Sam The Record Man - Building The Chain

Building The Chain

The flagship Sam the Record Man store was famous for its Boxing Day sales and often served as the location for newspaper and television reports on Boxing Day shopping. Shoppers would line up over many city blocks, in the cold, to get one-day-only specially discounted (20% - 25%) records, and eventually, as the technology changed, CDs, and videos. Prices for videotapes were discounted as high as 50%.

The store was also known for its deep catalogue, eclectic selection of imported recordings, time specials, and ever-changing stock of deleted or cut out stock. Some of the walls bore autographs and photographs of various musicians and celebrities (among them Elton John, Iggy Pop, Bruce Springsteen, Liberace, Tony Bennett, Charles Aznavour) who had visited the store. There were in-store appearances (Radiohead, Meatloaf) and, in the later years, in-store performances by various musical artists (Gordon Lightfoot, Blue Rodeo, Daniel Lanois, Saga, Don Ross, Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper, Luka Bloom, Los Lobos). T-shirts and later a complete line of "Sam's Wear" were available for customers to purchase.

The chain stores were early promoters of Canadian artists, because they prominently featured their work with in-store displays, and concerts. Well-known Canadian artists like Loreena McKennitt, Barenaked Ladies, k d lang, Cowboy Junkies, and Ron Sexsmith had their first recordings stocked or consigned at the Yonge Street flagship store, then later throughout the chain. Sam Sniderman played a role in getting the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to implement Canadian content (Can-con) regulations for radio stations in the early 1970s. The move to Can-con allowed many Canadian musicians to gain a voice in their own country. In addition to stocking (and later purchasing) the complete catalogue of the Canadian Talent Library broadcast music (see entries for Chad Allan, Jackie Mittoo, Vic Franklyn, Dr. Music, Peter Appleyard), the flagship store also received copies of every LP record released in Quebec, making it the best source for French Canadian recordings outside of the province of Quebec.

In the late 1960s, Sniderman expanded the business with franchise and corporate stores in Toronto and elsewhere. The expanded business was called Roblan Distributors (named for Sam Sniderman's son Robert and Sid Sniderman's daughter Lana (d. August 2012)) and conducted business at the store level as Sam the Record Man. Some stores were not full franchises but used Roblan Distributors as their principle rack jobber and were known as RD 2000 stores. A warehouse to service the franchises and flagship store was established at 110 Bond Street incorporating the accounting and head offices which had previously been located at Yonge Street. It later moved to much larger facilities at 274 Church Street. This building was demolished and became a parking lot in the late 1990s after record companies agreed to direct ship orders to the franchise stores, thus rendering the need for a central warehouse redundant. (Previous to this the record companies would ship at no cost only to a few designated locations and that with a minimum order value.) The accounting, offices, and some warehousing facilities were moved back to 110 Bond Street, but closed when the chain filed for bankruptcy. Both properties were sold to Ryerson University along with the Yonge Street properties in January 2008.

The chain subsequently expanded to 130 stores (including RD2000 stores) across Canada, before the recorded music and media business started to decline in the 1990s. At one time, the chain was the leading music retailer in Canada.

The chain published a free music magazine (Network) in the late 1980s. One of the features in the magazine was a picture of a commissioned work of art (painting, collage, sculpture) by a local artist (among them Mendelson Joe and Kurt Swinghammer) depicting the store or brand. Some of these graphics were displayed in light boxes installed throughout the store or as the graphics for "Sam's Wear".