see the complete demise of Sam Ash music.

*

 

[IPA]

My local (local as in 2 blocks away) Sam Ash is really sad. It's mostly those Michael Clayton copy guitars and a few abused fenders that have been on the wall for years. Wouldn't be surprised if it closed. A going out of business sale might get me to make the 3 minute drive.

 

[svtbass]

Great! They’ll refill the store spaces vacated by the closed Sam Ash with another ULTA makeup or handbags store… or a Spirit Halloween store.

and pickleball courts. Not kidding, already happening in large vacant outlets.

I was in GC here a week ago and much of the staff had just turned over. New Assistant Mgr. said corporate was making big changes with everything going higher tech, more online you can see less store employees. I'd expect some store closures soon.

Been there, done that, as management, when Audio/Video buried many of their chain stores in the late 80's/early 90's, even before they could dump inventory like they can now with online sales. We had 69 stores in the SW and Atari bought the chain. Their games and computers were being buried from the new competition. They dumped their inventory into the audio/video stores and in 6 months had blown out most of their outdated gear, then began bankrupting the entire chain, several stores at a time, but it all happened fairly fast.

 

[Swipter]

Oh wow. I only went there a few times because Guitar Center is right there and generally has everything.

I wish GC close to me had something other than player series. When I was in the market Sam Ash had all sorts of gear GC didn't have. I guess it's a management thing.