Beloved Music Store Chain Closing Its Final Locations: Sam Goody to Totally Shutter

A sad day has come for the mall-loving remnants of the consumer base as they bid farewell to another staple from the heyday. According to WTRF, the final two Sam Goody brick-and-mortar stores will close their doors for the final time.

As the outlet notes, the final two locations are at the Ohio Valley Mall in St. Clairsville, Ohio, and the second is some distance away in Medford, Oregon at the Rogue Valley Mall. The latter still has its closing date TBD, but the Ohio location will close in February and will mark all their prices down.

Sam Goody’s history traces back to the early ’50s when founder Sam “Goody” Gutowitz opened his first store in New York City. The first chain store was founded in 1951 and later taken over by a group of creditors to collect $2.4 million in debts.

After being acquired in 1978 by the American Can Company/Primerica, owner of Musicland, and soon grew to become the largest music retailer in the U.S. with 1300 stores, with 800 of them carrying the Sam Goody label.

The company was later purchased by Trans World Entertainment who closed some stores, combined others with Suncoast Video locations, and eventually change the name of mall-based Sam Goody stores to f.y.e. before selling to Sunrise Records in February 2020.

It looks like it could be time to pour one out for all those free trial magazine subscriptions and Funko Pops. It looks like the time is short.