Iconic music store to close

Another record store has fallen victim to the new trend of purchasing and downloading music from the Internet: Sam the Record Man, once Canada's top music chain, will be closing its landmark Toronto store for the last time at the end of this month. Boo-hoo! Although I've been there only a couple of times during my recent one-month vacation I have to mourn with other music lovers who been regular customers and have fond memories of shopping at the store at Yonge St. The store's interior may not be as hip as that of HMV or Tower Records (which closed recently as well) but their collection of CDs (I spent a few hours browsing their classical music section) is unique and more varied than those normally found in the other record/CD stores. This is truly the end of an era.