If a traveling musician ever asked for help in Thunder Bay, the locals always had the same reply -- “Go see Tony.”
The musicians in need would be directed to Colosimo’s Music Store and Studio on Algoma Street. There they could find the strings, amp and sometimes even the backing musician they needed for the show to go on.
Above the main floor shop local musicians taught young aspiring rock gods the basics while in the basement bands jammed in hopes of one day making it big.
Tony Colosimo took the store over 15 years ago after his father passed away.
His grandfather first opened up in 1945. An iconic fixture in the local music scene, most thought the store would be around forever.
But just as video killed the radio star, online shopping has claimed another brick-and-mortar victim as Colosimo’s will close its doors forever at the end of the month.
“Margins are getting smaller so covering fixed costs is getting harder and harder to do,” Colosimo said Friday afternoon over the sound of bargain hunters trying out what’s left of his inventory.
“Looking down into the future for the next five years you can see the kids coming up are buying on the internet and really the local mom and pop stores are becoming a thing of the past so we decided before things get too bad maybe we should close our doors and move onto other things.”
The shop, which reduces its prices by 10 per cent every week, will stay open until the end of August when a new owner will convert it into three commercial spaces. They’re having a party on Aug. 20 for local musicians to come and play there one last time.
“It’s a neat thing for people to come and sit around with other musicians and friends,” Colosimo said of the atmosphere his family’s store created over the years.
“Yeah I’m sad to see it go but in these times that’s what we had to do.”
School bands have also started to become a thing of the past, which used to bring in a lot of rental revenue for the shop. Colosimo said it was the right time to close.
“I’m not getting any younger and I’ve got some other direction that I kind of wanted to go,” he said.
Colosimo said there are still other local shops left though like Music World on Simpson Street and The Music Place on Park Street that will hopefully fill the void.
