It just shows you how much I pay attention to big retail music chains. Musicland files chapter 11, and also closes a bunch of Sam Goodies and Suncoasts. Included in that is the Sam Goody in Lindale Mall in Cedar Rapids. Over lunch on Friday I was at Lindale and happened upon a store closing sale. Everything in the store was 40% off! I left with some things that I hadn’t gotten around to buying. I picked up the new Big Star In Space, the turntablism documentary “Scratch,” DJ Shadow’s “In Tune and On Time” DVD/CD, and Namco Museum Battle Collection for my PSP. I can see why this chain is in trouble. Everything in this store is overpriced! Most CD’s were between $16.99 and $18.99 before the 40% off. Musicland is attributing their poor performance to “big box retailer competition” and increased music downloading. If they can’t figure out how to charge less for CD’s, I doubt they will be successful. They state in the press release that in most cases, the local impact of the closing will be lessened by the fact that the consumer will usually be able to find another one of their chains close by. In Cedar Rapids, this isn’t the case. The nearest Sam Goody is Des Moines, and the nearest Suncoast is Waterloo. It looks like TransWorld Entertainment Corporation is making a move to purchase Musicland. Transworld seems to own most of the interesting record store chains: Strawberries, Coconuts, Wherehouse, CD World, fye, and Second Spin. It would be cool if we got one of those stores here.
5 thoughts on “Cedar Rapids Sam Goody Closes”
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About a month or two back the Suncoast in Westdale Mall here in Cedar Rapids closed. A friend of mine was informed that his pre-ordered movies (they required folks to pay in full in advance for preorders) were redirected to the Sam Goody in Westdale. The Sam Goody in Westdale closed shortly after that. I wasn’t aware of a sale like this at either of those stores so I wonder if the inventory was just moved from store to store untill the last area store closed. Too bad for them I guess. But I sure like buying Guinness T-shirts for under $8 and a Sheryl Crow DVD for $10.
-Andrew
If you think that Sam Goody is overpriced, and are excited to possibly get a transworld store in your mall, then you’re in for a big surprise! transworld prices are higher than sam goody and they offer no customer service. so it will turn into a lose/lose situation for you. some stores close without having sales because they did not go to liquidation, they might have had their lease expire and the mall did not want to work with the company to renew the lease at a reasonable rate. Musicland also has websites that you can shop at if you do not have a store near you.
I would have to admit that I haven’t been to very many of the Transworld stores. I’ve been to a couple of FYE’s and I’ve been to a Coconuts or a Strawberries some time ago. I’ve bought some things from the SecondSpin website. One of the FYE’s I visited was at the King of Prussia Mall, and they were having some big sale and I left with a number of CD’s that I got for a decent price. Possibly, those prices weren’t representative of their regular prices. I didn’t notice what the retail price was on the CD’s I bought.
The fact of the matter is that if Cedar Rapids gets any CD stores in either of it’s Mall locations– at this point there are no record stores other than whatever Hot Topic has– it will have to compete with Big Box retailers.
Thanks for the information!
–Mike
Yea, I wasn’t really shocked to hear the news. I grew up with Sam Goody & Musicland as a kid. That was ALWAYS the first place I’d go when I would hit the mall during my childhood. Their high prices and lack of selection drove me to look else where for music. Here in Chicago we’re very lucky to have a lot of smaller ma & pa places as well as the big boys such as Tower Records & Virgin Megastore.
I would’ve like to have seen Sam Goody do well, but they created their own fate!
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