The Death Of A&B Sound
A&B Sound used to be one of B.C.’s great audio/video stores. Everyone went to A&B Sound to get music and good deals on electronics. They often beat Future Shop in pricing, and definitely had a better sales staff, that could actually speak English. Unfortunately now, in 2008, A&B Sound is dying. It closed it’s Langley store last week and only has 9 stores left across B.C. & Alberta. So why?
Simple, the new owners of A&B Sound (2005) basically ran the store into the ground. They had no idea how to run it or promote it. Everyone started to forget A&B Sound even existed because they failed to advertise like they used to in the past. The second problem was locations. Every A&B Sound was located in an area hard to get to, or hidden from main roads. They NEVER had parking or easy access to the stores. This pissed people off and they just gave up trying to deal with that, and headed down the street where Future Shop was, since it had ample parking and easy access.
The current owners give all kinds of excuses and B.S. but those are the two main reasons. The second reason was part of the original owners problem as well.
So, I can imagine that within the next few years, A&B Sound will no longer exist, and another Vancouver based icon will be dead. It a shame.. a damn shame..
May 20th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
that’s a shame - Toronto’s famous Sam the Record Man suffered the same fate (for different reasons, but still) when the little guy shutters, we all lose a bit.
May 21st, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Oh Scott, I thought you weren’t gonna rant… staff that speak English… really… I never had a single problem understanding any accents in my life at Future Shop, and I’ve been exposed to more accents than you.
May 21st, 2008 at 3:15 pm
It’s not a rant, it’s the truth… and of course you can understand, since you speak 3 or so languages.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:37 am
To attribute the demise of A&B Sound to a lack of parking is nonsense, the downtown store on Seymour for the past 45 years never had parking but ran a successful business and was usually packed with customers. For whatever OTHER reason (ie. bad management, depleted stock, etc), the store is on its last legs, too bad since A&B prices always beat the competition including Future Shop and the rip-off outfit on Robson, HMV.
August 12th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Very sad, I loved going to the A&B sound near Surrey Central station.
August 13th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Umm, the Surrey Central location closed years ago. Judging from the “locations” list on absound.com, they’re down to six stores now. Sad, very sad.
August 20th, 2008 at 2:51 am
A&B died because it was initially a family run business that lacked the resources & vision to compete with Big Box retailers (Future Shop, Best Buy, COSTCO) with superior purchasing power. Even with the new owners, they entered too late into a market, especially with viable competitors entrenched in the market.
In the world of consumer electronics, you either go big or go small as a niche player. There’s no room for any medium sized businesses as they simply get squeezed out. A&B sound is a typical example.