Sale is losing its sanity – the music and entertainment store that is.
The Gippsland Centre Sanity has been supplying customers with music and movies for almost 25 years.
Any Australian born before 2000 is almost guaranteed to have memories of the retail music giant, with Sanity, the port of call for three decades of kids buying their first record, cassette tape or CD.
Digital music and streaming platforms have put an end to the tradition, with vinyl and CD music sales declining 80 per cent over the last decade, forcing the hand of Sanity owner Ray Itaoui, who last week announced the closure of its 50 remaining stores by the end of April.
Matt Grutt is among Australia’s 90s kids with fond memories of heading to the closest Sanity store, banknote in pocket, leaving the music retailer a banknote short but with a stack of the hottest new CDs.
Through his teenage years, Mr Grutt’s affection for music augmented and at 19, he applied for a position at Sanity in the Gippsland Centre Sale, working his way up the ranks through the years to his current store manager position.
On March 5, after 12 years at the post, Mr Grutt will pull closed the metal roller doors for the final time, bringing an end to Sale’s Sanity, which has been servicing Gippsland Centre customers since 1998.
Sanity’s closure announcement has shocked the Sale store manager, as it has many other Australian musos.
“I definitely felt it would come; eventually, I didn’t expect it to be so soon,” Mr Grutt said.
“I thought we had like another year or two left in us, but that is just the way it is; streaming is such a huge thing so.
“It is completely different now, at the moment, CDS and DVDs are not even half the shop like when I started it was like the whole shop, but now you’ve got games and everything else, so they’ve obviously tried to compensate because it’s been a downward trend for the last couple of years.”
Founded in 1980 by billionaire businessman Brett Blundy, Sanity quickly expanded from a lone music store in Melbourne’s east to an iconic Aussie chain, becoming Australia’s largest music retailer in the noughties, operating more than 270 stores at its peak.
In 2010, Ray Itaoui bought the company from Mr Blundy, and 13 years later, just 50 physical Sanity stores remain across the country.
With “diminishing physical content” available to sell to customers on Wednesday, January 4, Mr Itaoui announced the music retailer would operate online only beyond that time.
“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,” Mr Itaoui said.
“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.”
The impending March 4 closure has left Mr Grutt and four Sale Sanity employees staring down the barrel of unemployment, with no idea what to do after doors shut.
“I don’t know [what I am going to do now], probably something in retail still, stay in my area, but I don’t know yet,” Mr Grutt said.
“It is still a bit of a shock; just trying to process it.
“I do feel sad, especially like a dude just before was like, ‘What are we going to do now?’ and I am like, ‘I don’t know’. We are like the last of us; even Kmart phased out their DVDs and CDs. Obviously, they saw the trend and made a choice based on survival.”
Beyond March, Wellington Shire and East Gippsland consumers wishing to purchase CDs or DVDs physically will have to travel to Traralgon or the nation’s capital, with Sale Sanity the remaining retailer of its kind east of Traralgon, with the next closest store located in Canberra.
“The hardest part will be saying goodbye to the regular customers,” Mr Grutt said.
“Especially because they have been so loyal, some of them have been shopping here for as long as I have worked here; it will definitely be hard saying goodbye to them.
“We’ve got to know them like they’ve had babies, got married, you know what I mean, we’ve been a part of their lives.”
Despite everything, Mr Grutt remains optimistic about the future; however, the impending unknown can not be ignored.
“I am looking forward to trying something new; without it [the closure], I probably wouldn’t have, so I am excited for the next step, whatever it is,” Mr Grutt said.
“But it is scary not knowing what that next step is.”
Sanity in the Gippsland Centre Sale will host large sales of stock until its March 4 closure.
