t-time

I’m gonna miss these stores:

The planned U.S. closure of the Virgin Megastore chain by mid-June will mark the end of the British music retail invasion.
HMV was the first to land in November 1990, with an East Coast incursion, followed soon by Virgin’s entry on the West Coast and W.H. Smith’s focus on the country’s heartland malls.

The three chains came in thinking they could teach the Americans a thing or two about merchandising music. But their high-handed attitude wasn’t directed at their competitors, like Tower Records, Camelot Music, Record World and other long-dead music chains. Rather, it was targeted at the record labels.

“They were arrogant,” a label sales executive told Billboard about the British chains before Virgin confirmed its U.S. closings. “They thought they knew everything. They thought they were going to take the U.S. by storm. But I grew to love them. They were all good music guys and their stores were great.”

The British merchants were especially known for championing certain kinds of artists and genres. But their fatal flaw was a failure to understand the U.S. real estate market. HMV and Virgin had a history of overpaying for locations, which meant both chains usually had more unprofitable stores than profitable ones.

At its peak, the Virgin Megastore chain had 23 stores and revenue of $280 million annually, but at least 12 of those stores weren’t profitable. After a four-year store-closing spree, the chain was down to six stores by January, all of them profitable, and combined they were doing a very respectable $180 million in annual sales. The chain’s New York Times Square location generated $55 million, with $6 million in profit, while its Union Square store downtown had $40 million in sales and a few million dollars in profit, according to sources.

I remember I went to the Time Square location not too soon after it opened. I was in music heaven. You could find any artist you could think of, the listening stations were fabulous and  then you could get books and posters and any number of other things. It was great.

The prices were always a little higher, but the shopping experience was one of the best you could ask for when it came to shopping for music. The thing is this was pre-napster days and when folks still bought CD’s. I can’t remember the last time I bought a CD and I’m sure I’m not alone that. Outside of Best Buy and Wal-mart and Target, the music store as we know is dead, in much the same way as print newspapers are going out as a method of disseminating news.

R.I. P Virgin Megastore. I will miss you.