Sam Ash, the musical instrument company, is closing down all its stores, including the one in Philadelphia Mills

Video killed the radio star. Now, the internet is killing the brick-and-mortar music store.

Sunday will be the last day of business for the Sam Ash location at Philadelphia Mills. The 100-year-old family-owned musical instrument company is liquidating and shuttering its 40-plus stores nationwide.

The once jam-packed store was eerily empty on Tuesday, with just a few dozen instruments on display, and some accessories like microphones, cables, and sheet music still on the shelves.

The store is one of 18 locations in the first wave of closures announced on March 1.

“I was definitely taken by surprise,” said store manager Elliott Weiss, who has worked at the store for 24 years, nearly as long as it’s been open. “I thought I was going to be there forever.”

But the writing has long been on the wall for Sam Ash, which opened the Philadelphia location in April 2000. The company, focused on its large, well-stocked storefronts, has struggled to compete with online upstarts like Sweetwater, Reverb, and Amazon. The chain, headquartered in Hicksville, Long Island, declared bankruptcy earlier this month — exactly a century after the company was founded by its namesake in New York City in 1924.

“It is with a heavy heart that we announce that all Sam Ash Music store locations will begin store closing sales today,” the family said in a message posted to Sam Ash’s Facebook page. “Thank you for allowing us to serve musicians like you for 100 years.”

While the store has been offering heavy discounts on instruments and sound equipment, a spokesperson for the company said customers should be wary of fraudulent Sam Ash clearance sales that have been set up online.

Competition from the internet is not new for the retailer, but the situation became more dire during the pandemic, which eliminated foot traffic and made consumers more accustomed to shopping online. A Sam Ash employee said the chain was also struggling to get merchandise from its manufacturers at the time. One supplier was back-ordered until 2025.

“I was under the impression the rent was too high,” longtime customer Valerie Owens said of the roughly 20,000-square-foot store.

Weiss agreed: “The overhead costs of renting a location like that are just astronomical.”

But the storefront and deep warehouse are what drew music enthusiasts to Sam Ash over the years and set the chain apart from its online competitors.

“The good thing about a physical store is that you can go and try the gear out,” said Alex Martinez, another longtime customer.

Professional musicians also frequently need to buy gear on short notice.

“This place would always have anything I would need at the last second,” said Pauly Panda, a drummer who’s been coming to Sam Ash for two decades. “I could zip right on over here and they would have it.”

There are a few surviving mom-and-pop shops in Philadelphia that can fill those last-minute needs, but they’ve become few and far between in recent decades and generally don’t have the expansive inventory that made Sam Ash a destination for musicians.

For that kind of selection, they will now need to leave the city and head to Guitar Center locations in Plymouth Meeting, Langhorne, or Cherry Hill.

Weiss doesn’t harbor any ill will toward the Ash family. He thought it was impressive that the clan managed to compete with a massive conglomerate like Guitar Center for all these years.

The manager started working at Sam Ash as an 18-year-old greeter in September 2000, five months after the store opened. Weiss remembered the chain expanding rapidly at the time. A decade later, he was a senior department head and eager to be promoted to store manager. But Weiss had a problem; none of his superiors wanted to leave.

The Ash family, eager to keep him, rearranged personnel to give Weiss a sales manager position at the Cherry Hill store. He returned to Philadelphia Mills in 2013.

In the three months since the Philadelphia store’s closure was announced, Weiss’ team has shrunk from 15 members to six. Those ranks used to include technicians, warehouse workers, and greeters.

Many of the store’s former employees left for other jobs. A few of those who remain have new gigs lined up; Weiss will be working at Team Toyota of Langhorne. Some are taking time off to assess their options.

The Sam Ash store in King of Prussia is also closing on Sunday. The Cherry Hill location will remain open until July 12.

At Philadelphia Mills, customers were shopping while they still can.

“The only reason why I came to this mall was because of Sam Ash,” Martinez said. “It’s a shame to see a family business go.”