In its four year history End Hits hosted a lot of shows like this one in the basement. Photo courtesy of Paul Galipeau on Flickr.
End Hits, a record store located at 407 Dalhousie St., will be closing its doors on March 13, 2010 after four years of providing Ottawans with a great selection of punk, indie, metal and alternative records. The store topped the Xpress’ best of list in the “best record store” category every year of its existence.
Last week, Shawn Scallen, one of End Hits’ co-owners, left the following message on Punk Ottawa that summed up his reasons for closing up shop:
End Hits opened its doors March 11, 2006 after the demise of local mainstay Record Runner. In the past four years it has been a hub of local and underground music for the city of Ottawa. The store hit the ground running and was instantly the place to go for artists to sell their music, be it albums or tickets for concerts, and we are proud to have been voted Best Independent Record/CD Store all four years we have been open in the annual Ottawa Xpress readers poll.
As technology advances further and faster than ever, younger generations of music listeners are no longer growing up with the association of a tangible object as an important part of that experience. In Ottawa alone, End Hits will be the seventh record store to close in the last four years. The digital age is having an undeniable impact on the music industry and we weren’t able to avoid the inevitable.
So on March 13th 2010, to mark our 4th anniversary, we will shut our doors. Thanks to everyone for the support over the years, especially the punkottawa.com community!
…and yes, there will be sales.
Dave and Shawn
In addition to its great collection of records, the store, which took its name from a Fugazi album, hosted a lot of all ages shows in its basement over the past four years. It seems there isn’t much of a market for brick and mortar record stores in this day and age. End Hits isn’t the first record store to close in Ottawa in recent years and, unfortunately, it almost certainly won’t be the last. We’ll keep you all up to date about any upcoming sales when more information becomes available.
