Sam Goody was the spot to grab music before streaming killed the CD era. Founded in 1951 by Samuel “Sam” Gutowitz, it started as a record store in New York City and grew into a mall staple across the U.S. By the late ‘80s and ‘90s, it wasn’t just music—you could walk out with cassette tapes, CDs, VHS movies, posters, and even early video games. At its peak, there were hundreds of locations, and for a lot of people, that wall of plastic-wrapped albums was where you discovered your next favorite band. But when iTunes and big-box retailers took over in the early 2000s, Sam Goody couldn’t keep up. The chain’s parent company went bankrupt in 2006, most stores rebranded or closed, and that was the end of the “hang out and browse music for hours” era.