Variety reports that several Virgin Megastores will be closing — the chain was an early adapter of manga and graphic novels and continue to have wide ranging sections:
The Virgin Megastore in West Hollywood will be closing early next year and its highly likely the Gotham outlet will follow.
Rent increases are being given as the key reason the CD-DVD-book outlets are about to pack it in. The L.A. store is likely to shutter at the end of January; New York’s Union Square Megastore will follow a year later.
The chain was recently sold to a real estate conglomerate. The Hollywood and Times Ssquare outlets will remain open for the time being — both locations have a “theme store”-like vibe, meaning that you can go in and remember what it was like to go into a store to buy music.
The ones in Manhattan are so big, loud and expensive I honestly don’t know how any of those stores are able to stay open.
“The Virgin Megastore in West Hollywood will be closing early next year and its highly likely the Gotham outlet will follow.”
I think it’s very cool that Virgin has a Megastore in Gotham City. But I don’t blame them for closing it, the crime rate is atrocious there. I wouldn’t be shocked if the store got blown by the Joker or one of those costumed villains.
It’s a shame the Union Square one will be closing. That space was perfect for that kind of retail establishment. What will replace it? A GAP?
Virgin stores in the UK have already been sold off to a management buy-out and rebranded as “Zavvi”.
Maybe they can turn the West Hollywood location into a drugstore…
I wonder how they’ll artificially keep their Virgin Comics numbers up with so many of their stores closing
Well – there goes my Mike Oldfield fix.
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Coat