Local music stores have sold out of Whitney Houston music and movies after the singer’s death last week.“We are scrambling to get more Whitney Houston items in stock,” said Helena Escolastica, sales manager of Music Box on Reid Street. “Our dealers in the US were all sold out, even when I called Canadian dealers as well.”The news of Ms Houston’s death was announced on Saturday night, by Monday morning, Music Box had people waiting at their front door 15 minutes before they opened. The store was busy throughout the day until they sold out of their stock of CDs and DVDs of Ms Houston’s movies and music videos.“I have a stack mile high for special orders,” said Ms Escolastica. “We’ll keep bringing in things as supply is needed.”She expects they will have replenished their Whitney stock by the end of next week.Soundstage, music store located in The Washington Mall, also sold out of Houston CDs first thing Monday morning.“We were completely sold out by 10am Monday,” said Baron Barton, sales associate with the store, which sells Ms Houston’s CDs of studio-produced music as well as live concert albums.Soundstage said they will also be getting in more Whitney music next week.Reports of a surge in Houston’s sales after her death have been recorded in the US, selling 101,000 albums this week, up nearly 6,000 percent from a week earlier, according to USA Today. Of those, 91,000 were downloads. The singer’s biggest hit, I Will Always Love You, sold 195,000 downloads in the week ending this past Sunday, up from 3,000 copies the week before, according to Nielsen SoundScan.Ms Escolastica said her store gets a rush of business when famous musicians die, including most recently, award-winning, R&B singer Etta James, who died in mid January. Their biggest post-mortem rush, she said, was after Michael Jackson’s death in June of 2009.She added that stars like Ms Houston will always sell well as the musician’s songs were timeless.“Whitney’s music, especially her earlier songs are classic and have always sold well,” she said. “She had that crystal clear voice; it’s the kind of music that stands the test of time.”