Zavvi gone bust

[John]

Another retailer this time in music sales has gone bust. Shame as they were stocking a reasonable amount of vinyl at not crazy prices

[Steve Toy]

That's a shame but there will be more casualties in the New Year.

[Spectral Morn]

The main reason for this was not a failure in their business model as such ,but the fact that 2 Entertainment which is part of Woolworth's has gone down with Woolies. 2 entertainment owns a fairly sizable share in Zavvi along with the Original Virgin shop managers and a few other parties who I know nothing about.

This is a great pity, as John says they stocked a reasonable amount of vinyl unlike HMV who dumped theirs when they took in I Pods and such like.

Its looking more and more like Amazon and their market place will be an increasing port of call in the future especially Caiman. There are very few record shops left in Belfast now.

I feel for the staff but recently one ( Zavvi )shop in town was more and more looking like a bargain bin shop. Way to much sale stock and not enough new and back catalogue material (something of a complaint with HMV too, since they tried to compete with Dixons/Currys.)

Regards D S D L ---- Neil :(

[bhasi]

Sad news indeed for the employees and their families. I was browsing in the London Piccadilly Circus branch last week and found it quite a dispiriting experience, especially in the classical section with its loads of empty racks, far too much bare floorspace and little evident concern for the attractiveness of the layout. Heard an assistant tell a customer that they no longer take orders, they just sell what's on the shelves. Quite shallow inventory too, a pale shadow of the old Tower days. I had to pop into the nearby HMV to cheer myself up, which is itself quite sad!

Pretty soon the only bricks-and-mortar places worth visiting - or even just existing - will be Oxfam, etc: a cheery thought for this season!

[Beechwoods]

Neil is absolutely right - the collapse of Woolies' distribution division has claimed it's first victim. My thoughts are with the 4,500 employees now out of a job, and at Christmas of all times... It's only the administrators that will be rubbing their hands together over this one :steam: It wouldn't surprise me if the collapse of Entertainment UK has impacts on other retailers :(

[aquapiranha]

It is indeed sad that there will be many people out of a job. However, I feel that there are other reasons for their downfall - silly money prices for one! I can't remember the last time I bought a CD from a shop (except oxfam) because I order on-line - a much wider choice and cheaper too. this may be just the way shopping is changing and I doubt they will be the last to go.

[Primalsea]

It seems to me that Woolies should have never had gone under. Over the years the range that they sell has changed considerably until it got to the point where they sold nothing interesting. They also tried to fight the Likes of Argos and the supermarkets who begun marketing with shopping catalogs.

Its very sad as it could have been avoidable should they had been under decent management at the top.

[muffinman]

i bought a ps3 a couple of weeks ago. i had a quick scope round town and zavvi charged a clear £40 more than anyone else.
thats not being competitive - thats being suicidal
good luck to the employees and their families tho

[Spectral Morn]

I think the main issue is what constitutes a fair price.

There is no doubt that the main reasons for the trouble most record shops are in is the net. Firstly I have bought on the net (Amazon Market place mainly ) and only items that are rare, import or s/h. For all my other needs I use Zavvi and Hmv and the few surviving independents ( in Northern Ireland there are very few left ). In the last two years some of the best and most fun to go into have closed their doors because they could not compete with the net and the supermarkets. Chart sellers are/were the bread and butter sales that paid for the back catalogue stock (which moves more slowly ). I used to work for Terry Hooley of Good Vibes about 14 years ago, and a large percentage of sales were Top 50 and the more popular artists and this paid for the back catalogue stuff, which was very broad in scope and we had some fantastic deletions bins (the stuff I used to pick up. I used to go home with record boxes (cartons they were sent in) full of albums ). Then Virgin, Our Price and Hmv came and things got much tougher but Terry survived as his customer base were loyal but graduly they drifted away to the net etc. Same happened to Hector of Hectors house. For me probably the biggest loss as I used to love chatting with him and he would play me stuff which I would mostly buy. This is the thing I miss most human interaction. Someone who knows you and what you like and will introduce you to new music, you would never have looked at. You go into a shop now or online and wonder round the aisles and quite possibly you would like the music you have looked at but you don't buy it because you just don't know; and there is no one to tell you or who is interested in telling you. Its all just box moving (same problem in Audio too.)

Any way I think that unless the selling price of something is massively different, I will/would always give my custom to bricks and mortar shops. I for one value real shops and real people, call me old fashioned but thats what I prefer. If you look around real shops it is also possible to get good deals on stuff. I'll give an example I wanted the new Genesis SACD box set 1970-1975 (very good by the way). I looked on line to find out what this set consisted of and saw the prices, cheapest was about £80 + p&P. I picked it up in Zavvi for £90. I was happy and Zavvi were happy. Its to easy to sit in front of a PC and buy. Get out and look around or ring real shops and buy from them if the deals are close enough otherwise we might as well become BORG/CYBERMEN and have it plugged direct into our brains and never leave our homes ,yuck over my dead body. Soulless and no fun IMHO.

I say support real people and shops. Otherwise we will have no choice (nearly there now ). Every time you do not buy, you put one more human and their family closer to being out of work (I know all about that ). I know thats a potential guilt trip or not depending on your view but the truth is every decision we make in life has a real effect on a human being or beings. This greed and lack of community awareness( locally and globally) is one of the biggest issues facing the world today and its getting worse. Just look at what these attitudes have got us, the mess we are all in at the moment. The credit crunch did not just appear, a random event. Real people caused it and do you think they give a monkeys about any of us no. Choosing where you spend your dosh has similar, but on a smaller scale effects. So support your local retailers. We don't buy our meat anywhere except in a butchers and we know where it comes from, same with most of our fruit and veg too.

Think on those facts.

D S D L ---- Neil

[MartinT]

I say support real people and shops

It's a lovely thought, Neil, but just not practicable. I do indeed buy from HMV and (less so) Zavvi when I'm out shopping because the browsing experience is fun, but I'm nearly always left disappointed by the shallow stock and virtually total disregard for classical music, especially by Zavvi. If they are going to show such disdain for an important branch of my music collection then I too have only contempt for such shops that sold out their music stocks and floor space long ago to the ubiquitous DVD.

When I use Amazon (all the time), I am offered the ability to browse in the comfort of my own home, through a very wide range made wider by the occasional use of amazon.com, amazon.fr etc. The basket system is superb and they make it all too easy to just click to add and then convert to a purchase every few days. Yes, there are issues with the cataloguing but in the main I cannot see an alternative to using amazon for most of my purchases. I too mourn the passing of Tower Records, but that was a long time ago and the writing was on the wall for them too once they stopped specialising and narrowed their range. Frankly, there is nowhere to go to browse through this kind of range any more.

[John]

I miss the interaction of real people too and fear for the few music retail shops left; as music gradually moves more and more to the net this model will become less viable. I remember when I usd to go into Tower Records or HMV when the whole place was taken up with music over the years DVD and games has slowly taken over. In the last 3 years most of the albums I wanted I have only been able to get from the net so in some ways I have been forced out of local music shopping by market forces I live in London where it should be easy to get the music I want from the big shops but for me this is not the case. Its ok if you taste is mainstream but my taste have never been mainstream

[Beechwoods]

I really used to look forward to going to Tower when visiting London; it was a browsers paradise, with stuff there that you couldn't find anywhere else - the indie and alternative sections were great, as were the folk and jazz sections. About 4 or 5 years ago they stripped out the inventory and started stocking large volumes of fewer titles. Then they shut up shop and Virgin took over - more of the same. I've not been back for 2 or so years...

London still has it's fair share of great independent shops. Sister Ray, Rhythm Records, some of the Camden Lock places. I miss browsing places where there is a vitually nil possibility of coming across something special!

[John]

I guess what gets me even more is the slow but gradual erosion of live music venues
I used to go the Marquee at least twice a week. Still plenty of venues here but more to close in the near future like the Astoria and Astoria2
Sorry should be spreading Christmas joy!!