A&B Sound
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| A&B Sound | |
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| Type | Consumer electronics retailer |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1959 |
| Headquarters | Richmond, British Columbia |
| Key people | Fred Steiner |
| Industry | Retail |
| Products | Electronics |
| Employees | over 700 |
| Slogan | "Canadian Owned, Canadian Operated" |
| Website | absound.ca |
A&B Sound is a Canadian home electronics retailer based in Richmond, British Columbia. The flagship store is located in downtown Vancouver, with a total of 16 stores in western Canada. A&B Sound has a long-held reputation for offering low prices and a large selection of music titles.
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[edit] History
A&B Sound was founded by Fred Steiner in 1959. The first store was located in downtown Vancouver, and in 1965 it moved to its current location at 556 Seymour Street. The store initially sold televisions, stereos and radio equipment, adding music sales later that same year.
[edit] Expansion throughout British Columbia
A second store opened in 1977 in Victoria, British Columbia in a building that had previously served as that city's first hospital, and later as a brothel. In 1980, the Vancouver location expanded to three floors, followed in 1981 by the construction of a new store on Hastings Street, near the border of Burnaby. A fourth location opened in 1984 on South West Marine Drive in Vancouver.
Fred Steiner retired in 1987, and his son Nick became president of A&B Sound. New stores subsequently opened in Surrey (1987), Burnaby's Metrotown area (1988), and Nanaimo (1990). Fred Steiner passed away in 1991, the same year that the East Hastings location moved into a larger property at the corner of Hastings Street and the Trans Canada Highway, across from Playland. The following year, an eighth store opened in Kelowna.
[edit] Expansion into Western Canada
In 1993, A&B Sound moved into the Alberta market, opening locations in Calgary and Edmonton in 1993, followed by south Edmonton (1994), a second Calgary location (1995), Lethbridge (1996), and Red Deer and a third Calgary outlet in 1997. Also in 1995, a store was opened in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Expansion continued throughout Western Canada, with new stores in Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (1999) and Winnipeg, Manitoba (2000). In 2001, Nick Steiner stepped aside as President, retaining his role as Chairman, and long-time CEO Tim Howley became President and CEO.
[edit] Impact on Vancouver's record, tape and CD retail industry
For years, A&B Sound maintained a reputation in the Western Canadian music market for having the lowest prices and best selection on records, cassettes, and later CDs. Often, the chain would out-price other major retailers, including A & A Records and Tapes, as well as Toronto-based Sam the Record Man, which never managed to penetrate the Vancouver market with the same success as it did in eastern Canada. A downtown Vancouver location of Sam The Record Man was located next door to A&B Sound's Seymour Street location until late in 2000 when it was closed. In a 1993 article in The Georgia Straight newspaper it is noted that A&B Sound's aggressive pricing policies resulted in Vancouver having the lowest record prices of any Canadian metropolis. These low prices were not only responsible for other chains closing, but may have been one reason for some chains not opening stores in Vancouver, including Tower Records, which had scouted Vancouver as a possible location to expand into Canada. When HMV finally opened stores in the Vancouver area in 1993, HMV Canada's then-president Paul Alofs said that breaking into the Vancouver market wouldn't be easy. "A&B is certainly a very strong competitor, and we have a lot of respect for what they do."[1]
[edit] Bankruptcy and a new owner
Finally, in the 1990s and 2000s, A&B began to face increasing competition for music sales. Vancouver-based Future Shop added music to its product mix, using the same aggressive pricing structure it did with consumer electronics. Besides HMV, other retail giants like Wal-Mart and Virgin Megastore entered the marketplace as well. In early 2005, with a debt of C$57 million, A&B Sound filed for protection under Canadian bankruptcy regulations. A sale to American company Sun Capital Partners Group Inc. was announced, but this sale did not go through. Instead, the company was purchased by Canadian computer manufacturer Seanix Technology Inc., based in Richmond and led by Paul Girard. He announced that they planned to close down or relocate some of the branches that were losing money and focus on the BC and Alberta markets. That year and the next, a number of employees were laid off, and several locations were closed, including both the Winnipeg stores in 2005, the Hastings Street in January 2006, and in August of 2006 their Red Deer, Regina and Saskatoon locations.[2] The downtown Calgary store was also closed sometime in this period. Meanwhile, a new location was opened in North Vancouver, while the Kelowna and south Calgary and Surrey stores were relocated. Also in 2006 a new location was opened in Pitt Meadows. Victoria BC has the original downtown store and a new larger store is due to open in Langford (Victoria BC).
[edit] Notes
- ^ I don't have the exact date of this article but it was from the Random Notes section of The Georgia Straight, from an issue in I believe March or early April 1993.
- ^ StarPhoenix story on Saskatchewan locations closing, accessed January 15, 2007.
