Sam Ash closing

I have mixed feelings about this. I grew up in a suburb outside of Manhattan, NY and as a young teenager the 48th St 'music row' was a mecca for me and my friends. 48th St's heyday was the 1970's. I bought a huge Sunn bass amp rig from Manny's where they treated me like a rockstar. Friendly, supportive, and encouraging.

Sam Ash White Plains was almost the same feel as Manny's, but my regular hangout was a small family owned music store near where I grew up. I like that people knew your name and who you were when you went in there. I miss that personal connection.

When Sam Ash took over Manny's it signaled a change that moved away from that personal involvement, it was all about moving units of product.

Guitar Center took the corporate music store to a near toxic level. I recently when in a GC to have a look and it was not a good vibe at all. The place was empty for a Saturday. Employees looked at customers with an impersonal stare or ignored them all together. No one looked like they cared or even wanted to be there.

I want small family owned music stores to make a comeback!
 
NY Guitarist said:
I want small family owned music stores to make a comeback!
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I'll second that! Going to a music store used to be an adventure, never know what you'd find or see or hear. There were music stores in all the small towns around where I grew up and it seemed like hundreds in the bigger cities. Now, most are long gone and, based on my experiences, I'd just as soon go to GC as a proctologist. I miss the days when you could go hang out at the music store, trade a few licks, see everyone... music was a communal event! These days, there aren't as many places to play out, everyone's on YT, those communal jams are few and far between, and it seems like we're really missing something.
 
NY Guitarist said:
I have mixed feelings about this. I grew up in a suburb outside of Manhattan, NY and as a young teenager the 48th St 'music row' was a mecca for me and my friends. 48th St's heyday was the 1970's. I bought a huge Sunn bass amp rig from Manny's where they treated me like a rockstar. Friendly, supportive, and encouraging.

Sam Ash White Plains was almost the same feel as Manny's, but my regular hangout was a small family owned music store near where I grew up. I like that people knew your name and who you were when you went in there. I miss that personal connection.

When Sam Ash took over Manny's it signaled a change that moved away from that personal involvement, it was all about moving units of product.

Guitar Center took the corporate music store to a near toxic level. I recently when in a GC to have a look and it was not a good vibe at all. The place was empty for a Saturday. Employees looked at customers with an impersonal stare or ignored them all together. No one looked like they cared or even wanted to be there.

I want small family owned music stores to make a comeback!
Click to expand...
There was a small private owned music store/repair shop just a three minute walk from my apartment which was forced to closed when GC and Mars opened stores north of him and a second GC south. I bought everything I could from him even if he had to special order it, and his prices were just a little more than the giants. It was a sad day when he closed.
 
Tonedeaf said:
There was a small private owned music store/repair shop just a three minute walk from my apartment which was forced to closed when GC and Mars opened stores north of him and a second GC south. I bought everything I could from him even if he had to special order it, and his prices were just a little more than the giants. It was a sad day when he closed.
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I wished Mars music store was still around. I loved their inventory.
 
I've never had a problem paying a little more knowing that my money was staying in my community and going to people who actually care about music. I still drive hours to get to a good store when there are two GCs within 30 minutes.
 
AtomicJeff said:
I wished Mars music store was still around. I loved their inventory.
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Yeah, Mars had great inventory, at least the one here did. It was still a big chain store, but the people who worked there were mostly gigging musicians, too. So much better than what SA and GC became. I miss what SA used to be, but I'm not sorry to see them go given their current state.
 
I've seen many music stores, from Mom & Pop places to Superstores, go out of business over my many years. Let me tell you, in my opinion it's never a good thing. One less place to go be inspired, one less bit of competition keeping prices down, one less bit of variety to check into. It's a business and if it isn't profitable, it's going to eventually bite the dust. That's the way of things, and I certainly get that. But it does affect everyone who is associated to a business. Much more than just the business itself, especially in music. It affects the culture of an area.

I've had a range of experience from great to not-so-great with every music store I've worked with, and none have been "my one and only" place to shop. But I'm never happy to see local businesses go out... from a local city's economical base to the little kid looking in the window at his dream guitar, it's a loss.
 
I spent so much of my youth at the Carle Place store learning about rack effects (from 91 when I got my driver's license to 97 when I went to boot) because they were all there, powered up and waiting to be fiddled with. ADA, Eventide, Lexicon, Yamaha, TC Electronic... nothing was kept out of reach. It's where I learned How Stuff Worked.

Too bad they didn't give a shit or try when they needed to. They'd be the Sweetwater of 2024 instead of watching the boat sink while the violin guy tunes up on the poop deck.
 
Churchhill said:
Yeah, Mars had great inventory, at least the one here did. It was still a big chain store, but the people who worked there were mostly gigging musicians, too. So much better than what SA and GC became. I miss what SA used to be, but I'm not sorry to see them go given their current state.
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A big problem with Mars is they didn't accept trade-ins, at least not the one by me. The place I would always go to first at GC was the used gear area.
 
I went to a Sam Ash years ago, I never saw the advantage to going there opposed to a GC. Today Sweetwater is the Amazon of music gear, I wouldn't be surprised GC sucomes to the same fate.
 
It was my go to store for years. I ended up even working there at one point but really hated working there. I met Sammy Ash during my time and he was a good dude. Im not surprised that after his passing that the company is going under. Im glad that a few mom and pop music stores in my area are still around however.
 
NY Guitarist said:
I have mixed feelings about this. I grew up in a suburb outside of Manhattan, NY and as a young teenager the 48th St 'music row' was a mecca for me and my friends. 48th St's heyday was the 1970's. I bought a huge Sunn bass amp rig from Manny's where they treated me like a rockstar. Friendly, supportive, and encouraging.

Sam Ash White Plains was almost the same feel as Manny's, but my regular hangout was a small family owned music store near where I grew up. I like that people knew your name and who you were when you went in there. I miss that personal connection.

When Sam Ash took over Manny's it signaled a change that moved away from that personal involvement, it was all about moving units of product.

Guitar Center took the corporate music store to a near toxic level. I recently when in a GC to have a look and it was not a good vibe at all. The place was empty for a Saturday. Employees looked at customers with an impersonal stare or ignored them all together. No one looked like they cared or even wanted to be there.

I want small family owned music stores to make a comeback!
Click to expand...
Man that last sentence rings so loudly for me. I taught at a great small music store for about 7 years before it closed (it was around for about 40 years) due to Guitar Center coming into our area. Now we only have 2 small music stores left in our area.....its sad. Guitar Center is horrible. To bad the economy and Illinois in general makes it near impossible to open something like this again.
 
Rich5150 said:
I can't say I was surprised by this, I had a feeling once Sammy passed last year that this would happen. I used to go to the Paramus store and when I was In the area White Plains as well, White Plains was a hell of a store back in the day just killer guitars in there. I will say despite living 5 min away from the Edison store I rarely went in there and when I did it was underwhelming, and it would usually just bee for a set of Starp Locks or some Strings, if they had better inventory I probably would have shopped there more.
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I grew up playing drums, the Edison store was really good for that. I'm still friends with a couple people from that store who worked there in the '90s.
 
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