In the worst news you’ll hear today, iconic retail brand Sanity is closing down all its physical stores in Australia for good.
The chain began its life in 1980 as a single store in Pakenham, Victoria and grew to over 150 franchises across the nation at its peak.
The company’s owner for the past 13 years, Ray Itaoui, said the brand would now focus on its online presence.
“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,” Itaoui said as per 9 News.
“Our team is also working hard to ensure every customer receives all orders they have placed with us, including all pre-orders, which will be dispatched through our online business if the store is closed by the time their order arrives.”
As much as it pains us to break this news, the closing down of these Sanity stores doesn’t really come as a shock.
Film and music retailers have been shutting left, right and centre since streaming took over.
The last Blockbuster in Australia in the Perth suburb of Morley shut its doors back in 2019. There is now only one Blockbuster left in the world in Bend, Oregon.
Another byproduct of the streaming revolution and the closing down of physical stores is retail job loss.
Regarding Sanity, Itaoui said that “the priority right now is to ensure each of our team members knows exactly what this means for their career and employment future”.
I’m assuming all its current employees will receive glowing recommendations to put on their CVs. Seems only fair, eh?
Sanity’s remaining 50 stores are set to close by the end of April.
So, if you’ve been fanging to purchase a physical copy of Shrek 2 in-store, you’ve got just under four months to accomplish that mission.
