Is Sanity Stores closing down? Sanity is an Australian music retailer. It is Australia’s favorite music and entertainment retailer. It announced in January 2023 that it would shut down its last 50 physical locations by the end of April 2023. The business will keep running its online store.
This most reputable store in Australia had to close due to digital music and streaming platforms. This company, which is well-known for retailing CDs and DVDs, stated that its last 50 locations would close by the end of April. Let us view the details of Sanity’s closure in this article.
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About Sanity stores
The 2023 clean-up includes Sanity, which was once a great seller of music and entertainment. CDs and DVDs have long been Sanity’s primary products. Consumers no longer need them because they can access 80 million songs from a tiny device in their hand.
Before streaming, JB Hi-Fi’s rise, and its subsequent move into hardware, Sanity dominated the Australian market. It is a company that made the leap into the United Kingdom and ran an early digital music platform.
In 1980, Brett Blundy launched the first Sanity Shop. Since then, there have been as many as 150 locations nationwide. Presently, 50 stores are still operational. In 1999, the Horsham store, located inside Horsham Plaza, began operations. Later, the
The sanity chain had grown to 238 locations by the time a group led by Itaoui took over. In 2009, it was purchased from Brett Blundy Retail Capital (BBRC). This included Sanity and local variations of the British brands Virgin and HMV.
In the early 2000s, Blundy’s Brazin company entered the United Kingdom. It did this by purchasing 77 Our Price stores from Virgin Group, which promoted itself as “cheap and cheerful.”
In the U.K.’s top-5 recorded music industry, Sanity would appear on high streets and in common areas. This tendency would quickly become out of control before downloads and streaming services stormed in.
What happened to Sanity stores?
Finally, the experiment came to an end in 2003. It happened when Brazin sold 118 Sanity Entertainment stores in the United Kingdom to an investment company for approximately £12 million ($16.67 million).
2009 saw the company’s purchase from Brett Blundy Retail Capital (BBRC) by a group led by Itaoui. At the time, the Sanity chain had 238 locations throughout Australia. This includes Sanity and the domestic divisions of British high-street brands Virgin and HMV.
Sanity introduced LoadIt in the late 2000s. It claimed to be Australia’s first online music subscription service. At that time, the company had an estimated 22–25% share of the country’s physical music retail industry. LoadIt was shut down in early 2009.
Australians listened to music in the 2020s through digital media, mainly streaming. According to the trade group ARIA, the recorded music market in these regions increased by 4.4% to A$565.8 million ($421 million) in 2021. This marked the third year in a row of growth. The subscription services made $377 million ($281 million) in 2021, a 4.1% increase from $317 million ($236 million) in 2020.
Where is Sanity closing its stores?
According to the company’s official website, Sanity currently operates 41 physical storefronts nationwide. A few are in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania. The majority of outlets are in New South Wales and Queensland.
The company’s physical locations are about to close. Itaoui blamed the recent dramatic increase in digital music demand for this decision. Itaoui stated on January 4, 2023, that their customers are migrating to digital for their visual and musical consumption content. Also, with declining physical content accessible to sell to their customers, it has proven difficult to keep up with their physical stores.
Beyond that point, the music industry will exclusively be conducted online, according to the company’s owner, Ray Itaoui. Thus, Sanity’s brick-and-mortar activities had to be shut down. As a result of the “diminishing physical content” customers could purchase, he claimed. The internet store for Sanity will stay open. All over-the-counter orders, such as pre-orders, are currently being shipped out by the team.
The firm has many devoted clients to whom the brand has stayed committed throughout the years. Now they assure their fans that it will continue to be served by their internet business, sanity.com.au. The firm’s primary focus is making sure every member of their staff fully understands the impact on their future jobs and professional prospects.
Thus, due to the dominance of digital music and streaming services, Sanity has announced it will close its remaining 50 outlets by April.
Conclusion
Mr. Itaoui claimed that for many years, the Sanity brand had been the go-to source for “everything that was needed in the world of music.” This includes vinyl, CDs, DVDs; hardware; accessories; and in-person guidance.
The Sanity Company has “flourished and stayed strong for many years.” It was quite a success in the fast-changing retail market. These all happened despite the “tough and ever-evolving entertainment market.”
The online presence of Sanity will continue, but its walk-in locations are to be closed. Most music fans will probably shrug at the news of Sanity’s closure. But it’s essential to remember Sanity’s goals, inventions, and significance in a past world.