There was a recent thread about our first Stones Boots & I got mine (Liver) at Sam's in Yonge St when they were still an unknown quantity. As well as all the early official Stones, I got my first Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span & a mass of Leadbelly records there. He had a special when Goat's Head was released, half price, $1.99 if memory serves me, the queue for this was substantial & yes, I was in it. He had piles of records on the floor which were heavily discounted or unusual, Oscar Brands' Bawdy Ballads (still not available on CD) &, as well as the aformentioned Stones Liver, another record in plain white sleeves, Dylan's Great White Wonder.

My childhood is disappearing.......

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As my screen name suggests, I am from Buffalo. Sam's was always a highlight of any visit to Toronto. I was stunned on my last visit to find it closed. It was a great place to hang out, listen to music and find something unusual or unexpected (on a street were there were many unusual things back in the day). I always liked the staff, who never seemed like retail employees...they were into music. Sad to see them gone, and HMV still there.

Used to be several Sam outlets in various malls around Vancouver but all are gone now. I don't know if there's any record stores in downtown Vancouver now. Back in the day, in a one block strip on Seymour St. there was A&B Sound, A&A Records, Sam The Record Man and a small import shop. One block over on Granville there was Kelly's and Miller's.
Now it seems the only places to get CD's are Walmart or Futureshop/ Best Buy.

Wow it seems nothin can survive change anymore. i am from the land down under but remember well sam the record man shops as i used to live north of toronto in king city and would venture into downtown toronto and always pay a visit to sams. i actually used to work in property maintenance whilst in king and cut the grass and cleaned the property of those that owned the store/business..

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DGA35
Used to be several Sam outlets in various malls around Vancouver but all are gone now. I don't know if there's any record stores in downtown Vancouver now. Back in the day, in a one block strip on Seymour St. there was A&B Sound, A&A Records, Sam The Record Man and a small import shop. One block over on Granville there was Kelly's and Miller's.
Now it seems the only places to get CD's are Walmart or Futureshop/ Best Buy.

Yes they are all gone, a pity. They are used cd stores on Granville, one I think and one on Davie where you can get a cd for 5 bucks. I got Best of Melanie there. I was in Toronto in Sept, just downtown there are 3 big cd stores then on Bloor a huge cd/vinyl/cassette place.

I know how you feel. Yonge Street isn't the same now.

that's where i picked up my first Stones album...Black @ Blue. i asked if i could have the promotional poster and one of the workers told me to come back in 2 weeks to collect it. I still have that poster in my garage...Sam's was great. they had some competition next door with A&A's records, but Sam's was the place for music in Toronto...RIP Sam Sniderman

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DGA35
Used to be several Sam outlets in various malls around Vancouver but all are gone now. I don't know if there's any record stores in downtown Vancouver now. Back in the day, in a one block strip on Seymour St. there was A&B Sound, A&A Records, Sam The Record Man and a small import shop. One block over on Granville there was Kelly's and Miller's.
Now it seems the only places to get CD's are Walmart or Futureshop/ Best Buy.

You've just described my Saturday mornings spent (mostly hungover) while attending UBC. I still remember the intial thrill, then ultimate disappointment with the introduction of the latest and greatest format...the compact disc.

Not a lot of big record stores downtown anymore, a few indies on Hastings, Main and on Commercial.

just noticed, a lot of canuckleheads on this board.

R.I.P. Sam. Another Toronto legend gone.

Great store in Toronto but the Sam's stores out west were pretty generic. More importantly, old Sam employed pretty shady business practices when dealing with his suppliers-just ask Scratch Distribution out of Vancouver for one. Bailed on his debts to them, to the tune of thousands of dollars, by declaring bankruptcy and diverting his considerable remaining funds to his children. It was a big factor in Scratch's demise, actually. So, between that and the fact he was, what, 92 or something, I won't be shedding a tear.

I sure miss the old store. Many fond memories of that place. I managed to snag a piece of brick as a memento after it was torn down.

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treaclefingers
just noticed, a lot of canuckleheads on this board.

Happy belated Thanksgiving.

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andrewm
Great store in Toronto but the Sam's stores out west were pretty generic. More importantly, old Sam employed pretty shady business practices when dealing with his suppliers-just ask Scratch Distribution out of Vancouver for one. Bailed on his debts to them, to the tune of thousands of dollars, by declaring bankruptcy and diverting his considerable remaining funds to his children. It was a big factor in Scratch's demise, actually. So, between that and the fact he was, what, 92 or something, I won't be shedding a tear.

I frequented Scratch's...that sucks, wasn't aware of that situation at all. I just presumed they went under because of poor sales like so many others.

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Max'sKansasCity

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treaclefingers
just noticed, a lot of canuckleheads on this board.

Happy belated Thanksgiving.

Thanks...I'm still a little sleepy from all the turkey.

Speaking of Turkey, and not to get all political, but this past Thanksgiving weekend I read that Turkey, the country, retaliated against Syria. I didn't see it anywhere, but hopefully in a parallel universe the headlines would have been:

"Turkey Retaliates Thanksgiving Weekend!"

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GumbootCloggeroo
I sure miss the old store. Many fond memories of that place. I managed to snag a piece of brick as a memento after it was torn down.

Ohh, that lovely sign. It's now at Ryerson: I wonder what Ryerson will do with it now.

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treaclefingers

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andrewm
Great store in Toronto but the Sam's stores out west were pretty generic. More importantly, old Sam employed pretty shady business practices when dealing with his suppliers-just ask Scratch Distribution out of Vancouver for one. Bailed on his debts to them, to the tune of thousands of dollars, by declaring bankruptcy and diverting his considerable remaining funds to his children. It was a big factor in Scratch's demise, actually. So, between that and the fact he was, what, 92 or something, I won't be shedding a tear.

I frequented Scratch's...that sucks, wasn't aware of that situation at all. I just presumed they went under because of poor sales like so many others.

Yeah, treacle, as well as being a store they were a fairly major indie distributor who sold product to Sam's. They and a number of other distros were burned by Sam for oustanding bills-amounts that he could easily have payed but chose not to. Regardless, that Toronto store was certainly an institution and I certainly wouldn't want to sully any fond memories people have of the place. Just offering some perspective.

Hi Treaclefingers, I remember going down to A&B Seymour on Boxing Day and lining up outside waiting to get some good deals. The staff would come out and serve coffee or hot chocolate! I went into Neptoon Records on Main and 19th for the first time a couple months ago. Found the Bigger Bang deluxe edition so I bought it. Only time I've ever seen it!
I remember there were a couple import stores on 4th Ave and I bought a Stones Superdome 78 poster there during Boxing Day in the early 80's. Not sure if those stores are still there.

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buffalo7478
As my screen name suggests, I am from Buffalo. Sam's was always a highlight of any visit to Toronto. I was stunned on my last visit to find it closed. It was a great place to hang out, listen to music and find something unusual or unexpected (on a street were there were many unusual things back in the day). I always liked the staff, who never seemed like retail employees...they were into music. Sad to see them gone, and HMV still there.

My place was Cavages, Seneca mall.

I loved going to Sam's on Yonge for a couple hours at a time and walking out with a stack of music.

Good memories...

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DGA35
Hi Treaclefingers, I remember going down to A&B Seymour on Boxing Day and lining up outside waiting to get some good deals. The staff would come out and serve coffee or hot chocolate! I went into Neptoon Records on Main and 19th for the first time a couple months ago. Found the Bigger Bang deluxe edition so I bought it. Only time I've ever seen it!
I remember there were a couple import stores on 4th Ave and I bought a Stones Superdome 78 poster there during Boxing Day in the early 80's. Not sure if those stores are still there.

Neptoon is cool! Went there last Record Store Day.

I think A & B singlehandedly started that whole Boxing Day sale 3 decades ago or so. I bought so many albums there, I'd DJ while living on campus at UBC on Friday night, get paid in cash, and the next morning spend it all at A & B.

The good old days!

The one on 4th you're thinking of is Zulu Records, and last I checked it is still there. There's another one on Main called Red Cat, and one on Commercial Drive called Audio Pile.

BEST place these days to buy outstanding vinyl is at the various record fairs they have a few times a year. I bought over 30 albums in VG to NM condition in September, for $50. Everything from Jazz to Disco to Rock. Great stuff. Vinyl is alive and well!

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Cocaine Eyes

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GumbootCloggeroo
I sure miss the old store. Many fond memories of that place. I managed to snag a piece of brick as a memento after it was torn down.

Ohh, that lovely sign. It's now at Ryerson: I wonder what Ryerson will do with it now.

I've stayed at the Delta on Yonge a couple of times and that sign was great at night!

I worked at Sams in Toronto & Hamilton. to say that Sam Sniderman was difficult to work for at times would be an understatement but there's no arguing his committment to Canadian music & musicians. I miss wandering around the old stores.

It's been sad to see so many records stores go out of business over the years. It was always fun wander into them on a dull night and browse through the bins of vinyl. We had River City Records, The Record Joint, Spin-it Records, The Record Connection, all of them independently owned, and none have been in existence for years. I don't enjoy at all going into places like Best Buy and Walmart to rifle through the CD's. It was much more fun flipping through the LPs. Speaking of LPs, my vinyls have been laying around for years and I recently hit on the idea of decorating the walls of my classroom with LP covers, minus the record. The kids have been fascinated by them and we get into some interesting discussions. I've only put 23 covers up so far and will add more soon.

There was also a Sam The Record Man store in Montreal many years ago. I went there only once at the beginning of the 80s and bought a cassette... The Stones' Love You Live.

Bought Voodoo Lounge when it came out at Sam's in Montreal.

I used to go the SAMs on Bloor at Bathurst a lot. It was more than just records - kind of a hodge pudge of discount crap but always some cool stuff buried if you looked hard enough. God Toronto had some great record shops. There was one on Yonge...I remember walking by one day & they had the Specials blasting - bought that record on the spot.
And belated Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians!

The sign at the main store on Yonge was a classic piece of Canadiana. Did someone say it was moved to a university?

I have it emblazoned in my memory as an adolescent. It was fantastic at night.

I am pretty sure you see it in the classic 1970 Canadian movie "Going Down the Road."

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You do indeed see it in Goin' Down the Road. The two main characters also wander into Sam's all drunk and look at records, if I recall. Great scene.