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Goodbye Virgin Megastores

Posted: 06 Mar 2009 13:54
by luckysaver
This week, Virgin announced the closure of the Megastore chain. They blame it on 1) changing technology <people prefer downloading music from the internet> and 2) the current status of the nation's economy.

This means Ontario Mills Mall (Ontario, CA) will lose one of its large anchor stores. This VM location has been around since the mall's opening about 12 years ago. Hollywood will also lose that location as well.

luckysaver

ps
Sir Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Group sold the chain to a real estate firm about a year ago. KNBC mentioned in its report that the current owners are focused on real estate rather than retail.

Re: Goodbye Virgin Megastores

Posted: 06 Mar 2009 23:31
by Brian Lutz
There's also a location of this in the Downtown Disney area at Walt Disney World. It's a fairly large location, but I'm not sure what else they could put in there that would fit into the whole Disney theme.

Re: Goodbye Virgin Megastores

Posted: 07 Mar 2009 02:53
by Jeff
Lucky, the stores at the Block and Ontario Mills closed last summer already. I heard Forever 21 is moving into the Mills location.

Re: Goodbye Virgin Megastores

Posted: 07 Mar 2009 19:40
by steps
The store on Hollywood Blvd is pretty new (less then 5 years I believe). I wonder what they could put there....it's prime real estate so I doubt it would be vacant for long.

Re: Goodbye Virgin Megastores

Posted: 08 Mar 2009 01:19
by Groceteria
Again, all, if we could please keep this focused on history rather than on the current logistics of the situation, that would be lovely.

May I suggest this thread at RetailWatchers for discussion of current news related to the closings?

Thanks,
David

Re: Goodbye Virgin Megastores

Posted: 08 Mar 2009 20:19
by runchadrun
Speaking of the history, the first store was the one at Sunset and Crescent Heights, which opened in late 1992. The Burbank store at the Media Center Mall closed when the roof collapsed during a rain storm and it never reopened. It was about the time the Hollywood store was about to so they transferred the staff there. That store is now a Lohmann's.

Re: Goodbye Virgin Megastores

Posted: 09 Mar 2009 00:15
by Jeff
All the locations opened as new builds. The Triangle Square store I beleive was the first store to open in Southern California. This store was huge, two levels and always busy. Then the center went south and it closed off the upper level (which became a Yardhouse) and only used the lower level until it closed many years ago (it couldnt compete with the Tower down the street - go figure). Its still vacant today.

Re: Goodbye Virgin Megastores

Posted: 09 Mar 2009 00:23
by Groceteria
The San Francisco location took forever to construct. It was in a gutted semi-triangular building, probably pre-1920s. I vaguely remember its being under construction when I moved to SF in late 1992, and I think it opened in late 1994 or early 1995. Of course, everything takes forever in SF.

Re: Goodbye Virgin Megastores

Posted: 09 Mar 2009 01:32
by bigbubby
Groceteria wrote:The San Francisco location took forever to construct. It was in a gutted semi-triangular building, probably pre-1920s.
That building was originally Roos Bros. (later Roos-Atkins) clothing store. It was most likely built as part of the reconstruction of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake, as it was there as early as 1909, although the facade had a massive facelift sometime between then and the 1950s.

Re: Goodbye Virgin Megastores

Posted: 09 Mar 2009 09:41
by Groceteria
bigbubby wrote:That building was originally Roos Bros. (later Roos-Atkins) clothing store. It was most likely built as part of the reconstruction of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake, as it was there as early as 1909, although the facade had a massive facelift sometime between then and the 1950s.
Indeed:

http://dshistory.com/stores/roos-atkins_san_francisco/