Sam Ash Closing over 10+ stores

Proformance said:

Martin was acquired by ETC, and High End by Harmon International. ETC is very much in the mainstream and their products are everywhere.

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That's reversed. Harman bought Martin Pro in 2013 and ETC bought High End Systems from Barco in 2017. Barco had purchased High End back in 2008.

MIXMASTERMACHOM said:

What about Macy's closing 150 stores and making smaller stores. What about Sears going out of business and Toy's R US. Who's next? Online sales is the reason some stores are either suffering or going out of business. There was a time there was no buying things online.

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There was a time when this country lacked large stores outside of the biggest cities. You just had small local retailers and catalog sales. The catalogs were the convenient way to shop. Sears, JC Penney and others grew their empires via catalog sales. You are old enough to remember the Sears catalog. I used to browse the Craftsman catalog like it was porn when I was younger.

At some point these stores gave up the catalog business. They wanted people in the stores. They just needed more stores to get closer to more people. Again, that was about convenience to the shopper. The internet and logistic improvements with warehousing and delivery brought about even greater customer convenience. Amazon and others saw this opportunity while the brick and mortar people fought it. They had forgotten that their brands were built on convenience.

In nearly every market segment, consumers will gravitate towards convenience over everything else. 8-tracks and cassettes weren't better than LPs, just more convenient. CDs were more convenient still and better quality. However, the CD was replaced by lower quality MP3 that offered greater convenience. And now streaming services with huge libraries are making MP3s just another item in the audio dustbin. Why? Convenience.

Online sales isn't the problem. It is just a mechanism that in many instances delivers greater convenience than in store sales. You can even get better help online these days than in a store.

I saw this today on the Sam Ash website:
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It is with a heavy heart that we announce that effective May 2nd 2024, all Sam Ash Music Store locations will begin store closing sales. This unfortunate news also presents a fantastic opportunity for great deals across our premium selection of musical instruments & pro sound equipment. We will also be offering specials on samash.com during this time. Thank you for allowing us to serve musicians like you for 100 years

Sincerely,

The Ash Family

BTW, there are a ton of fake Sam Ash sites popping up in Facebook that are advertising everything is $129. This includes stuff that normally sells for thousands. The Sam Ash website and FB page warn of these scams but they are numerous and FB is doing nothing to remove them.

Instantly getting things and online buying are opposite from each other.