Kicking That Already Empty Bucket...RIP A&B Sound

As if it wasn't obvious enough when A&B Sound decided to close their last two remaining Vancouver stores (Marine Drive and their "flagship" location on Seymour street) that the company was falling to shit. It is now official-- A&B Sound is totally bankrupt. I ran into the infamous Bob Bell today, who worked at the Seymour location off and on for over twenty years, and who had been recently shipped off to the North Vancouver location when Seymour closed, and he confirmed that last Friday was his final day and he would not be paid out the thousands of dollars that would have been owed to him in severance. The company was going bankrupt and no one would get a dime owed to them, which, outside of severance, also includes holiday pay. Big time bummer for any long time employees.

Though this predicament has long been forecasted, there has been little to no news of the ultimate demise of A&B in the media. I suppose that it only really has an effect on North Vancouver and Edmonton, where the final two locations were, but it seems odd the media hasn't jumped on this one. I suppose they are tired of reporting the obvious and inevitable demise of the long-crumbling company. Hopefully this trend of record store closures has reached it's end. The fate of Vancouver's record stores lies, ultimately, in the hands of the consumer. So you know what that means...get to thy local independent record shop immediately! Not a fan of your local grocer? Think they could be doing something better? Tell them! Don't let another record store slip through our collective hands.