This story sounds similiar to what happened to "Sam the Record Man" in Canada. At one time, Sam's was the country's foremost retailer of music, but they drastically went downhill with the creation of new stores such as HMV, Music World & Sunrise.
Eventually, Sam's closed all their Canadian stores save the mega store in downtown Toronto. It still exists there, and has one of the best selections of jazz that I've ever seen, but the story was still sad as the chain was family owned for over 40 years.