Sam Goody, Suncoast are leaving Hawaii for good

A struggling national music and movie retailer will exit Hawaii in February with the closure of a Sam Goody store at Ala Moana Center and a Suncoast Motion Picture store at Windward Mall.

The two stores are owned by New York-based Trans World Entertainment Corp., which has been closing unprofitable or underperforming stores nationwide as part of a turnaround effort.

Trans World had previously closed other stores in Hawaii, including a Sam Goody at Windward Mall in 2008 and a Suncoast store at Pearlridge Center earlier this year.

A Trans World executive could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but the two stores are promoting sales in anticipation of closing by the end of February.

The planned closures, confirmed by store personnel, are the latest amid the bruising competition between specialty retailers, big-box stores and online sellers — a battle that helped bankrupt the Tower Records chain and the former owner of Sam Goody and Suncoast, Musicland Holding Corp., five years ago.

Trans World has been trying to reverse financial losses since buying roughly 400 stores from Musicland in 2006. Since that acquisition, Trans World cut its nationwide store count from about 1,100 to about 440 and has managed to reduce annual net losses to about $30 million from about $100 million.

For the first roughly nine months of Trans World’s fiscal year ended Oct. 29, the company reported a net loss of $14.3 million and closed 24 stores.

Trans World, which also operates other retail stores outside Hawaii that include F.Y.E. (For Your Entertainment), Second Spin, Saturday Matinee and Wherehouse, continues to streamline operations with a focus on a core base of well-performing stores.

"The company’s real estate strategy is to reposition our store portfolio by reducing our store base to a core group of profitable locations, while evaluating opportunities for new locations," the company stated in its annual report in April. "The company closes stores when minimum operating thresholds are not achieved or upon lease expiration when either renewal is not available or management determines that renewal is not in the company’s best interest. We will continue to close stores that do not meet our profitability goals."