there then. Delivery charges to SA were nearly as bad as Word.

I don't think I've been in one once since the change of name. They never looked like record shops.

they have been named and shamed. That will help their credit no end. Any word from Development Hell on the Tesco extended credit debacle?

Of the Sunday Times list I am more concerned about Whittards surviving.

for having chosen the stupidest name imaginable. I for one will not be in mourning when the wounded animal finally goes to sleep.

got a twenty quid voucher from my 50th in August hiding somewhere in my room, looks like I better find it sharpish

when any business struggles. The management buyout always appeared to me to be an attempt to prolong the employment of the staff and get the Virgin brand away from any high profile business failure. Two ticks I suppose but the economy is likely to make the first aim shorter than they had perhaps hoped for.

… saying 'good riddance', 'they deserve it' and all that - and indeed as a retail outlet it seemed Zavvi could hardly care less about the product they were selling - but don't forget large numbers of people will lose their jobs if it goes under, and surely that's not something one would wish on anyone at the moment.

As an avid Word person and Zavvi store manager, can I just point out that no=one had to apply for their old jobs after the MBO. No-one was made redundant. I have worked with many of my colleagues for a couple of decades, through Our Price, Virgin and zavvi and they are all deeply passionate about their jobs and the "product". We don't stock as many CDs as we used to because you twisted gits stopped buying them and started "rip off CD" campaigns despite the fact that little in life was as immune to inflation as the 'umble CD. Well we're all fighting for survival now and, reading the comments you smug idiots have posted, I'm almost glad - you'll all have got what you deserved. No choice.

Its our fault, clearly. We should all be paying much much more for our music: in real terms CDs should cost £40 or £50 each. If it wasn't for each of us personally, the wonderful Zavvi brand would still be beckoning to us of a wonderful future decorated with Wii(s)
(Sure it's grim to be facing what you face, but, fer chrissake, it is like blaming Woolies demise on us punters for buying insufficient Pick'n'mix. Zavvi just didn't seem savvy enough for the diminutive market. I suspect no high street will, ultimately. Sadly. Cos I love the smell of CD rack upon rack in the morning........)

....but obviously I'm not. Since school days and college I've always had limited funds for records/CD's and so visits to places like Zavvi were only for the sales and bargins. My huge source of music purchasing pleasure is the second-hand music store where's that going to be when down load fully hits.
There is nothing better than a store that balances New and Second-hand releases and often with true fans behind the counter - and with due respect to the comment from the Zavvi manager- they tend to be more service friendly. An enquiry at my local store about a new 23 Skidoo release lead to a 10 minute conversation and me ordering said item.
And I tell you the stuff they play in there would never be heard in Zavvi or HMV.

I'd be making a hypocrite of myself. I literally cannot remember the last time I even walked into a record shop. Yet, like others who've posted responses here, I'm buying and listening to more music than ever - 90 tracks a month from eMusic, some CDs bought direct from artists' websites, back-catalogue second-hand from eBay, and the few brand new releases I MUST have bought heavily discounted from Amazon or Play.com. The discussions and recommendations I used to get from customers and staff at the now-gone small independent record shops I now get from sites like this one.

After coming out of the HMV store opposite. In HMV the queues were literally right around the shop and the shelves were bulging. In Zavvi there were no queues but this was mainly because of the empty shelves. Now I have heard something about their problems with supply but they seemed to have given up on selling CDs long before that - I'm not sure whether this was before or after Virgin pulled the plug. The CDs were pushed upstairs. The previously separate and attractive classical music room was boarded up like it had never existed.

I feel really sorry for staff losing their jobs through no fault of their own and because of the mismanagement of the people at the top but, frankly, as a record shop, Zavvi just didn't seem interested.

Did anybody else ever feel that the staff had taken nonchalent aloofness to new levels and were doomed to take the fall? I tried standing at a manned counter holding an actual product I wanted (ok a t-shirt) and was still ignored for over a minute, all upset when the "assistant" finally deigned to amble over, I handed them the item and asked them to restack it as having watched them for so long I didn't believe they were capable of even working the till...

Has anybody found that clip from Not The 9 O'clock News when the unwitting punter gets bullied in the record shop? I've spent almost as long as I did in Zavvi a few weeks back "looking for inspiration" in the concealed CD leper colony.

Just how much did that bizarre rebranding cost?

If anybody gets a "heads-up" when the DVD boxsets are about to get slashed please post it here and not on moneysavingexpert ...
:)

I don't think Zavvi ever saw itself as a record shop, did it? Best not base our opinions on a misconception.

the only advantage big stores like zavvi and hmv had was range of stock. But that's gone , I bet you couldn't get half the cd's reviewed in this months Magazine from a high street store and if it's mainstream stuff you want don't you just pick it up with your coleslaw from tescos for 17p cheaper!

...back in the late 80s, early 90s. I was a rock/chart buyer. You had to have a pretty keen knowledge of what was going on in the music world to avoid over or underbuying of stock. It was a fine line to be walked, and if you cocked up you ended up with nothing in stock or tons of albums to go off to the spring sale.

We started using the electronic point of sale stuff, which is fine if your stock is bread or milk or toilet rolls. But in a field where somebody can rise out of nowhere and just as swiftly fall from grace you couldn't buy a new release based on past sales recorded on a computer.

Some of the people in charge at Zavvi were the same people who pushed computerisation and following that centralised buying. Which left us with a lot of stock we couldn't sell. Or great big gaps in the shelves and customers going elsewhere. They were idiots then. I can't imagine much has changed.

are obviously linked with the demise of Woolies and their supply problems. But this has probably only sped up the process, as the days of a specialist CD supplier on the high street appear numbered.
The only time I have bought anything in there during the past year was when they had their sale in the summer and I was hoping they would be having another after Xmas. Hope for the staff's sake its not of the Closing Down variety....

...my brother just did a refurb of their HQ, and I thought I'd add a reply to help get this thread into the Hot Topics list as it's on the cusp. And of course it will be sad for all those lost jobs but it's hardly surprising when you lose the most lucrative shopping season of the year because your supplier (Woolies-related wholesaler?) goes belly up. It's a jungle out there...

Is rubbish now. Zavvi's current Top 100 albums and a selection of the "2 for £10" offers. They focus on games & dvds. Even though I don't buy a lot of CDs from the high-street, it's always nice to browse to see if anything catches your eyes which might warrant a listen.

It will be a sad day when they finally go, as another music retailer goes under.

...there's really only HMV in Stafford now. But boy, is it tough!? I like to look through the racks - and there' less and less of them. I have had several conversations with staff and managers and my conclusion is that shops should cater to the generation of geezers who like to own the physical product - albums - and want lots of back catalogue stuff. Precisely the stuff the shops don't sell anymore.

The Virgin stores (still using the name in the US) are starting to shut up shop, the Phoenix location will be gone by the new year. Can't say I'm going to shed tears, but, in a city of 5.5 million people there is now virtually nowhere to buy any pre-recorded music outside of the kind of thing WalMart would carry. I know there's the net, but, what about the Saturday afternoon browsing etc. etc.

The small local record shops I know intimately are kept in business by the internet; collector shops selling obscure releases (CD & vinyl) around the world. Much lower overheads than the pile-em-high brigade in shopping centres too.

In playing the blame game above we failed to mention the company bigger than Asda & Tesco, responsible for many of our changing habits; Ebay. I'm as guilty as charged - I'm a seller too.

Currently they have what purports to be a Clearance Sale. However, on visiting my local one today the prices are still expensive and not one copy of Dylan's latest 'Tell Tale Signs' - kind of an apt situation I thought!

that the stores such as Virgin and HMV sold identical product cheaper online than in their shops. Obviously they will argue that operating costs to distribute from a warehouse are considerably cheaper but assuming none of them had a grand plan to close down their High street stores it is surprising that it took so long for them to realise that they needed to offer unique pricing in store for some products that simply wasnt available online. I have noticed in HMV in recent months that some in store pricing is slightly cheaper than online. Sorry guys but the horse already bolted out of the stable.
Recently I bought the two Boo Hewerdine Toybox mini albums from Amazon. I doubt there is a record store in the whole of Birmingham that would have these available over the counter. This wasn't the case years ago but we just have to accept that record buying habits have changed and for many people it just isn't important. Its a shame because for me buying new music is still a great joy in fact even a passion. Maybe I am just an old fart with too much money to spend.

Steve has found the new slogan to replace the Planet Rock one; music for old farts with too much money to spend!
That do I not like!

Just announced.

...if they were using Entertainment UK as a supplier. It would explain why the jazz and classical sections were spectacularly awful in their choice of material.

...and it's crap timing for lots of them.

I'm an ex-Our Pricer and learnt a lot about music from mates who worked there, most of whom were music lovers liekyou and me. Loads of Zavvi people had worked their way through from Our Price to Virgin to now, so it's a real shame.

I've read everything on here partly from a vested interest (not Zavvi!)and it is sad to see them go.

We'll all bemoan it's music / dvd range but we never bought from there. We went to have a look at all the High Street Shops and bought online. If we want it we download it to our ipod.

The game is probably up for music retail and we can't slag it, it's our fault.

I never found much of what I wanted in Zavvi but a couple of things strike me. It was miles friendlier than HMV and da kidz loved it, it was a place to hang out for them and buy the odd game. They just download their music from choice.

There are / were knowledgeable friendly staff in most stores, you had to find them and it's full of kids because Music Retail isn't a career now.

The net's fine if you know what you are looking for but nowadays we rely on the Wordsters to guide us. No one listens to the radio any more (with the odd Radcliffe exception) and the beauty of a record store used to be how you'd casually discover something or take a chance on a cd / lp because it was cheap and love it and buy the back cat.

You wouldn't discover it online now.

It'll be a future of online buying (and that's under pressure the way the dvd market is going) or the supermarkets for Leona's latest drivel from now on.

There is the odd indie exception who have a shop and if too far away a good online ordering centre, but most of them got blasted off the high street in the 90's.

It's not Zavvi's fault, Woolies went under. Woolies was an institution and that was it. it sold nothing that you would want to buy in massive stores and you could play 5 a side in the aisles.

It had previously gone through contraction and got it right and then expanded back to where it failed.

EUK from what I understand was a pretty viable business and the Record Companies loved it because of the distribution costs they saved and there is just about still a market for that sort of business who can net sell as well, it's just that no one would get the finance now.

Our biggest seller in December, way ahead of Take That, Priests and Killers etc was I Tune Top Up Cards.

That says everything really.

I'm sad for the Zavvi people, sad that people just want to say what it did wrong when at least it tried.

Now I'm off to bed to dream of a world where there is seven or eight music shops and four or five second hand music shops in my nearest city.

It'll never happen, it did once.

Well apart from the E(UK) thing how surprising is it really ?
For some years now both HMV and Zavvi have paid far more attention to DVDs than to music and in the last year or so it's all been games that they're flogging (better profit margin apparently).
As Vulpes vulpes has said above you have to hunt for the CDs and when you find them there's bugger all there to interest someone who doesn't want chart stuff.
I will miss them though as I do still like to hunt through racks of CDs in the (increasingly) vain hope that I'll find something I want. But I have mainly downloaded or bought from Amazon recently and Zavvi have only themselves to blame.
On another note I was amused to see that in the "up to 50% everything must go " sale at Woolies they were still trying to get farcical proces for their merchandise. The last Neil Diamond album for £11.97 - now what is that all about ? I thought they would be pushing stuff out cheap to get rid of it.

You will if you want to. I too dedicate the odd evening (well most evenings) avoiding the dross on TV and visiting blogs that post new music samples. Then if I like anything I follow the link to the artists website for more information. It's a great way to past the time when The Word is all read out.

Most artist websites have a means to buy music and memorabilia; some special releases too. If you're lucky you can comment on what you like and get a genuine response back from the artist, future details of gigs, etc.

That's a the sort of response you don't get from a big record chain but exactly the sort of thing you should get from a local record emporium, if the local owner understands his market and is doing his job right. They are also a vanishing breed and the ones we should be trying to save.

Many sell second-hand rarities as well as obscure new releases. Some act as ticket agencies for local gigs ans are a great place to meet other music idiots, er, fans. Perhaps they should merge together to form their own chain. Called The Word perhaps?

left me feeling old and out of touch, the 'heartsink' was incredible.
Seems I'm not in the minority.

Sorry about FT having to get his P45 and all, but the shops were no longer catering to the 'money burning an hole in the pocket' crew.

Just as ye sow ye shall reap - Big Country, Harvest Home... wasn't it?

I agree with all you say about Radio, Beany! But it's dedicating the odd evening as you say.

Most of us will listen or used to listen to radio in the car. Try finding something on FM now. You'd either need to invest in DAB for the car which is still pretty expensive or in frustration link the ipod up and listen to something you already have.

Yes there's the word, yes there's the odd Radio 1 or 2 gem but largely it's frustrating.

Radio Stations will cater for what people want as do Music Stores. If they can't sell it, how can they stock it? They can't hold onto that 1970's gem in case the one person who would want it comes in to the store and then they'd probably go home and check if they could get it cheaper online.

Another point rised above is HMV etc's move into the games. The margin is really poor, but they sell. DVD is now at the stage that cd sales were three years ago and the only way to make any money out of an ipod is to sell an accessory.

It'll come all ways. If you go onto Play.com now, the amount of lines out of stock is phenomenal and the prices they charge much lower, hence their reliance on downloading as the future.

Music Retail is dead bar the odd good indy store. Physical Album Sales died with our generation. You can't go back.

It's now at the point that Albums are getting irrelevant.

I don't really grieve for it, society evolves, it's just that I've got nowhere to go when the other half is in the bloody clothes shops.

I think you've taken your eye off the car DAB ball. I know its all relative but I don't think that £200 for a good quality DAB radio (including aerial) is expensive especially when you compare it with the price of a car. I bought mine about 5 years ago which works out at about £40 a year and it's about to be moved to its third car. I think that's a very small price to pay to actually make finding something to listen on the radio in the car a possibility. If you set it to record you can make sure you have something to listen to even when George Lamb is on!

So what do you think will happen with the Zavvi stores?

Will they find a buyer who will cherry-pick the best stores, keeping them open and selling off the rest or will all the stores close to be turned into another charity shop/coffee shop/empty space.

£200 doesn't sound too bad. I'd looked at one of those widgets at £70 but the windscreen aerial looks a bit Fred Karno.

It'd mean getting rid of the 8 track though.

I think odds on that Zavvi's become pound shops, probably charity shops till they sort out the leases.

We had a massive Woolworths which would make a errrrrrrrrrrr massive pound shop.

Up here in the North Of England, we have the luxury of four shops a year in empty shops. Someone opens a Calendar Shop, then an Easter Egg Shop etc etc.

What with all the pie shops closing, we've been hit hard by all this recent hardship. We've had nowhere to buy pigeons and whippets for years and now the pies have gone.

I'm sad that Zavvi has failed, but as I have posted in the past, it could no longer call itself a record shop. As one of those £50 blokes, who liked a browse at lunchtime, the demise of Zavvi, Fopp etc is a loss to me. HMV is going the same way as Zavvi, by pushing T shirts and peripheral stuff. Obviously, in this multi media age games and DVDs have been a big earner, but even these are easier to get hold of via the internet.

I still like to physically browse for records - it's something I've done since I was 11 years old with all of 40p to spend. I work in Sheffield city centre and, as the years have gone by all the small independents have gone except Jacks Records (which is now half the size it used to be) and Rare & Racy (which has a very limited and extremely eclectic selection, weighted towards modern jazz, but which is basically an antiquarian bookshop).

The Record Collector is a couple of miles outside town, so it tends to be a weekend visit. Although I buy on line, and download from iTunes, etc I still prefer to have the physical product in my hand and (sometimes) the ability to have a listen on headphones first.

Ultimately, as long as I can still access new and exciting stuff, which is well away from the mainstream when I want it to be, I'll still be happy, but with a tinge of regret for the demise of the record shop as we knew it.

20% off so I got some 2008 Van Morrison remasters for £4 (Common One, Enlightenment) etc.

Sorry a bit late on this, but anyway...as a former Virgin employee (mid to late 80s, when it was like, y'know, a proper record shop) it is sad to see Zavvi go but no surprise.

Some thoughts...

The Virgin to Zavvi change was a dead duck from day one onwards. The depth of stock was abysmal. If you've nothing to sell how can you hope to survive? Did anyone ever see a Zavvi busy, compared to even an HMV?

The staff. Now without wishing to sound like a look back bore, back in "my day" everyone who worked there knew their onions. Customers often used to come in looking for recommendations from their favourite member of staff as they trusted their opinion and often left having spent way more than they intended to. Result for both parties!

I used to be a buyer for the reggae and african section and it went like a fair. Now before anyone can finish saying "Aah well yes, but the Virgin store in Oxford Stre.." - this was in Scotland!

So staff, yeah, I'm sure there were a lot of passionate and knowledgeable folks who worked there but could I suggest perhaps some were only there as it's seen as a cooler place to work there than in (e.g) a supermarket?

The prices. Why would anyone spend £12-£15 on a new release when you can shop online and get it around £5 cheaper. And as for the 2 for £10 or 3 for £20 - you can only sell the same products to the same people for so long. This is why I think FOPP have a fighting chance of surviving. They concentrate on cheaper items but by crikey don't they keep it fresh! Keeps the regulars coming in, well, very regularly.

Anyway, enough from this old codger - the postie's just been with today's cardboard box of music!

Could not agree more. Music libraries especially. I'm lucky enough to live in a city where at least 10 of the libraries have good music departments where there are thousands of cds and dvds to rifle through, or if you don't fancy that (but I guess most of us here on this site do!) they have a database of their entire stock. Now for anyone who isn't familiar with how it works, you can browse through the contents of everything they have or specifically search for a cd or artist on a library PC or your own, order what you like and have it delivered to the nearest library to you! And the best bit, it's 60p per cd or £1.20 for a double or even a boxset. An an example, I've been picking up those wonderful Complete Motown Singles boxsets for £1.20 each!

It's official - libraries really are the new rock'n'roll.

in the early 80s I was never out of my local library, you could only take three ellpees/cassettes out at a time but it was a free service and my knowledge of Wire, Cindytalk, Psychic TV and the Cocteau Twins wouldn't be what it is today

libraries do indeed give us power

Woah Cindytalk, now you're talking! Gordon Sharp - what a voice.

If anyone doesn't have the first This Mortal Coil album "It'll End In Tears" just get it now. Gordon's vocal on the cover of Alex Chilton's "Kangaroo" has given me goosebumps just thinking about it.

And of course the album also has the Cocteau Twins version of "Song To The Siren" which gives Tim Buckley's original a run for it's money. And also happens to be the greatest song ever. I know this to be a fact. Oh hang on, or is it "Door Peep" by Burning Spear...

...and started for us too by the sounds of it, JB.

Yes, can't say I was impressed with early Cindytalk either nor the first Dead Can Dance album.

Although DCD then went on a run of superb mid period releases. And isn't "Toward The Within" one of the great live albums! On a par with Magazine's "Play" for me.

I need to investigate further, I have some highlights from this:

and Boy could he sing!

I'm reliably informed the rest isn't like that, bit of a Cindytalk 1st ellpee thing going on?