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Mar. 2nd, 2009
[Music] Another Giant Falls...
Mar. 2nd, 2009 08:26 amSo it looks like the Virgin Megastore here is closing next month. This is the one on the corner of Stockton and Market--literally at the other end of my street. I've been in there a number of times, though I've rarely bought anything, mainly because I knew I could find it cheaper elsewhere.
Can't say I'm surprised, since Virgin seems to have gone almost exactly the same way as HMV did a few years back. That is, being a great record store with a really good selection...but not the smartest business practices. Granted, HMV entered the US a bit too early to be affected by the online business and the P2P filesharing fiascos, but at the same time their issues were not picking the smartest areas to open stores in, and basically not going very much out of their way creatively to make a profit. Virgin, on the other hand, seems to have saturated itself too much with all sorts of things. Keep in mind, this is Branson's baby, and he's known for doing the "hey, let's see if this works!" and abandoning it or closing it down if it doesn't. It wouldn't surprise me if he saw this ship sinking and made the move to jump.
At the same time, let's be honest--a lot of music chains are slowly going the way of the buffalo. HMV, Sam Goody's, Tower, Media Play, etc...as great or as mediocre as they might have been, it's hard to find an actual record store anymore outside of a privately-owned one. You can still find used record stores everywhere. I doubt Amoeba here is going anywhere, and Streetlight is doing good, last I heard. But again, these are small, privately owned stores that only have less than five storefronts total. I'm pretty sure they were wiped out by the online retailers such as Best Buy, Amazon, and more to the point, iTunes, Napster, and the other mp3 retailers.
But more often than not? It's simply price and selection. Why buy the physical CD for sixteen to twenty dollars, when you can download it for $9.99? Do the packaging and the jewel box really cost that much to produce? And how many times have you gone to that store, looking for the new [enter band name here] title and not found it, and not want to have to deal with special ordering? You can order it online and your chances of getting it are infinitely higher. And that's something that music retailers haven't quite grasped yet. And if they have, it's often too late.
---
So yeah, another store closes. I think for this city it's more the fact that another big anchor store in (or in this case, near) the famous Union Square is closing. There was a great bookstore up the street, Cody's, that closed awhile back. Macy's is apparently walking that fine line as well. Here in the city, it's more of a worry that the neighborhood is losing many of its major retailers, more than anything else. Still, it'll be sad to see them go. They might have been a bit expensive, but they had an excellent selection and, had this been a better economy, they might have stayed on longer.
Can't say I'm surprised, since Virgin seems to have gone almost exactly the same way as HMV did a few years back. That is, being a great record store with a really good selection...but not the smartest business practices. Granted, HMV entered the US a bit too early to be affected by the online business and the P2P filesharing fiascos, but at the same time their issues were not picking the smartest areas to open stores in, and basically not going very much out of their way creatively to make a profit. Virgin, on the other hand, seems to have saturated itself too much with all sorts of things. Keep in mind, this is Branson's baby, and he's known for doing the "hey, let's see if this works!" and abandoning it or closing it down if it doesn't. It wouldn't surprise me if he saw this ship sinking and made the move to jump.
At the same time, let's be honest--a lot of music chains are slowly going the way of the buffalo. HMV, Sam Goody's, Tower, Media Play, etc...as great or as mediocre as they might have been, it's hard to find an actual record store anymore outside of a privately-owned one. You can still find used record stores everywhere. I doubt Amoeba here is going anywhere, and Streetlight is doing good, last I heard. But again, these are small, privately owned stores that only have less than five storefronts total. I'm pretty sure they were wiped out by the online retailers such as Best Buy, Amazon, and more to the point, iTunes, Napster, and the other mp3 retailers.
But more often than not? It's simply price and selection. Why buy the physical CD for sixteen to twenty dollars, when you can download it for $9.99? Do the packaging and the jewel box really cost that much to produce? And how many times have you gone to that store, looking for the new [enter band name here] title and not found it, and not want to have to deal with special ordering? You can order it online and your chances of getting it are infinitely higher. And that's something that music retailers haven't quite grasped yet. And if they have, it's often too late.
---
So yeah, another store closes. I think for this city it's more the fact that another big anchor store in (or in this case, near) the famous Union Square is closing. There was a great bookstore up the street, Cody's, that closed awhile back. Macy's is apparently walking that fine line as well. Here in the city, it's more of a worry that the neighborhood is losing many of its major retailers, more than anything else. Still, it'll be sad to see them go. They might have been a bit expensive, but they had an excellent selection and, had this been a better economy, they might have stayed on longer.
