June 30th will be a sad day for Toronto. Most of the Sam The Record Man chain stopped operating in 2001 but at the end of June Sam's flagship Yonge Street store will close its doors for good. This is the shop I have to thank for most of my tapes and 45's collection, not to mention the countless videos I purchased on their third floor at a time when the majority of videos I wanted didn't seem to exist anywhere outside a Movies Unlimited catalogue.This is also the place that The Barenaked Ladies sang about in Brian Wilson:
“Drove downtown in the rain nine-thirty on a Tuesday night,
just to check out the late-night record shop.”
Unfortunately CD sales in Canada have dropped drastically in recent years, 35% in the first quarter of 2007 alone. Somehow "downloaded tunes to my iPod on a rainy Tuesday night" just doesn't have the same ring to it.
If you want to stop by Sam's to say goodbye, there are only four more Tuesdays left.
