10 Years Ago - last Virgin Megastore closes

[chazraps]

Ten years ago today, the last Virgin Megastore in North America closed. I worked at it as it closed up and wrote a bit reflecting on it today for my station's website: goradiomn.com/10virginclose/

You ever frequent the Virgin Megastores? Have you been to the international ones that are still in operation?

[Deleted]

The Virgin Megastore in Times Square was iconic. I miss it.

[Raskovnik]

I've never been to a Virgin Megastore but I do have a story about one. I was 10 years old when I first started using an Internet forum. It was a Legend of Zelda fansite. I decided to lie about my age because I knew no one would take me seriously if they knew they were conversing with an actual child, so I claimed to be 27 years old. My only real hobbies were reading and writing, so I was able to convincingly type and word things as someone who was beyond my age when it came to most topics, like pop culture stuff or giving generic opinions on the news, but whenever people were just discussing adult things like work I felt really out of my depth. There would be all kinds of threads where people talked about their jobs and while there was never any obligation to participate in those threads, I was paranoid that my cover would be blown if I DIDN'T participate, so I remember racking my brain for about a week about a job that I could plausibly bullshit about, but would be so boring that no one would ask me much in the first place. I would get to save face AND not have to talk about it much, so I thought it would be a win/win if I managed to think up one.

At that time my favorite video game on the planet was Robocop vs The Terminator on Sega Genesis. I'm still not sure why. Anyone who has played it knows that the moment you start it up there's these crunchy synths that start playing, and it shows a Virgin Games logo before going into the intro. I adored that intro so much that it just burned into my head. That's when it hit me: I decided to just say that I worked at the Virgin Megastore. There was one at the mall near me in Sacramento, though I had never set foot inside it, but that was good enough for me. I still remember my first post in the thread, it was something like "Another uneventful day at work. Such is the life of a manager at a Virgin Megastore. It's a living.", because I got all of my cues about work life from cartoons and old sitcoms.

At first things went just as I had hoped. It was plausible enough that people believed me and said "Oh nice!" but didn't push it any further. However, it hit a bump in the road when about a week and a half later I got a private message from some girl who lived in the UK and worked at a Virgin Megastore. She was having some issues in the work place, like feeling she wasn't good enough and didn't know what her managers were looking for, so she thought it was serendipitous that a Virgin Megastore manager happened to be on the same forum as her and was hoping I'd be able to help in anyway. I hella started panicking because I didn't know how my 10 year old ass would spin this one, so I just gave her the most generic encouragement ever, saying stuff like she is a bright girl for whom the sky is the limit, etc. She actually seemed to take it to heart and thanked me, but I was so shook by it and how my life had become a lie that I actually stopped visiting the website for 2 weeks, which felt like an eternity because I was on there all day every day during summer vacation (my cover for being on the computer all the time despite ostensibly being at work was that it's what managers at Virgin Megastores are actually up to while everyone else is working, and this actually made me look more legit because the UK girl was like "checks out!"), and by the time I decided to log back in everyone was just glad to have me back because I was a really active user so they were a bit worried when I suddenly disappeared. My cover was never blown, and no one solicited me for advice ever again, but I still felt like a fugitive every time I logged in so I eventually stopped going.

[DZ: WF Legacy]

I took a few videos on an old digital camera of the one in Downtown Disney (aka Disney Springs) around 2008. Never uploaded them anywhere, but I know I still have them somewhere. I was absolutely in love with the place. They actually carried music I listened to, they had vinyl before a lot of places started carrying it again, and they even had a bunch of video game stuff. I walked out with a bunch of hard to find Porcupine Tree off-shoots/live albums, a few Agalloch cds, a History of the WWE Championship DVD, and a really cool Dig Dug shirt. I must've went like 3 times during my trip there.

[Jiren]

I loved our Virgin Megastore, plenty of stuff in their horror & Anime sections.

Nowadays it's pointless even going into town as all we have is 1 HMV & a CEX, most of my DVD/Blu ray shopping is Amazon.

[thirteen3]

The Virgin Megastore in Buchanan Street in Glasgow was pretty cool when it was open. It had pinball machines and Arcade cabinets. Bought my first Blu Ray movie there, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Then it became an HMV and then that closed not long after. It's now a JD sports. *shudder*

One of the reason why it's so pointless for me to go into town now. I either download my games on steam or buy them from Amazon (even more now that G-Force is closing down) and everything else i get is from a nearby supermarket.

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

Jun 15, 2019 7:35:23 GMT -5 Jiren said:

I loved our Virgin Megastore, plenty of stuff in their horror & Anime sections.

Nowadays it's pointless even going into town as all we have is 1 HMV & a CEX, most of my DVD/Blu ray shopping is Amazon.

You should try eBay if you don’t already. I made the mistake of thinking Amazon was the best place for DVDs last year then looked at eBay and saw you can get items in new condition at a fraction of the price.

[Jiren]

Jun 15, 2019 8:19:18 GMT -5 KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! said:

Jun 15, 2019 7:35:23 GMT -5 Jiren said:

I loved our Virgin Megastore, plenty of stuff in their horror & Anime sections.

Nowadays it's pointless even going into town as all we have is 1 HMV & a CEX, most of my DVD/Blu ray shopping is Amazon.

You should try eBay if you don’t already. I made the mistake of thinking Amazon was the best place for DVDs last year then looked at eBay and saw you can get items in new condition at a fraction of the price.

I do now and then.

I only buy DVD's & Blu's when they're dirt cheap

[Eunös ✈]

The Virgin Megastores in the UK are sadly long gone too, they became Zavvi for a little while but then they ended up going bust.

We still have HMV though they have come dangerously close to going out of business a few times.

[Cyno]

I've been to the Virgin Megastore in Union Square in NYC a few times. Never bought anything there, but it was interesting to walk around.

[Natural Born Farmer]

Spent entirely too much of my teenage grocery store job money here on $20 CDs. And they wonder why people took to digital music like a fish to water.

[Perd]

wweshop.con is a virgin megastore.

[Hit Girl]

"Virgin Megastore" was false advertising.

[Jiren]

Seeing people mentioning the times square shop I have fond memories of going there in 2005 when I was on holiday and bought every season of Viva is Bam.

Don't you judge me

[4real]

I remember being sad they closed down here because that was all I spent my money on back then, music or DVD’s.

Don’t have any music stores near where I live now that HMV closed down near me. Closest one I think would be either in Brighton or London probably which are long drives for me.

Worst memory of a Virgin Megastore was meeting Kurt Angle in Birmingham when I went to Uni there. Well he was advertised anyway but instead we got Spike Dudley & Hardcore Holly. Holly looked like he wanted to be anywhere else. Spike was nice though and complimented my JBL costume.

[Sir Woodrow]

Jun 14, 2019 20:19:39 GMT -5 chazraps said:

Ten years ago today, the last Virgin Megastore in North America closed. I worked at it as it closed up and wrote a bit reflecting on it today for my station's website: goradiomn.com/10virginclose/

You ever frequent the Virgin Megastores? Have you been to the international ones that are still in operation?

Wait, you worked at the Last American Virgin Megastore?

What was it like? Did it start off as a funny little romp and then get serious and heartbreakingly depressing right at the end?

And another thing, Disney and Warner Brothers stores I can understand but I'm surprised a low budget Golan Globus Cannon movie got its very own chain

[adamclark52]

I only once went to the one in Times Square. I was so impressed that they had this obscure CD by a German black metal band called Helrunnar that I had to buy it. I didn’t even want the album (it turned out to not be that great) but I was just impressed that they had it.

I would have liked to have gone again. We didn’t have them in Canada and I’ve never been to Times Square since. I went in 2008 so I think it closed shortly afterwards.

[Deleted]

Went to the one in Disney World when I was 12. Was stunned by the size of it.

[Guacamole Anderson]

I used to hit the one on Michigan Avenue in Chicago pretty frequently.

Jeez, has it really been ten years?