Beloved Vinyl Store Closes

Surfside Wax Records closed its doors for good this weekend after 26 years of selling vinyl on Bribie Island, QLD.

Business owner Jason Broomham made the announcement on Facebook about the beloved store, writing, "To all of you that have been customers, friends and colleagues I would like to thank you all for your support, your friendship and being apart of something that I have loved doing so much. As I always said the hardest part of my day was choosing what music to play, I loved what I did and all of you are the reason why I did."

Broomham added that all stock and electronics have been sold to Marty at Revived Audio, who "runs a market stall at Carseldine Markets on Saturday’s and Caboolture Markets on Sunday’s." The owner also noted that Marty is "a great person to deal with" and "very passionate about vinyl and hi fi equipment".

The sad news arrives as the West End, QLD, favourite, Jet Black Cat Music, celebrates its 12th birthday.

"Jet Black Cat Music opened its doors 12 years ago today whoaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!," owners wrote on social media. "We’ll be celebrating with some top shelf gelati around the traps im celebration of this milestone  ~this all wouldn’t be possible  without the support of so many wonderful friends who’ve worked , volunteered and lended hands over the past 12 years."

A few weeks ago, Sanity confirmed that all brick-and-mortar stores across the country will be shutting soon.

As 9news reported, the 50 remaining physical stores will close by the end of April, leaving only its online shop operational.

The first Sanity outlet, a rebranding of Brett Blundy’s Melbourne-based record and cassette store Jetts, opened in 1992 in Doncaster before expanding across the country and eventually being acquired by Ray Itaoui in 2009.

"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.

"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.”

All existing orders will be honoured, including pre-orders with an estimated release date after April. Those will be handled by the online store after that date.

At its peak, Sanity had more than 200 stores across the country and published its own magazine, Ultimate, which ran until 2013.