Virgin Megastore's fate: Little guy cackles with glee
Bleecker Street Records and other small CD shops aren't exactly teared up over the coming demise of the Virgin Megastore. (Photo by nicolettesara on Flickr)
The looming demise of record goliath Virgin Megastore in Times Square has some of the city’s gritty, independent music stores gloating a little.
Ask Nino at Bleecker Street Records how he feels about the announced closing of Virgin: Good riddance or sorry to see you go?
“Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,” he bellows.
You can take that as you like. It’s clear there is no love lost between the city’s small record shops and Virgin, a company that helped the renaissance in Times Square and now appears to be a victim of the success there.
It will be forced out by higher rents, Reuters reported last week after talking with an executive vice president at Vornado, the company that owns the Time Square location.
Virgin’s downfall would signal the end of super record stores in the city, as Tower and FYE have already vanished. That means small stores might see a boost from fans who don’t want to buy at big-box stores that don’t specialize in music.
“I don’t think it will dramatically change things, but people will notice a big hole on 14th Street (where Virgin is also said to be closing). It’s sort of a looming figur,” said Matt Pullman, manager at Generation Records on Thompson Street.
But now, out from Virgin’s shadow, Generation might see a little more foot traffic.
“It will be interesting to see where kids turn to,” he said. “I hope they do what I did, and they start walking and shopping and finding awesome stores like this one.”
-- Garett Sloane
Comments (2)
Generation Records is, and always has been, the best record store in the city. They have everything, dont try to rip you off and the people who work there actually know about music.
Eh. This kinda sucks. I work in the Times Square area and only go to Virgin because of convenience. It's just a short walk during lunch so I can pick up a CD for the afternoon. Otherwise, there are no other record stores in the area and I already patronize smaller shops on the weekends or after work so I won't be increasing my visits to small shops anyway.
More likely, I'll have a 3G iPhone by then and even more of my music buying will be directly on the phone, further limiting my small shop patronage.