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Iconic Calgary independent Soundsaround will soon be closing its last two stores, and shutting down its operations entirely, according to a letter sent today to its suppliers, citing the last three years as "challenging and difficult." The company plans to liquidate its inventory over the next two months. April 15 is stated as the last official day of business. Marketnews has been told by a Soundsaround representative that Friday, March 30 will be the last date for home installations.
The letter, over the signature of Giovanna Grassi, the company's President, states that "any and all outstanding balances will be paid." It further asks that "any outstanding credit amounts owed to Soundsaround be processed as soon as possible." All inquiries, says the letter, are to be directed to Melissa Grassi, Director of Operations. She is the daughter of Giovanna and Domenic Grassi, who founded the firm.
Soundsaround, which had four stores at the start of last summer, closed its 15,000-square-foot store on 130 Ave. SE last August after five years of operation. All nine employees, said Scaffeo at the time, were being moved to other stores. Within about a month, however, its store at 32 Ave. NE was closed as well.
At one time, Soundsaround had about seven stores, including clearance outlets, all in Calgary. The business was founded in 1979 by Domenic Grassi, who a decade earlier had started selling electronics as a sideline from a former gas station. All the properties occupied by Soundsaround stores, and its headquarters on 30th Ave. NE, were owned by a related company.
Known for years for its Big 4 Sale every September in the Big 4 Building at the Calgary Stampede Grounds, the event was scaled back to the Big 4 in the Store event a couple years ago, and dropped entirely this year.
"The Grassi family would like to thank all of our suppliers that have participated in our business over the past 42 years," Giovanna Grassi stated in today's letter. "During this period many personal relationships were established, and we are grateful for all of them."
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8 comments »
good riddance March 09, 2012, 19:14 pm
The beginning of the end for this place was when the former General Manager slapped his head buyer in the face at a sales meeting at their head office. Classic move from a bunch of GUIDO's.
good riddance February 12, 2012, 02:54 am
I haven't worked at Soundsaround for several years so the feelings of anger and resentment that I once had for the tyrants that ran this place into the ground have resided. First of all I want to thank the Grassi family for squeezing every penny out of the Salespeople's pockets for the better part of 3 decades. I would also like to thank them for ripping off the general public with inflated retail prices and the worst customer service in the business. Also their former business model of selling speakers without price tags when "the rep of that oh so famous speaker company" just happened to be there to throw in a $4000 big screen if you bought these speakers today, was full of integrity. I appreciated making the company hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly only to be told to do as I so or else we will hire 3 others to do the same job as you and it won't matter to us. The owners referred to the workers as family yet they had zero problem firing people who worked themselves ragged to the bone for them on the spot. The padded costs on product were always special too. Sure there are "lifers' there that would do anything for the fascist regime that ran the place who were even so called leaders but in the end they were followers who were too gutless to think for themselves. I'll leave you with this...........anyone who worked there will get this. I don't know if I could....BUT if (we wouldn't have ripped off our customers OR our salespeople).....Would we still be open today!
Pureimage February 11, 2012, 01:08 am
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pizdets17 February 10, 2012, 22:33 pm
These guys have been lying and taking money from their staff for years. They probably have more labor board disputes than any other retailer. Just say the word "retro" and the salesmen would cringe. Retro is when the commission % would change to a lower amount on a product and would be retro-active to the begginning of the month costing employees hundreds if not thousands. The ridiculous pads on product, the random firings becaue the roid monkey in charge (who had to go through sensitivity training lol) felt like it, for no reason, the slave labour during the BIG 4 sale and so on. If the current employees don't want their cheques to bounce I would take Silverback's suggestion and GTFO.
Silverback February 10, 2012, 22:32 pm
Being upfront, would have been" hey guys , we're shutting down after christmass, but we're going to stay open until then , so know one loses there job during the holidays, feel free to start looking for a new job, you have lots of time, we're not planning to shutdown till April". But in this case , sounds around couldn't do this because they couldn't risk losing staff at this point during there busiest season!! And that's the deceit
The_D February 10, 2012, 22:20 pm
These people did NOT lie to the staff. When the first two stores shut down, yes they moved all the employees to the two remaining stores, that way they all kept their jobs through Christmas. It would have been way worse have they have laid off those employees before Christmas. Now the staff has between 30 and 60 days of notice to find employment, the company has been UP FRONT with their staff and we wish all of them the best of luck in the future!
Silverback February 10, 2012, 22:04 pm
I Encourage all you employees of sounds around to walk out and put the owners of sounds around in the position they put you. Abandon them as they abandoned you. Don't let them screw you any more. Walk away
Silverback February 10, 2012, 21:35 pm
These people lied to the staff, when the first two stores shut down , they moved all the employees to the remaining two stores, flooding the floor with sales staff. They personally assured the staff that there was nothing to worry about and that they all had jobs that the company wasn't going anywhere. Months later they shut it down. Sounds like a big cash grab to me. They said whatever they could to keep the staff from finding permanent jobs elsewhere , so they could make it through christmas and grab as much cash as possible. Once christmas season was over they shut it down. Seems to me they put a lot of people in a bad situation for there own benefit.
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