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The Virgin Megastoe at the corner of Stockton and Market will be closing its doors in late April, according to KCBS. This comes on the heels of Virgin announcing the closure of two new York stores, including their US flagship store in Times Square. The store is shuttering for obvious reasons: skyrocketing rent prices, iTunes, what's a CD?, the recession, the evil interwebs. While we can handle SF Chronicle stopping operations -- which even Chris Daly predicted back in 2007 -- we'll miss the Virgin Megastore. Pray to God another trite museum doesn't go in its place.
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That sucks. I really like that store. But other than the occasional $10 DVD, I haven't bought anything there in ages.
It's a PRIME corner, though. Someone will take it.
yeah, Walgreens
I can't imagine the last time I actually went in there. Not because I download music (legally or otherwise, it's physical media or nothing), but because there's absolutely no reason to. If I'm buying music I'm doing it at Amoeba and if I absolutely had to buy something while I was downtown Rasputin is only a block away.
It was a useless chain in a town that already has significantly better independent offerings. Glad to see it go.
I went in there over Christmas. They used to have a good book section, but now it's tiny and seemed to have substantially the same books as when I had visited the year before. Too bad.
Of course, one of my most "hilarious" shopping stories was of an unsuccessful attempt to purchase Richard Branson's autobiography there, about a year ago.
I guess that means I can't buy the octuplet mom's debut "cough cough" video there? :-P
So, when's the liquidation sale?
You don't want that. If they sell to liquidators prices will go UP.
I like to think that Virgin has better respect for their customers than that.
Maybe they could give out discount DVDs on Virgin America flights?
speaking of, did anybody choke down the entire episode of dr. phil last night with octomom?
Dr. What? I thought KRON-TV was buried in a grave covered in cement.
ABout time...I have wondered how the hell they could keep this store open. Selling CD's?? Who the heck still buys an actual CD? Although sometimes I see lines of people around the corner, I guess they bring in celebrities to meet fans...ok, so suggestions for what should go here? Keep in mind Diesel is moving in across the street...will this be Microsoft's first store to combat Apple? Seems perfect fit for MS. To big, unmanageable and will probably open way before all the bugs are fixed.
Microsoft had a store in the Metreon back in the day. It was always empty.
that was before someone came up with the idea of a store as a lifestyle ala the apple store, rather than a dull retail outlet.
MS Store 2.0 will be a much different experience once they steal the Apple way of doing retail.
I went in there yesterday to buy some DVD-Rs. They were expensive so I went on Amazon and bought them. :P
I understand that all things must pass, but I'll miss the joys of browsing through record and bookstores as we knew them.
I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did, the last time I tried to buy a CD there, it as $18.99, eff that.
Now, I buy my vinyl at Amoeba and everything else as an Amazon MP3.
I worked there ages ago, horrible, horrible pay. However, the people I worked with were great and there were lot's of weirdos that used to pass through those doors keeping things interesting. I am going to miss their $10 sale. Unlike most people, I still buy cd's and records (what a relic I am!), so the dwindling of my consumer experience is very sad. I still miss Tower Records. At least Amoeba is still around.
I was a more frequent customer when Citizen Cupcake was open on the 3rd floor, but I still pop in on occasion to just browse and occasionally buy something.
It'll be really sad to see it go, my choices for brick and mortar stores where I can buy new video games are dwindling very fast in this city. What's left, Gamestop and Best Buy at this point?
Oh. Yay. Virgin's on the short list of chains who I don't mind giving my money to. The other two can rot in hell. :/
We'll miss it? Who is this "we" you're referring to? Another mega-chain dedicated to cramming the latest major-label bullshit auto-tuned "artists" down our throats has gone under? Good riddance.
Perhaps American Apparel would be interested in moving into that spot.
That's brilliant.
When I first came to SF from a small(ish) town, walking down Market and seeing the Virgin store sticks in my mind and was my first real encounter with The Big City.
That's the only reason I'll miss it, though. I've been inside maybe twice in five years. No one in their right mind pays $20 for a cd anymore.
They do need a downtown location. Actually this would be really good - across from Old Navy, highly visible, easy transit access.
Once they paint it bright white and add lots of easy to read Helvetica Bold signs, not to mention huge vinyl billboards of American models wearing brightly colored panties and/or casual wear, it will be IMPOSSIBLE to miss.
Sucky store closes. Good riddance.
purveyors of pop trash.
Only the BEST pop trash!
People who only buy their music in electronic form are fools. I mean, when their computers crash and die, where will their music collections end up? Vanished like left wing Argentine collitch students, that's where. Besides, you can sell CDs when you need to make some quick cash and split town. You never know when you'll have to jam.
That aside, Virgin was an ok place to buy $10 CDs to fill in gaps in one's collection, but other than that served no purpose. Amoeba is a much better place to buy music, plus, not a corporation and therefore helps preserve the "flavor" we like in our city of "San Francisco Values."
While I too like Amoeba a great deal it seems that they've moved their offices down to LA and are concentrating a lot more effort on their Hollywood store as the new flagship.
I'm definitely with you on buying my media physically. Plus, it's the deals. I picked up four CDs for $11 from the clearance racks the other day. All of them CDs I've been meaning to get for a while now. You're not going to get those sorts of prices for downloads.
TAYM - Amoeba is not a corporation?
So what is "Amoeba Music Inc."?
Amoeba may not be as big a business organization as Virgin, but they are both corporations, one and the same.
Oh, my GOD, dbol! Can't you differentiate between a corporation of the bad (e.g., Virgin) and a corporation of the good (e.g., Amoeba). If you can't learn to pick out the difference, you're gonna get screwed but good in this town! At the very least, they'll never let you open a shop on Valencia Street. Sorry for you.
At any rate there are nearly as many Amoebas as Virgin Megastores at this point.
I'll always remember that store for the first time I went to San Francisco. The Chinese New Year parade was going on, and I couldn't find a decent view anywhere. Then I went into the Virgin store, up to the second floor, and had the by far the best view of the parade one floor up with plenty of room to sit and watch. I then browsed around, bought a CD and left. This was back in 1999. Since then I've been in that store twice.
While I understand the desire for many of you guys to rag on the corporate dinosaur going down, and I don't blame you, I'm about to be without a steady job because of this, and it sucks.
Then again, it kind of sucked working there as well.
Oh well, see about 8% of you in the unemployment line.
As someone who did 13 years in the CD Store business (closing 2 stores along the way) - I wish you the best of luck with your transition, octillus.
That sucks. Sorry to hear.
Was business particularly bad of late? Or has it been the long slow decline that we would have expected in the record store biz?
Eye am guessing that it was the "long slow decline that we would have expected in the record store biz".
While we were trying to save our mom&pop CD Store in the mid 00's (read: selling porno dvds) - our new owner informed us that Virgin's inventory was more non-cd items than cds. Books, games, movies, etc...etc... This business model is likely what kept them from going under the last 4 years or so.
You're so on the nose, you're an 80s style ironically-themed cocaine party.