Sunrise Records Closing Flagship Toronto Stores
Canadian independent music and entertainment retailer, Sunrise Records, has further confirmed reports from earlier this month 
that it would in fact be shutting down its flagship Toronto, ON, stores by mid-November.
Falling victim are the 336 Yonge St. and the 784 Yonge St. locations. As of this past weekend, these shops began offering its merchandise at “deeply discounted prices.” Such a sale will continue until all inventory is moved.
“It is a very sad time, having to close the stores on Yonge,” says Owner and Co-Founder Malcolm Perlman. “Unfortunately, rent on Yonge Street has become too prohibitive to be able to profitably operate stores there.”
Meanwhile, the 209 Dundas St. Sunrise location in London, ON, will also be closing. For now, the company’s five mall stores (situated in Cloverdale Mall, Lynden Park, Burlington Mall, Bayfield Mall, and White Oaks Mall) will remain open. A deal to sell these shops to new ownership is in motion, with the hope that “the chain [can] be revitalized and expanded under new ownership staffed with some seasoned Sunrise management.”
Sunrise Records first came to life as a single store located at 237 Yonge St. Perlman and his brother Roy bought it from the Handleman Co. in 1978.
“We have many loyal customers to whom we always strived to offer superior service and a wide range of products at reasonable prices,” adds Perlman. “We also helped support local independent artists by carrying their CDs. Over the years, I’ve witnessed the evolution of the business from LPs to Cassettes to CDs and now remarkably, back to LPs and turntables. The electronic media has presented a major challenge but in my opinion, also an opportunity to be inventive. Music is with us forever.”
-Adam Grant
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