Musical equipment, instrument, DJ and lighting retailer Sam Ash has announced they are liquidating and closing their brick-and-mortar store locations nationwide.
The remaining stores will be holding “everything must go” sales this month. The last will be locked up by the end of July:
Sam Ash was founded by a real person named Sam Ash (born Sam Ashkynase), a musician and immigrant from Austria. He launched the first Sam Ash store in Brownsville, Brooklyn in 1924 as a side hustle to earn a steady living that eluded him with his band, the Sam Ash Orchestra. Sam’s wife pawned her wedding ring for the down payment on the first store.
Sam Ash stores remained family owned; his grandchildren are the current and, it would seem, final owners.
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Richard Ash told the Wall Street Journal a week ago that the company had hired investment bank Capstone Partners to gauge interest in buyers of the company’s intellectual property.
“We honestly believe we’ll find someone who wants the brand and some of the locations,” Ash said.
The company previously announced 18 Sam Ash store closures amid a “tough restructuring” in March before confirming the imminent closure of all of the remaining Sam Ash stores by the end of July.
Richard Ash claimed the company’s online business was “strong and vibrant.”
“Our customers gravitated to buying online and store sales suffered,” Ash told the Journal, citing “a major slowdown” over the last few years.
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