Sanity (music store)
Sanity is an online Australian music and entertainment retailer. The brand specialises in the sale of CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays and related merchandise and accessories. It is privately owned by Ray Itaoui. Previously operating through a chain of retail stores in Australia, it has been run as an online-only business since March 2023.
Company type
Private company
1980 (company origins)
1992 (Sanity brand)
Wetherill Park, New South Wales, Australia
$186 million (2012)
$10 million (2015)
The Sanity brand was owned and conceived by Brazin Limited from 1992, before being folded into BB Retail Capital in 2006, then became a company in its own right after it was divested to Itaoui in 2009. At its peak, there were more than 150 Sanity outlets across every state and territory of Australia.
History[edit]
1980s[edit]
In 1980, 20-year-old Brett Blundy and a business partner he met from school bought two rundown record stores called Disco Stick. They immediately closed one, combined the stock into the Pakenham store (situated in a small shopping arcade) and reopened as Jetts, selling vinyl records and cassettes. The lease for this store was for a three-year period, but it was losing money from day one. Blundy and his partner found another unloved record store a year later, this time within a bigger shopping district at Parkmore Shopping Centre, Keysborough, supported by a larger surrounding population. Before they purchased it, the Parkmore store was turning over $2,000 a week, but six months later as a Jetts outlet, it had increased to $15,000, and was subsidising the failing Pakenham store which was closed once the lease had expired. The Parkmore outlet lasted until 2010 under the Jetts, Delta, and Sanity branding.[1][2][3]
In 1986, Blundy and his business partner went their separate ways with Blundy selling his 60% stake in the eight-store Jetts chain to his former partner for $600,000.[2][3][4]
Recent developments[edit]
Despite consumer behaviour transitioning to streaming and online services, the 2000s saw Sanity resist change and keep their bricks-and-mortar store business model intact without too many changes. With Sanity reduced to 21 per cent market share, against JB Hi-Fi's 50 per cent, the chief strategy seems to be targeted towards rationalisation and increased competition from the Melbourne-based retailer, by gradually closing down large footprint stores within capital city CBDs, inner suburbs and airports (where JB Hi-Fi have a greater hold over these markets, and rents are more expensive), the three exceptions being Sanity opening stores in direct competition to JB Hi-Fi in Robina Town Centre (April 2010), Mackay (May 2012) and Casuarina Square (August 2012) where they were already well established.[58][59] Yet, mostly Sanity have been replacing some of these stores by opening some new smaller outlets in regional areas such as Broome, Alice Springs (that store being their first Northern Territory outlet which opened in March 2011), and Emerald.[60]
SAIN Magazine SAIN Unlimited and Ultimate[edit]
Sain magazine was published monthly from July 1998 to September 2006 by Sain Media and Publishing and was designed by publishing agency Grin Creative. SAIN was a 100 pages A4 full glossy title. It reached its 99th issue before being discontinued. For much of its life, it featured a flip-printing style; one half of the magazine was dedicated to movies and DVD releases, the other side to music.
Due to the resounding success of SAIN Magazine, SAIN Media and Publishing and Grin Creative produced Sain UNlimited a 200 page glossy title made available in news stands nationally. Sain UNlimited was Australia's largest music publication during its time.
Ultimate was the final magazine of Sanity Entertainment, and was available free through Sanity/Virgin/HMV stores since December 2006 either monthly or bi-monthly. It was published by Nuclear Media and Publishing.[61] In April 2013, it reached its 49th issue when the run stopped without announcement.