Iconic Aussie music retailer Sanity makes unexpected comeback after shutting down all 50 of its stores

Iconic Aussie music retailer Sanity has made an unexpected comeback despite shutting down all 50 of its stores.

Iconic Aussie music retailer Sanity has made an unexpected comeback despite shutting down all 50 of its stores.

In January, Sanity warned customers that closures were on the way, citing a focus on online sales as the reason, amid a downturn in its brick-and-mortar outlets due to Covid-19 and the cost of living crisis.

At the end of March, the company closed all its remaining stores, which were just a handful in Queensland, far from its peak of 200 back in its heyday.

Sanity has been a staple for Australian music lovers for more than three decades, known for selling CDs and DVDs.

Over the past few years, however, it has slowly been shrinking in size, because of the way music consumption has changed.

But now, the company’s unusual sale tactics online have taken off, as their social media posts go viral.

Sanity stores no longer exist, except its e-commerce store. Picture: Sarah Petty

Drawing on the nostalgia of its customer base, as well as tapping into meme culture, Sanity is hitting a chord with online users.

Many of its posts on Facebook — which link people back to their home page — have racked up hundreds of thousands of interactions.

The company’s Facebook posts have frequently gone viral in the two and a half months since the closures happened.

These posts tune into people’s love of pop culture, making references to well-known franchises and studios such as Pitch Perfect, Marvel and Pixar.

This post three weeks ago garnered 37,000 reactions.

This is Sanity’s most successful viral post since the closure of all its physical stores.

Ray Itaoui purchased Sanity 13 years ago and said in March the brand had little choice except to close its physical stores to ensure its survival.

“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,” Mr Itaoui said in a statement earlier this year.

“Our online business – sanity.com.au – will continue to operate, and will service the many loyal customers the brand has continued to be dedicated to over the decades.

“Our priority right now is to ensure each of our team members knows exactly what this means for their career and employment future.”

The first Sanity-branded store opened in 1992 in Doncaster, Melbourne.

Its founder Brett Blundy had actually opened his first music store in 1980 under a different name. He was just 20 years old at the time.

In 2008, the company launched online music subscription service LoadIt but this was scrapped months after its launch.

In 2009, the brand was sold to Mr Itaoui.