January 14, 200916 yr Very sad to hear this, i've spent many hours browsing in Zavvi/Virgin over the years, as well as HMV. Fortunately my local one in Birmingham remains open for now. I feel sorry for the staff in these places that get shut down.
January 14, 200916 yr Och, they were AWFUL mate.... They just turned that once great store which was a real pleasure to shop in (when it was Tower) into an utter sh!tehole..... A dreadful place, and a really cr@ppy experience.... I would spend ages in Tower just browsing, when it became Zavvi, I avoided it like the plague and stuck to my shop in Camden..... We had a Tower in Birmingham, only lasted 5 years if i remember (1995-2000), they were good, but some of their cds could be expensive too.
January 14, 200916 yr I now work for the dog :o My thoughts go out to the 60 remaining Zavvi stores! Keep fighting!
January 14, 200916 yr Goodness... really? That is such a great store... Even more distressing IMHO is the Virgin Megastore in Times Square New York is closing :cry: Edited January 14, 200916 yr by T. x
January 14, 200916 yr Och, they were AWFUL mate.... They just turned that once great store which was a real pleasure to shop in (when it was Tower) into an utter sh!tehole..... A dreadful place, and a really cr@ppy experience.... I would spend ages in Tower just browsing, when it became Zavvi, I avoided it like the plague and stuck to my shop in Camden..... yeah I loved Tower, I used to use it a lot when I had a Laser Disc player (although preferred Cinema Store basement which had a nice hidden section of NSTC ones ;) ) but Tower Records was a great place :) shame it closed down, agree about Zavvi and Virgin being $h!t replacement for Tower Records I agree on the whole about specialist places, 2 of my great loves are German hard rock bands from the 70's and 80's and Australian blues rock bands of similar era but sadly not even any specialist places sold them in the UK I was aware of so had to buy directly from overseas at greatly inflated prices
January 14, 200916 yr Gutted that Picadilly is going :cry: I use that store the most! :cry: I am suprised the store in Bromley is not going I went in there when I was up that way the other week and it was almost empty with hardly any CDs at all!
January 14, 200916 yr its shocking how quick everything is fallin!! a few more zavvi stores close...how long till the rest actually close???? i hardly buy cds off the internet...it takes a few day for them to arrive, whereas i can walk in to zavvi or hmv and buy them there and then on the spot, take them home to listen to without the waitin for the post!! but with the future of technology, all things will be downloads and cds will no longer exsist :(
January 15, 200916 yr Good to see Dundee is still battling on. Zavvi is barely 50m away from HMV in Dundee city centre. I would imagine the Wellgate centre would have cut them a deal on rent to try and keep them as long as possible. The last thing the Wellgate needs is more empty space
January 15, 200916 yr I'm very shocked that Piccadilly is shutting down. I went in there last year and it was like Santas Grotto. I spent about 2 hours in there :P I'm expecting the Middlesbrough store to be one of the next to go. It's a dead loss in there at the moment. Very sad :(
January 15, 200916 yr HMV are buying 14 Zavvi stores: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7829339.stm
January 15, 200916 yr Quite risky even for HMV. I don't think it's much of a good move or will pay off in any way, their not going to make much more of a profit than what they already do. i think they have their financial consultants and they know what they're getting in return... i'm sure there's no loss whatsoever. Edited January 15, 200916 yr by Big Mistake
January 15, 200916 yr They overpriced for long enough. It always catches up with the stores that rip off the customers
January 15, 200916 yr That's sad as I used to work there on a Saturday when it was Virgin Megastore... it was a sh*t job that I put up with for less than 2 months, but I've shopped there for many years. It's also about 200 yards from the big Woolworths store in Glasgow so that's 2 large units now empty. The unit isn't that large though, it used to be a really big Virgin Megastore but they sold most of their basement to HMV next door which is now pretty huge as their basment was already a fair size! Probably as they opened a Flagship store in Buchanan street which is over like 3/5 floors with coffee shop inside and big central escalators and they seem to be leaving that open. Was certainly handy having Zavvi next to HMV but sadly HMV beat it on range and price anyway. The other Glasgow stores which are changing to HMV at The Fort and Silverburn are places where there is no HMV already and only the fort has a poky WHS with literally 1 rack of chart CDs so they'll make a killing and it'll probably just be a slight improvement from a consumer PoV, as HMV has been better recently and they are nice big units. Hope they're keeping the staff though last thing needed is more redundancies...
January 15, 200916 yr awww why didn't they by Middlesbroughs store? :lol: :( the clue is in the Cleveland Centre (I shall not call it The Mall :lol:) Hopefully Boro will find another buyer! Weird for us at Teesside Park though, because we get on with Boro well :(
January 15, 200916 yr To be honest the Boro HMV is seriously sucky compared to the Zavvi. How much is the Lady Gaga album there at the moment by the way (if you have any copies?)
January 17, 200916 yr Apparently American electronics retailer (like Currys but way bigger) Best Buy is looking to open a flasgship store in Picadilly Circus... I think they found their location... ^_^
January 29, 200916 yr More Zavvi stores shut their doors 09:49 | Thursday January 29, 2009 By Ben Cardew A further 15 Zavvi stores have closed, the administrator Ernst & Young revealed today. Closures include stores in Chelsea, Newcastle, Birmingham, Oxford and Norwich. It takes the total of Zavvi closures to 55 since the company was put into administration on Christmas Eve. HMV has bought 14 Zavvi stores, nine in the UK and five in Ireland. The remaining 48 stores will continue to trade. The closures mean the immediate loss of 295 jobs. Joint administrator Tom Jack says, “We continue to trade 48 stores in the UK, however in doing so we have to manage the cost base of the company with a view to maximising returns to creditors. This includes a constant re-evaluation of our property portfolio in line with trading performance. Consequently, with reducing stock levels we have had to manage our cost base accordingly and close a further 15 stores. "At this time we are continuing to look to further progress interest from a number of interested parties and consequently do not have a formal closure plan for the entire store network. "We are extremely grateful to the staff and management at all stores and the head office for their fantastic support throughout this difficult time.”
January 29, 200916 yr :( That's not good. The last time I was in Zavvi half the shelves were half empty and they weren't stocking anything released this side of Christmas so it's pretty much useless for me now. Seems like they're trying to sell off the dregs of their stock at the highest possible prices they can get away with... Edited January 29, 200916 yr by Ethan.
January 29, 200916 yr The stores closing are: Birmingham Bromley Canterbury Colchester East Kilbride Exeter Ipswich Kensington, London Kings Road, London Merryhill Newcastle Norwich Oxford Stirling Taunton
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