Sam Ash to Shut Down All Stores, Ending a Century-Old Legacy in Music

A well-known music store chain, Sam Ash, has announced it will close all of its stores in the United States.

Following recent rumors about the closures, Sam Ash confirmed the news with an official statement. The company will close all its physical stores soon.

Iconic Sam Ash Music Stores to Close

A century after it began providing musicians with instruments and a place to connect and play, the renowned family-owned chain Sam Ash is closing all its 42 locations. This announcement, which came last week, signals the end of a significant chapter for the company that Sam and Rose Ash started in Brooklyn's Brownsville district in 1924.

According to Fast Company, the company revealed on its website and social media that closing sales would begin on May 2. Sam Ash is in several states, including New York, New Jersey, California, and Texas.

Some stores will close by the end of this month, and all are expected to be shut by the end of July, as the New York Times reports.

The decision comes as Sam Ash has struggled to adapt to the evolving retail landscape. Last month, the company planned to shut down more than a dozen stores, but these measures were insufficient to sustain operations.

Sam Ash is overwhelmed by multiple challenging trends. Bill Werde, director of the Bandier Music Industry program at Syracuse University, explained to Retail Dive that the store was battling three significant issues simultaneously, making survival challenging.

According to Werde, guitar sales increased during the pandemic but have since declined. At the same time, rent and real estate costs have been climbing swiftly.

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Moreover, a significant shift has been observed with more sales moving online, where large online retailers with less overhead are dominating, making it tough for physical stores to keep up.

The announcement of Sam Ash's closure became a major talking point on social media. On Facebook, the post about the store's decision to close was shared over 5,000 times in just under 24 hours by Friday morning.

Many expressed their dismay and sadness over the loss, with one person lamenting, "So sad, Toys R Us for musicians is closing."

Sam Ash Closures Hit Iconic Music Spots

Established in 1924, Sam Ash started shutting down 18 of its 44 stores in March, including its renowned flagship in Midtown Manhattan and a historic branch in Clearwater, Florida.

Speaking anonymously, an employee at the Clearwater store told Patch about the sudden closure.

"I was told Friday I'm out of a job after just getting promoted," the employee said. "It literally came out of nowhere."

Local 12 News reports that the closure deeply affects longtime customers. Joshua Thomas, who has frequented the Midtown Manhattan location since childhood, shared his emotional connection to the store with CBS News.

"I get a chance to play a lot of different instruments, so I start off with the guitars, go to the piano, and probably end up on the drums or something like that," Thomas said. I'm almost crying, literally."

The Manhattan store, currently on 34th Street, was previously located on 48th Street, a block once celebrated as "Music Row." William Cameron, another customer, reminisced with CBS about the vibrant musical history of the area in the 1970s.

"You might see Led Zeppelin playing or Todd Rundgren. There was at least a half a dozen major guitar stores that used to be right next to each other," Cameron said. "Forty-Eighth Street was like going to the Vatican of guitars, man."

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