Sunday afternoon marked the end of an era as the two remaining Sanity stores closed their doors one final time.
It’s a sad day for music lovers. In a heartbreaking and historical moment, a once beloved entertainment store has succumbed to the pressure of the digital world, closing its final physical stores and switching to online retail.
Sanity, which had been operating for over 30 years, was once a shopping centre staple. With over 200 stores Australia-wide, it was a go-to retailer for music and movie lovers alike. But over the years, as digital music and streaming services began to take over, those numbers began to dwindle.
In January, in an unfortunate but not-so-unexpected announcement, Sanity informed customers it would be closing its remaining stores and switching to online retail. According to owner Ray Itaoui, it was “impossible to continue with our physical stores” due to the overwhelming increase in digital consumption and the diminishing availability of physical content.
Sanity’s two remaining stores, located in Queensland’s Brown Plains and Bundaberg, were stripped bare during their final days. However, even heavy discounts weren’t enough to clear a few remaining displays of CDs, demonstrating music lovers’ heartbreaking lack of interest in collecting physical copies of their favourite albums. At 4pm sharp, both stores closed their doors one final time, signalling the end of an era in music and entertainment consumption.
Itaoui assured remaining customers that “our online business – sanity.com.au – will continue to operate and will service the many loyal customers the brand has continued to be dedicated to over the decades”. Still, Sanity’s closure is a heart-wrenching loss for anyone who spent their youth browsing shelves of the once cherished store.
