How much time does Virgin Megastore have?
batmon
27,574 Posts
Just sayin. 5 years, 7, 10?Theyre hangin in there, and i hatt to see them go.How are the ones doing in other cities? 
Comments
The hell of it is, when Tower closed towards the end of last year, they had cats out there in the street wearing sandwich boards, advertising how long the store had and how far the prices had been reduced. But with Virgin, they just made the going-out-of-biz announcement and that was that. They didn't milk it like Tower did.
Last time I was there, the prices had been cut, but not by much. I got some DVD's of the TV show That's My Mama, but I would have bought those anyway, sale or no sale.
Maybe two or three weeks later, there was an empty building where the Virgin in downtown Chicago once was.
Was the Chicago VM located in the heart of downtown?
I think the Chicago thing was an anomaly, if I recall the story he told correctly.
I'm torn supporting that store.
They may have 5-10 years, but as people used to paying die off, and spawn more kids who have never paid a cent for music, I dont see them going past 10 years unless they really change their model and offer a differnt service or product in addition to Cds...
I shop here all the time. Love this store... and I have always loved Union Square and the energy around it, and it fits perfectly with the area.
No doubt.
Whats the largest record/dvd/music store in Philly?
Im might have to hit Philly up for a sneaker run this monf.
you dont think kids are paying for anything they download?
mabye you are right, but who knows. i thought the stats were down a bit with itunes being so big.
Truth, there's a ton of money in DVD sales due to the price at which they were introduced to the market, and all the special edition / box set stuff.
It's always sad when any kind of music/CD/record store closes, but I can't say I'd personally miss them if they go under. But that's said as someone who has Amoeba within walking distance pretty much, so I'm sure it'd be a bigger deal in other areas.
Honestly dude I have no idea. The Tower and HMV - the 2 biggest shops in the downtown area - both closed within months of each other. I was in Philly afew months ago and was looking for a place to buy CDs and found NATHAN.
But if you do go to Philly on the sneakers drop me a line befor you do and I'll put you D with some spots/heads I know.
... and replaced by Best Buy. Now,I have a Best Buy card, my
TV, DVD player and computer are from there, so I would be a
hypocrite to hatt ... but they are quickly becoming the Wal Mart
of the new century, popping up on every corner, becoming the
ONLY place to go to buy certain things, and their selection
is far from "eclectic" when it comes to CD's/DVD's, etc.
Thank God for Newbury Comics!!
man I remember when cd warehouse, blockbuster music, tower closed & now FYE is on the way out. Go to any mall & most no longer have a record cd/dvd store.
I think some kids may have an itunes account tied to their parents card or something, but its play money to them. I get a sense that for the vast amount of kids under 16, even 18-20, the idea of really paying for music, unfortunately, is foreign. I recently started buying cds again, but even a lot of music heads I know who are 25+ never buy cds anymore.
No grumpy old man threadjack, but I will say I agree, for Virgin to survive, it will be off of other high margin stuff besides music, like all the crap you're forced to stare at while waiting on line. Of course, this means enjoy the amount of real estate cds got now in the store, because its got no where to go but down, as Virgin morphs into some sort of Borders/Best Buy/Hot Topic amalgamation....
Now, I don't know what that says - people these days don't care about anything that happened earlier than a year ago? they don't wanna take chances on a bunch of leftover unsold titles so they go with the newest, hottest record? - but I don't think it would have been that way if CD stores were still doing good business.
Speaking of Newbury Comics (New England heads know the deal),
they are the only chain store around me that sells vinyl ...
no used vinyl at all, only new - but I went in there yesterday
while killing some time, and got a Bear Family Rockabilly comp
LP for $6, a copy of the Keith Hudson "Studio Kinda Cloudy" LP
on Trojan for $6, and one of the "Fuzz, Flaykes and Shaykes"
psych comps for $7 ... all brand new. Bargain new vinyl at
a chain store just kind of blew my mind - is this what Amoeba
is like?
Hahahaha NO. Amoeba is like being on the internet but you don't have to pay shipping for anything. Amoeba would probably sell those comps used for $10 and sell them easily.
That sucks. To be clear - Newbury Comics sells most of the vinyl
at full price, and those comps would normally be more like $11-$16,
but if I just go through everything I usually turn up weirdly cheap
stuff. I know they have a couple of huge warehouses, and are over 20
years old, so maybe they just clear out warehouse stock slowly ...
I cant imagine w/ the eagles they have to spend on that rent for that space can be made from Hillary Duff CDs.Whatever.
Exactly, what was once the "impulse item" has now become their bread and butter. Many articles I've read all mention the same thing: CD sales are dropping, they have to sell DVD's and video games to stay alive. Not surprisingly, vinyl sales are going up, although it's hard to say if it's due to nostalgia, people realizing that sometimes a quality vinyl pressing is better than its CD counterpart (Amy Winehouse, anyone?), or the novelty for the younger generation of being able to "see" their music on a black platter.
This is what I'm certain of. CD sales will continue amongst music junkies who care, but those same junkies will also know where else to go to find that music, be it on vinyl or in a digital format. If they like the music enough, they'll show support by going to the show and maybe buying a T-shirt or a CD there. What also amazes me is that according to one recent article, CD sales in England and Australia are actually doing very well, with no sign of a decline (for now). The moment sales statistics from the 2006 holiday season came in, and it talked about a drastic drop in sales, it seems someone lit the fuse and everyone is jumping off the boat before its eventual explosion. YET... I also heard that with some online CD merchants, they sell more "off the chart" music than mainstream material, so obviously there are people who still seek, find, and buy the music if they can find it.
I can see this - I think it does show that the downloading effect
is mostly on mainstream artists popular with younger kids, who are
growing up just expecting any new release to be available for free.
Using the closest example at hand, my Dad is a music junkie, has
never downloaded a song in his life, but orders jazz CD's from all
kinds of websites and ads in the back of Jazz Times, etc. There is
still a massive buying public for CD's, especially music of the past,
in all genres. The Internet, for all the blame it takes regarding the
downloading phenomenon, has also helped the specialty music industry
EXPLODE, with consumers in Ohio buying prog CD's from Oslo, and vice
versa. I guess the real concern is will the kids that have never bought
a CD in their life grow up expecting all music to be digital?
the crux
uh aint cds digital?
but i hear you. You cant find a lot of hot/rare/specialty shit on the net without paying for it. And you wont find it in best buy. Its hard to illegaly get these titles.
So what basically happened to the music industry is took away the ridiculous profits, over inflation of poor product, corporations dominating everything, and made music a working class job to have. There are more indie labels starting up now then any other time in history. You wont have the diamonds and the yacht, but at least you can get a house, car, and health plan if you work hard at it. Which i think helps music, cause it makes the real talent come in, instead of all these fly by night assholes that are hot one minute, broke the next. Also brings the DIY aspect to it which is how these huge labels started in the first place. Look at Atlantic, etc...
But people will still buy no matter how easy it is to illegally download. Your real fans will support you. So you wont get the mass appeal, but you will hit a certain niche market and make a living doing it.
Yeah - actually more like the Gold Coast, the big rich folks shopping district.
evidently not - you see the shit is GONE, dont ya?
THE PAYBACK
How long? 6 months?
Seriously - I remember the whole "FULL RETAIL PRICE"
controversy ... for years, you could get new releases
for cheap, typically $5-$7 less than your typical title
from a back-catalog ... only in the panic era of Napster
did they come out with the "all new CD's are now $18"
brilliant idea, which completely backfired, and soon they
were back selling new releases cheaper than ever ...