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Wrap Exclusive: Virgin Megastores to Close in U.S., CEO Simon Wright Confirms
The six remaining retail stores will shutter by this summer, signaling the end to a once-dominant consumer retail behemoth.
San Francisco Virgin Megastore will close in April.
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Virgin Megastores’ six remaining retail stores will close by this summer, individuals inside the company told TheWrap on Monday, signaling the end to a once-dominant consumer retail behemoth.
Virgin Entertainment Group CEO Simon Wright confirmed the news to TheWrap by the afternoon. "It's sad news, but it has nothing to do with the stores. In this economy, we can't justify the other stores to replace the Times Square store."
The Times Square store made the bulk of Virgin's profit, and VEG decided to close that flagship in April, they recently announced.
Brick-and-mortar music retailers across the country have been fighting a losing battle with Internet sales. Tower Records declared bankruptcy last year. Apple iTunes surpassed Wal-Mart as the biggest music retailer in the United States in April.
But for three decades the Virgin Megastores founded by Richard Branson were a particularly splashy symbol of pop culture.
Branson opened his first record shop on London's Oxford Street in the early 1970s, and the first megastore at the end of Oxford Street in 1979. Branson now owns around 200 companies in over 30 countries. He could not be reached for comment.
Wright announced the mass closures to employees at Virgin’s corporate offices in Los Angeles late Friday. Roughly 100 corporate employees will be laid off and hundreds of Megastore retail workers will be out of a job by the summer.
The megastores in New York’s Union Square and San Francisco will also close in April. No date has been set to close the remaining stores in Hollywood, Denver and Orlando. Virgin Entertainment Group North America will most likely be liquidated by the summer.
Virgin Megastores’ music sales had been in decline for several years. In August 2007 two real estate companies – the Related Cos. and Vornado Realty Trust -- bought the company from Richard Branson. The chain, once a looming presence on the American pop culture scene, boasted 11 stores when it was acquired but now operates only six.
The company is privately held and does not release revenue figures.
Wright said VEG’s new owners were more interested in real estate rather than the retail business. “Their attraction was about real estate. In an ideal world it would have been possible to both have that real estate and develop the business along a different strand. But the economy has cut off that option,” he said.
The rent for Virgin’s Times Square store was $54/sq foot, while market prices put prime space in that area at closer to $700/sq foot. The 60,000 sq/foot space will be converted into a Forever 21 store.
VEG had been combating slow music sales by adding more “lifestyle” products such as apparel and books. Wright said apparel sales were up 20% over the holiday season, but music sales were “disastrous,” and DVDs and games were not far behind.
Jerry Suarez, former music merchandise manager for VEG and now regional sales director for Island Def Jam Music Group, said the closure of the Megastores is a huge loss for consumers and the music industry.
“Virgin Times Square had become an icon. All of the big high-profile events would launch at Virgin.
Comments
James Says
The hubris of Richard Branson's publicity machine is charming, it seems many of those charmed are reporters who are happy to lift all their background material from whatever his PR people provide.free games
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Izabella Says
Widely known to whom? Virgin Execs? Mr. Branson?
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Danny Quinones Says
I Can't Believe That Virgin Mega Store Has Completely Shut Down For Good. It's A Real Disaster For Us All. And Truely A Shame. Why Did It All Have To Come
Down To This? Virgin Mega Store Didn't Have To Close. But Since It Did, All I
Can Say Is "Good Bye Virgin Mega Store". We Will All Miss You Like We All Miss
Michael Jackson.
prookler Says
Virgin Megastore was a victim of it's on size. If the stores were smaller, I suspect that this would never have happened.
Anonymous Says
100 corporate jobs and 3 more large retail stores closing, exactly what LA needs. I really liked the Hollywood location, but I won't lie I never purchased anything there. The Orange and Ontario stores weren't anything special but have left big holes in those shopping centers. Less competition for Amoeba in LA and SF. Maybe this will be a chance for Amoeba to grow.
Anonymous Says
ss
Anonymous Says
Virgin USA was no behemoth.
If you wanted to launch a record that had a budget due to UK chart success Virgin was the go to place to unload that marketing budget and perhaps spend a week in the high 70's of the US top 100 albums.
Pull out circulars like those of Target, Circuit City, Wal Mart or Best Buy in print media was never an option for Virgin, they just didn't have a big enough US presence. The 100 plus store retailers could strong arm major labels like Island Def Jam to drop list prices to $10 in exchange for initial orders that would enable records to ship gold.
So is Jerry saying Virgin was a great place to rack product on attractive fixtures that would photograph well and generate some release week buzz outside of trad music biz media outlets? That buzz had a value greater than all the line item costs of staging a product launch at Virgin, and it probably was a great recruiting tool for a legion on non unionized employees.
The hubris of Richard Branson's publicity machine is charming, it seems many of those charmed are reporters who are happy to lift all their background material from whatever his PR people provide.
Remember virginmega.com? Branson and Virgin completely failed to transcend the brand to the online arena.
What I'd like to know more about is whether there was a direct correlation between the retailer's focus on California, and then the subsequent launching of the domestic airline and the basing of it's hub in the same state, and what the real politics of these dealings were and of course the potential corresponding sex drugs and rock n roll.
John in NYC Says
It's just plain sad that Manhattan, all of NYC in fact, will no longer have a large music retailer. The indie shops are fantastic but none of them can stock as much as Virgin and Tower did. Someone somewhere must be able to make money with this. Look at Amoeba in L.A. There's a huge market for a well run music shop especially with kids buying vinyl again.
Joe Mother Says
I'm not surprised, especially after I got an e-mail from Virgin this week saying their VIP Club was ending this month. Apparel was the only thing I've bought at a Virgin Megastore in the last 5 years, and it's been a year or two since I even bought that there. Everything was so overpriced.
Anonymous Says
Who knew, you ask? Well, the NA closings were hinted at when Branson sold the stores in Brit and Ireland to a management group last year. Billboard had it Jan. 14 that the NA stores were in danger, and SF Weekly mentioned it on Feb. 26 as part of a story on a store closing there. As the company closed its stores in other states last year and earlier this year, and announced the closing of the Times Square store, it became obvious that the NA group of stores was closing. Oh yea, and when they hired a consultant to find a buyer for the chain last September and there were no suitors, the handwriting was on the wall for those who could read it.
BS Detector Says
More unsourced bullshit.
They were a 'behemoth?'
What % of the market did they command?
Bigger than K-Mart?
Success in the business is not measured by high profile, nor square footage.
Shitty reporting.
Anonymous Says
I work at Virgin...this is really tough of us..most of us have been here 5+ years. It was a great company.
Mike Says
Yes! We need her nasty snark on this!
David Says
This decision has been driven by the real estate of the business against uniquely bad economic background. To my knowledge -far from struggling the business has remained profitable until the closure of Times Square - a testament to the hundreds of employees in the company.
Anonymous Says
Widely known to whom? Virgin Execs? Mr. Branson?
Anonymous Says
Not an exclusive. Not a surprise. It's been widely known the chain was closing it's stores.
Matt Says
Someone should alert Ms. Finke!
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