May 28, 2009: Virgin Megastore

[Werner Weiss]

Whether you're looking for a specific, hard-to-find CD or you just want to spend hours listening to whatever kind of music you like, head over to the Virgin Megastore.

Link to Virgin Megastore and Coco Moka Café.

The former WDW Downtown Disney Virgin Megastore is now in Yester World. The last two remaining Virgin Megastores -- Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood and Union Square in New York -- will close very soon. Then there be no real Virgin Megastores left in the United States.

Please discuss it here.

[Sosai X]

Seems all the box stores are going away. Where I live, the only one left is Best Buy. We used to have a Media Play, Circuit City, Ultimate Electronics, CompUSA, Computer City, and Future Shop, but they all have closed their stores here. There isn't a decent home entertainment and electronics store between here and the North Pole.

[The Disneylander]

Good article-reminds me of the old days. But that's how it works, right?

[Athlonacon]

Ah the days of having to actually get in your car, drive to a Sam Goody or Wherehouse and wade through thousands of CDs in the off-chance that you might find that one that's more than a year old. I always loved the anticipation of driving back home and immediately putting that CD into the player since many cars didn't have CD players back then. A lot of these small pleasures are being wiped out for instant gratification, but I tend to remember it was also a pain as well.

My first MP3 was in late 1996, back when it took 10 minutes to actually encode one, and I was absolutely shocked. But even with this shock, I would have NEVER guessed it would be the beginning of a new world and change media distribution forever. If someone had told me that Tower Records would fall 10 years later, I would never have believed them in a million years.

Blockbuster looks like it's on it's last leg too. I have so many memories of renting a movie every Friday after school and how happy I was just to walk up and down the aisles trying to choose just 1 title. We used to have to drive somewhere to get anything, talk to people on the phone or in person to communicate anything, play video games standing right next to your opponent, and read a newspaper or wait until 5:00 or 6:00 to find out what's happening in the world.

Unfortunately, I am Generation X so I got caught up in between the massively powerful and influential Baby Boomers and the fresh new Generation Y that thinks that the Internet was always around and have probably never called a friend or even realized that there was a physical world out there before they were born. So I have the memories of the old world, but I'm not old enough to have lived long enough to really be entrenched in it. It's kind of nice in way because I still know how it was back then, but I can also adapt and change very quickly, just like a Generation Y. It's also a curse to know what we've lost and not having been able to spend a lot of time experiencing life the old way.

[Athlonacon]

Does "Virgin" mean something different in England or something? Sometimes those Brits will make up funny words or phrases for things... although technically it's their language and so WE are probably the ones who make up the weird slang. Anyway, I only ask because that's kind of a strange title for Walt Disney World: "Virgin Megastore". Virgin Airlines, okay; Virgin Mobile, still okay; but Virgin Megastore just doesn't have the same non-innuendo as the other stuff.

I guess when you're a multi-billionaire like Branson, you can do whatever the hell you want.

[aimster]

I am really going to miss that store. I could find import CDs there I couldn't even find on Amazon. They had great import and Electronica sections. I have so many great memories of spending hours in there. I loved their $10 sales (a couple years ago I got all the remastered Police albums for $10 each). Great way to stock up on music and movies. I'm still a bit of a "purist" as I like holding the actual product in my hand, admiting the artwork and reading the liner notes. I've downloaded less than 10 albums off the likes of iTunes & Amazon. 90% of the music on my iPod is from CDs I've owned for years.

They had good book and DVD sections too. I cherish the Ewan McGregor mini book I got there years ago (and went back and found another for a friend). Plus I found obscure music DVDs I couldn't find anywhere else.

I think I'm going to have myself a good cry now.

[aduecey]

I imagine one day you'll find a replica of a 20th century music store located in a museum some where. And children will laugh at the archaic idea of traveling to a physical location to purchase media.

I'll kinda miss the places. Ofcourse i'm partly to blame. I haven't purchased music from a physical store in probably close to a decade. Once some one becomes internet savy it's hard to want to pay more at a store when you know you can find it on the cheap online. The sadest part for me is knowing the social experience of the enviornment is gone. You loose the rubbing elbows with the old burn out rocker types and the punks and goths. And what of all the blacklight posters, tastless bumper stickers, and various apparel smattered with pot leaf images?

There is no denying the internet is going to very much change the landscape of our retail world that we've all grown up with. It leaves you to wonder what are they going to do with all those uneeded sometimes massive buildings. Many of the malls in this country are already on life support. Just makes ya wonder. Maybe Roller Rinks will come back big and use up some of that landscape.

[MarkTwain]

Sigh, another great element of Downtown Disney bites the dust.

I wouldn't mind either an Apple Store or an EPSN Zone. Both would be great additions to Downtown Disney. But a two-story Forever 21? Not so much.

[aduecey]

Originally Posted by Athlonacon

Unfortunately, I am Generation X so I got caught up in between the massively powerful and influential Baby Boomers and the fresh new Generation Y that thinks that the Internet was always around and have probably never called a friend or even realized that there was a physical world out there before they were born. So I have the memories of the old world, but I'm not old enough to have lived long enough to really be entrenched in it. It's kind of nice in way because I still know how it was back then, but I can also adapt and change very quickly, just like a Generation Y. It's also a curse to know what we've lost and not having been able to spend a lot of time experiencing life the old way.

Just think of all the wonderful yarns you'll get to spin to the younger generations. Like the simple joys of knowing nothing about a movie besides the poster before going to see it or enjoying a day of loitering around a massive book/music store and buying nothing. Gen x was a damn good time to grow up.

[Werner Weiss]

Originally Posted by The Disneylander

Good article-reminds me of the old days. But that's how it works, right?

Thank you!

I guess, in the case of the Virgin Megastore at DTD, the "old days" were a little over two weeks ago.

[Werner Weiss]

Originally Posted by Athlonacon

Does "Virgin" mean something different in England or something? Sometimes those Brits will make up funny words or phrases for things... although technically it's their language and so WE are probably the ones who make up the weird slang. Anyway, I only ask because that's kind of a strange title for Walt Disney World: "Virgin Megastore". Virgin Airlines, okay; Virgin Mobile, still okay; but Virgin Megastore just doesn't have the same non-innuendo as the other stuff.

I had hoped to include the origin of the company name as part of the article. I found a few different stories. One said that Branson's early record mail order business sold "virgin" records -- ones that had not already been played in listening booths at record stores. Another story was that Branson picked the name because he and his business partners were virgins to the music business. I'm not sure if either of these stories is true.

I remember buying Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells on the Virgin Records label way back when. That album was a huge success and launched Branson into the big time.

Today the Virgin name adorns an amazing array of companies. Take a look at Virgin Group at Wikipedia.

[Barbossa]

We've got only two main electronics (media) stores here in Kelowna Future Shop and HMV. Best Buy hasn't established itself here yet, which I find odd given the amount of people that live here. As far as Future Shop goes, even they've substantially reduced their music selection, it's nowhere near as big as it used to be.

There was a Virgin Megastore in Vancouver, but I don't know if it's still there or not. Future Shop's head office is in Burnaby, just beside Vanouver. I wonder what their future is like.

[pussnboots]

There's still a Virgin Megastore in Paris. Maybe it's the last one standing... (Hm. The last virgin standing. Memories be gone.)

It's funny, though. One moment everyone despises those big box stores, the next we mourn over their loss. Don't it always seem to go, I guess.

[Werner Weiss]

Originally Posted by pussnboots

There's still a Virgin Megastore in Paris. Maybe it's the last one standing... (Hm. The last virgin standing. Memories be gone.)

I think there are still a bunch of Virgin Megastores in France. In my article, I was careful to say that I was writing about Virgin Megastores in the United States.

I think the only Virgin Megastore where I ever bought a CD is in Paris.

[Tacobob]

I hope the rumors about the building being turned into an Imax theater(s) for AMC are true.