Musical instrument retailer Sam Ash Music announced today that it is closing all of its stores:
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce that all Sam Ash Music store locations will begin store closing sales today.
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.
With much love and deep gratitude
The Ash Family”
Sam Ash Music was founded in 1924 in Brooklyn, New York. The company announced it was closing 18 of its 44 US stores back in March, but now plans to close all of its brick and mortar stores. No announcement has been made about their plans for the future of their web business.
im surprised they couldn’t just keep 1 store open
end of era in the usa. but we live in new times.
Who’s next?
Guitar Center
When you stop being customer centric like guitar center, this is what happens along with the fact that physical stores are dying. Both guitar center and Sam Ash had a model to follow, Sweetwater. But they didn’t.
Yeah, they just couldnt pivot. Thats usually the case, store doesnt pivot, store goes out of business. I drove 2 hours a few weeks ago to go to the Sam Ash in Ohio and it was bare bones, like 10 synths, 9 used and 1 new Nord, 1 mpc live and a bunch of guitar pedals. The guitar center close by never has anything either. The same Roland juno Ds (the first one) for years.
Biden’s war on the middle class is in full swing. Here we have another casualty.
This comment seems completely divorced from all reality. It should be everyone’s responsibility to make sure the words we say are true. Takes work, and sometimes a hard look at one’s biases. Not easy.
Get a life.
Yikes, outings to Sam Ash were a staple of my young musical youth. We’d make pilgrimages there so often…. I still went to the store on 34th street to buy in person whenever I could. The end of an era.
It got harder and harder to shop there – at both Sam Ash and Guitar Center. As a drummer, the inventory kept getting less and less, and 99% of that was overseas made garbage. Tried to stay supportive by buying heads and sticks. Selection became a joke and prices were nowhere near competitive. Tried to buy at least cables and bits in the Pro Audio department, but the problem was that usually no one was working in the department, and when they called someone from another department, they had zero pro audio product knowledge. Their model of zero product knowledge and zero customer service was self-fulfilling. Don’t blame the customers or the economy – we tried to hang in with you and could see this coming for decades.
Got my first synth in their White Plains, NY store in 1982 and kept coming back for more to around 1987. The sales people at that location were really helpful and patient, I remember a number of them these years later.
I’ve been aware of Sam Ash’s existence these many years, and that deals could be had there. But they hadn’t really been on my radar. Even still, I get that this is the end of an era.
There’s a certain charm to the idea of a brick & mortar store in the city that’s jam-packed with inventory and has a general culture around it.