Virgin Megastores being sold off

[fozzyo]

Story here.

In short senior management team are buying them, rebranding as Zavvi.

As a former Mega Stores employee I was never impressed with them, when they opened they had a great look, atmosphere and reflected a lot that was good about the Virgin brand. Then they just got stuck - not quite sure what to do and quickly went downhill.

I worked at the Chester store which is now a real shell of its former glory, the stock levels have also significantly dropped. HMV in Chester still popular and a much nicer shop - maybe the continued refits has something to do with that that Virgin never did.

The Megastore on Oxford street also suffers from the same problem I think.

Interestingly zavvi.co.uk was only registered on the 5th of this month so if using that domain the name is relatively new.

[Pete]

Branson is a clever guy, and clearly getting out before digital downloads all but kill of CD sales.

Can't remember the last time I bought a real CD, and it looks like movies are going the same way too.

There goes our 10% discount!

HMV.com were usually cheaper anyway, and then you get another 10% off at quidco. [}:)]

[Neil]

I'm with Pete, can't remember the last time I bought a CD or DVD in a shop, I'm amazed people still do to be honest, with the way things are going music stores are really going to struggle in the future.

Originally posted by Attitude23
I'm with Pete, can't remember the last time I bought a CD or DVD in a shop, I'm amazed people still do to be honest, with the way things are going music stores are really going to struggle in the future.

Why? Because CDs are often cheaper online than they are by download. E.g James Blunts new CD is £8.99 for download, and the same price at hmv.com, or £8.10 via Quidco.

I don't understand why people pay over the odds in Virgin or HMV stores though? Nice to browse in, then buy at home.

(other record stores are available, for the purposes of balance)

[Pete]

Originally posted by locutus

Why? Because CDs are often cheaper online than they are by download. E.g James Blunts new CD is £8.99 for download, and the same price at hmv.com, or £8.10 via Quidco.

I don't understand why people pay over the odds in Virgin or HMV stores though? Nice to browse in, then buy at home.

(other record stores are available, for the purposes of balance)

I don't often buy the whole album, either. There's normally 2, maybe 3 tracks that I really like, and I'll buy those.

I prefer Virgin Megastores over HMV simply because I've got a Virgin Student Card there which gives me 10% discount on all products, but unfortunately I've found that lately there is very little difference in price between the two chains shops.

Virgin opened a Megastore in The Trafford Centre Manchester a year or two back and the HMV upstairs is bigger (and a wider range), whilst the Megastore in the Arndale Centre (opened last year with much fanfare and a visit from SRB himself) is bigger, but doesn't seem as big as some of the HMV's I've been in...HMV Liverpool is big.

So another brand leaves the Virgin empire...what next?

Though I acknowledge the benefits in terms of availability, portability and consistency of quality over time the move towards music in digital form makes me a touch sad.

It's probably an age and stage thing, but music no longer seems to have the quality of being something special that it once had, a means of identification and a route to belonging. It was bad enough trading the luxury of the 12 inch album sleeve with notes you could read for the portability and quality afforded by the CD; now with the benefit of portability with the move into the ether is paid for by music becoming just another commodity.

That said, perhaps it always was a commodity and I just fell for the marketing. Also, the relatively low cost entry point allows new artists exposure and where an artist may have made no money because you only liked a couple of tracks and wouldn't buy the CD, they may now benefit from you paying for those couple of tracks alone.

I notice that Neil Young, Prince and Bruce Hornsby have all been party to schemes giving away their CDs with tickets for US tours.

Paul