Sam the Record Man
 |
|
| Private | |
| Industry | Record store |
| Fate | Closed |
| Founded | 1937 |
| Defunct | 2007 (one remaining former franchise store in Belleville, Ontario) |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
|
Key people
|
Sidney Sniderman, Sam Sniderman, Jason Sniderman, Robert "Bobby" Sniderman, Lana Sniderman |
| Products | Music |
| Website | www.samtherecordman.com |
Sam the Record Man was a Canadian record store chain that, at one time, was Canada's largest music recording retailer. In 1982, its ads proclaimed that it had "140 locations, coast to coast".
Its iconic flagship store was located at 259 Yonge Street in 1959 and moved to 347 Yonge Street two years later, remaining there from 1961 until it closed in 2007. Located at Yonge just north of Dundas, the store became part of a strip of music stores, nightclubs and taverns featuring live performance that produced the "Toronto Sound" and was the centre of Toronto's music scene in the 1960s.
The Yonge Street store was the best known store in the Sam the Record Man chain of 140 locations across Canada, two blocks away from the Eaton Centre and Dundas Square. Sam's became a popular attraction, drawing people into its selection of records, and later cassettes and compact disks (CDs). It flourished in the Downtown Toronto area, quickly gaining notoriety and outselling the competition. What started as a single storefront had evolved into an entire block completely dedicated to the Sam the Record Man store. For several years, the store went into head-to-head competition with the popular A&A Records flagship store, just up the street, before the latter declared bankruptcy in 1993. The building was demolished over a period of two years, from 2009 until 2011. It is part of the site on which the Ryerson University Student Learning Centre was built. The store's iconic neon sign is to be restored and installed in a new location overlooking nearby Yonge-Dundas Square.
The Internet age, competition with the HMV chain and other factors, forced Sam the Record Man into bankruptcy on October 30, 2001, although its flagship location remained in business until June 30, 2007. One independent franchise store, in Belleville, Ontario, continues to bear the Sam the Record Man name.
The chain was launched in 1937 by Sam Sniderman (d. September 23, 2012) and Sidney Sniderman, as a record department in his family's existing store, Sniderman Radio Sales & Service, at 714 College Street (now home to L Squared Salon) in Toronto. In the late 1950s a second store was opened on Yonge Street. On Labour Day 1961, the new store moved north to its location at 347 Yonge Street where it became a Toronto landmark. Eventually the original College Street location was closed. The flagship store of the competing A&A Records chain was located nearby at 351 Yonge Street. Steeles Tavern, n popular nighclub and live music venue, was between the two stores at 349 Yonge Street until it closed in 1974.
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