After 40 years of business, Sikora's Classical Records — Vancouver's last remaining classical music record store — is closing.
The long-running Vancouver store broke the bad news late last week, with co-owner Ed Savenye revealing the store will shut down on February 28, 2019 — exactly 40 years after Sikora's first opened its door.
"As you can imagine, it's pretty much the range of human emotions. There's obviously sadness ... and I'll be honest, anger in that a lot of people, for the sake of a couple of bucks, they just deserted us," Savenye told CBC.
Sikora's was founded by Dick and Dorothy Sikora and Rod Horsley in 1979. It was taken over in 2001 by Savenye and Roger Scobie, with the large store at 432 West Hastings boasting an impressive inventory of more than 50,000 vinyl records and nearly 25,000 CDs.
Savenye first entered Sikora's as a customer back in 1991 and got his first paying job at the store in 1998 before eventually taking on an ownership role with Scobie and the Sikoras.
Despite the range of emotions about the store's unfortunate closure, Savenye said, "You can schlep hamburgers or shoes or CDs, but at the end of the day, I've been exceptionally lucky to be working at this place, to be a customer at this place, owning and managing this place. There was always something rewarding to take home at the end of the day."
He added, "The customer part is just the collateral of our relationship now. When you see somebody every Saturday or Sunday for 20 years, they're way beyond a customer."
In the lead-up to the final closure of Sikora's, the store is now having a closing sale, with CDs and LPs now 50 percent off. You can learn more here.
The long-running Vancouver store broke the bad news late last week, with co-owner Ed Savenye revealing the store will shut down on February 28, 2019 — exactly 40 years after Sikora's first opened its door.
"As you can imagine, it's pretty much the range of human emotions. There's obviously sadness ... and I'll be honest, anger in that a lot of people, for the sake of a couple of bucks, they just deserted us," Savenye told CBC.
Sikora's was founded by Dick and Dorothy Sikora and Rod Horsley in 1979. It was taken over in 2001 by Savenye and Roger Scobie, with the large store at 432 West Hastings boasting an impressive inventory of more than 50,000 vinyl records and nearly 25,000 CDs.
Savenye first entered Sikora's as a customer back in 1991 and got his first paying job at the store in 1998 before eventually taking on an ownership role with Scobie and the Sikoras.
Despite the range of emotions about the store's unfortunate closure, Savenye said, "You can schlep hamburgers or shoes or CDs, but at the end of the day, I've been exceptionally lucky to be working at this place, to be a customer at this place, owning and managing this place. There was always something rewarding to take home at the end of the day."
He added, "The customer part is just the collateral of our relationship now. When you see somebody every Saturday or Sunday for 20 years, they're way beyond a customer."
In the lead-up to the final closure of Sikora's, the store is now having a closing sale, with CDs and LPs now 50 percent off. You can learn more here.
