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Since Black Friday made its way north a few years ago, Boxing Day sales have been losing some of their lustre, though they continue. But there was a time when shoppers went nuts the day after Christmas, stocking up on everything from deeply discounted holiday wrapping paper to cut-price stereos.

For years, one of the most popular Boxing Day destinations was the Sam the Record Man store on Ste-Catherine St. W., near Bleury St.

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So it was no surprise that on Dec. 26, 1983, Gazette photographer Pierre Obendrauf found music fans lined up outside the store, anticipating bargains on records and cassette tapes.

Anybody who wanted to be sure to get in had to arrive very early, we reported the next day. We interviewed Mary Dover, 14, who, along with her friend Shari David, 15, had lined up “at 9 a.m. in gusting winds and minus-9 degrees Celsius, a full four hours before the store opened,” we wrote. She told us that the previous year, they had arrived around the time the store opened and never did get in.

“My mother thinks I’m crazy, but bargains like this only happen once a year and I don’t want to be left out in the cold again,” she said.

In 1996, a Sam’s employee who said he was a veteran of 18 Boxing Day sales told us the day was getting noticeably quieter.

The store faced competition not only from firms like HMV but also from big retailers like Costco and Walmart, we noted some years later. And then, of course, there was the advent of the internet, which allowed people to download music.

Sam’s Montreal store closed its doors in January 2002.