Sam Ash To Close All Remaining Stores

If we were to go way back to when 48th Street in New York City was the center of the music retail business, one of the stalwarts on Music Row was Sam Ash Music. Founded in 1924, the company eventually expanded to 44 stores across the country and remained family owned the entire time. Now comes the the sad news that the remaining 26 stores will be closed by the end of the month, as stated a post by the company on Facebook.

Actually the writing was on the wall with the death of Sammy Ash, the COO and driving force behind the company, in September of 2023. You got the feeling that the family just didn’t have the will to continue after his passing.

Local music retail, even for a large multi-store chain like Sam Ash, was having it’s problems as business softened after the boom in sales during the pandemic and inventory swelled due to supply chain issues.

With so many people buying their gear online these days, a brick and mortar retail location is getting tougher and tougher to maintain, and even though Ash had a robust online business, the company was built around its local stores.

We’re certainly seeing a changing of the guard here, as Guitar Center and Sweetwater are headed to last-man-standing territory.

Thank you for serving your community very well for many years, Sam Ash. We’re going to miss you!

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