Canada’s Last Homegrown Music Chain Goes Under

noah | November 13, 2007 2:35 am
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Canadian music chain MusicWorld, the last chain music store to have its roots in the Great White North, is going to liquidate all 72 of its stores around the country and “orderly wind down” operations by Jan. 31, 2008, no doubt resulting in a rush on the store the likes of which it hasn’t seen in years as people try to stock up on their Canadian content for cheap. (Hey Canadian readers: If you find any Plumtree albums in the last days, could you e-mail me and let me know?)

Some of the remaining outlets could be bought by HMV, which still has stores throughout Canada despite beating a hasty retreat from the States a few years ago and whose chairman sniffed about the ways Music World wasn’t helping itself to a reporter:

“In my opinion, Music World was affected by a number of factors. While some were related to the softening of retail music category sales, many others appear to have been self-inflicted. From our perspective, and that of many of the supplier industry it was obvious that for the last number of years Music World was not investing sufficiently in the business in a variety of areas including, but not limited to; information technology, store renovations, inventory management systems, advertising, staffing levels/customer service, etc.”

Translation: “We have waited for this day for so long, dude. HMV Kamloops will finally come to fruition!”

Last Canadian music chain closes [canada.com]