Iconic Australian music retailer Sanity closes its stores

Iconic Australian music and entertainment retailer Sanity is closing its stores.

The company has announced its remaining 50 stores, known for selling CDs and DVDs, will close by the end of April. However, the business will continue online.

“With our customers shifting to digital for their visual and music content consumption, and with diminishing physical content available to sell to our customer, it has made it impossible to continue with our physical stores,” Ray Itaoui, who purchased the company 13 years ago, said in a statement.

“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.

“Our priority right now is to ensure each of our team members knows exactly what this means for their career and employment future.”

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Mr Itaoui said orders placed at stores, including pre-orders, would be shipped out through the online business and gift vouchers would be redeemable online.

When Sanity stores in Far North Queensland closed early last year, stock was heavily discounted.

The first Sanity-branded store opened in 1992 in Doncaster, Melbourne but founder Brett Blundy had opened his first music store in 1980 under a different name at just 20 years old.

“There is so much to be proud of,” Mr Itaoui said. “With Brett Blundy building Sanity from the ground up in 1980 – going on to become one of Australia’s most respected and recognisable retailers – the Sanity brand became synonymous with the go-to place to get anything that mattered in the world of music: from vinyl, to CDs and DVDs, hardware, accessories, and of course face-to-face advice on everything musical.

“The business prospered and remained successful for many years, thanks to the dedication and commitment of our entire team.

“I would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the Sanity team, past and present, and express my pride around their achievements, as well as thank them for their hard-work, dedication, and relentless commitment to ensuring they exceeded customer service expectations. Without this, Sanity would not have lasted as long as it has, and it’s this I am most proud of.”

Sanity was once the most popular music retailer in the country and at its peak was said to have more than 200 stores.

It originally sold streetwear and music, but clothing was abandoned in 1994.

The stores had street lights, asphalt floors, garage doors and road signs to look “street”.

The Australian Financial Review reported in 1998 that the idea of Sanity was conceived when businessman Brett Blundy made a deal with four teenage girls outside a sportswear trade show in the US.

“These girls were the epitome of streetwear fashion,” Blundy said at the time.

“I told them they could have our passes if they talked to us for 20 minutes. So we sat in the gutter outside the trade show, talking about fashion, brands, music and so on.”

The idea for Sanity was then developed back in Australia.

Sanity was one of the first music retailers to heavily promote Silverchair, according to AFR.

In May 1998, when the article was written, the Titanic soundtrack was Australia’s top-selling album so far that year and Sanity had sold the most copies despite selling it for about $5 more than Kmart, Target, Myer and Big W.

In 2008, the company launched online music subscription service LoadIt but was scrapped months after its launch.