NYCs only Italian record store closing after family feud follows matriarchs death: This is my identity

This is no amicable arrivederci.The city’s only Italian-language record store faced a changing neighborhood, streaming services and a pandemic — but it was the death of a matriarch and family feud that brought about the final curtain.SAS Italian Records in Bensonhurst will close after nearly 60 years in business once it sells off its inventory of Italian-language CDs and records, owner-operator Silvana Conte tearfully confirmed to The Post.“This is breaking my heart, I’m having a breakdown: this is my identity,” said Conte, whose parents opened the store in 1967 after emigrating from Ponza, Italy.“The store was everything to my family … [but] inheritances being what they are, it’s not up to me anymore.”Conte, 69, “held on” to the store after years of declining sales and pandemic-related struggles in order to preserve her mother Rita’s legacy – but was forced to make the decision to close up shop following the death of her mother on May 12 , she said.“We haven’t been making money in a long time.

I was just keeping it open for my mom,” Conte explained. “My brother and my sister, they don’t want this,” she added.“My brother thinks my sister’s right – he thinks it’s a waste of time, why would you want to keep this open? [But] he doesn’t live here, he lives far away.”The wood-paneled time capsule of Italian movies, magazines, accessories, rosaries and other ephemera is a treasure trove of Conte family history, the owner said.“I had my first kiss right there,” Conte recalled, pointing across the counter.

“My grandmother died right over there.“This store is everything, it’s history … My whole family is represented here.” SAS — named for the original owners’ children Silvana, Adrianne and Silverio — once peddled thousands of Italian music CDs and “all the Italian DVDs,” Conte said.At its peak, the store would purchase about 50 weekly Italian puzzle magazines – “La Settimana Enigmistica” –...