High Street Closure - Nipper the dog is looking for a new home (HMV's Closing Down).

[Pip Madeley]

Music Zone enters administration

A shame really, I rather like Music Zone, certainly the best high street shop for DVDs and CDs...

[Dave Lewis]

No wonder they're offering 80% off most of their stuff. The one near me only opened last year... I'm not really a fan of it, to be fair.

[Stephen Morgan]

I'm not a fan myself either. I was in there just this very afternoon looking at their 80% off stuff, wasn't very impressed to be honest.

[Wayne]

I've hardly ever bought anything from Music Zone. I always have a look, but they never seem to have anything i want.

[Dave Tudor]

I was quite impressed with Music Zone (the Liverpool branch, to be exact) when I first discovered it, picking up a few cheap CDs there. But since Shrewsbury got a store last year, taking over from MVC, I've been rather less impressed, basically because I realised that there not actually that much cheaper than anywhere else. In fact, I looked in there a few times when I was shopping around for stuff for Christmas, and in a lot of cases, their stock was more expensive.

I wonder if this is once again the result of the internet offering much cheaper home entertainment? For whatever reason, it comes rather soon after MVC going the same way, and I sort of feel sorry for the staff, many of whom at my local Music Zone also faced the same uncertain future at MVC just a year ago.

[Milky Tears]

The one in Glasgow (old Tower Records on Argyle Street) was only opened at the start of December by Matt's Willies. I was in there last week and there wasn't much to tempt me. The Fopp round the corner p*sses all over it.

[Wayne]

there wasn't much to tempt me. The Fopp round the corner p*sses all over it.

Ditto, Nottingham.

[Ralph]

The one in Glasgow (old Tower Records on Argyle Street) was only opened at the start of December by Matt's Willies. I was in there last week and there wasn't much to tempt me. The Fopp round the corner p*sses all over it.

I thought it must be fairly new as I've never heard of them....

[SiHart]

Buying that bit of MVC might have been a mistake in retrospect.

Si xx

[WhiteCrow]

A lot of similar shops seem to be biting the dust at the moment. I remember lovingly a local place "screenshop" (???). Where the guy there who thought he was Quinten Tarentino noticed my wife looking at Underworld, and started to tell her how he'd have done the film, and even tried to give her his phone number.

Fortunately I'm not the jealous type. In fact I gave her my full permission to have an affair with him if she wanted to. She said something about being a "freak magnet", which I didn't know whether to take personally!

[Pip Madeley]

A lot of similar shops seem to be biting the dust at the moment. I remember lovingly a local place "screenshop" (???). Where the guy there who thought he was Quinten Tarentino noticed my wife looking at Underworld, and started to tell her how he'd have done the film, and even tried to give her his phone number.

Fortunately I'm not the jealous type. In fact I gave her my full permission to have an affair with him if she wanted to. She said something about being a "freak magnet", which I didn't know whether to take personally!

What a very odd story!

[Stephen Morgan]

What a very odd story!

I thought exactly the same thing.

[WhiteCrow]

What a very odd story!

I'm full of odd stories me!

[Larry]

to be honest I've never heard of Music Zone, or even seen a branch of theirs around Reading or Bracknell but I don't think it comes as any real supprise as these chains are never going to be able to compete against the established giants of HMV & Virgin.

[Pip Madeley]

Music Zone died a death, will Fopp be next?

Swan song for Fopp?

Fopp, the third largest high street music retailer, has launched a strategic review with its bankers as it struggles to cope with tough market conditions, according to sources close to the company.



The company closed its 50 stores on Friday for an extra-ordinary stock take that rang alarm bells with landlords and advisers. The move came just a week after the company told publishers to halt book supplies on both new orders and range replenishments.

Set up in the early 1980s by Montgomery from a market stall in Glasgow, Fopp has grown into the largest independent music chain in the country with a flagship store on London's Tottenham Court Road. Over the past seven years it has expanded from five to 50 stores specialising in offbeat music sold at "no-nonsense" prices of 8, 10, or 12.

However a bullish move in February to take over 67 stores from the administrators of failed rival Music Zone is understood to have put pressure on cashflow. Rising interest rates have also put pressure on the company, which said in its most recent accounts that it had not hedged interest rates. In those accounts, for the year ended April 2006, the music chain reported a small profit of 184,000 on turnover of just over 40m. The previous year the company made a loss of 329,000.

The troubles at Fopp come amid a wider downturn affecting high street book and music retailers, with market leader HMV reported to be the most shorted share on the London Stock Exchange. Although HMV's shares have rallied recently on news that it could make 100m on the sale of its Japanese business, the stock has suffered from profit warnings and poor sales figures. In a trading update earlier this year the group, which also owns bookstore Waterstone's, reported a 3.5 per cent fall in like for like sales for the 12 months to the end of April.

In a strategic review in March the group made gloomy predictions about continuing falls in DVD sales as a result of competition from digital media, with high street book shops' revenues continuing to suffer from online retailers. To offset the fall in sales the group has proposed a 40m cost-cutting programme. After the closure for stocktaking on Friday, Fopp's 50 stores were open and trading this weekend.

I don't shop in high street stores too much these days, but it's a sad thing.

[Pip Madeley]

From bad to worse for Fopp:

Fopp has stopped taking orders via its website, and is only accepting cash payments within its shops as the chain continues what it described as "genuine and lengthy negotiations with its bank".

The chain is now only taking payments in cash across its entire chain. A notice on the retailer's website said: "Due to circumstances beyond our control we cannot currently take orders online. Sorry for any inconvenience caused." A notice on the tills within it stores stated it was having trouble with its "authorisation systems". A sales assistant said that the situation was "indefinite", adding that it had not received the week's new music releases because of "problems with its suppliers".

Fopp told publishers to stop supplying it with chart and backlist titles almost two weeks ago due to "unforeseen circumstances". The chain later blamed the disruption on the relocation of its warehouse, but publishers claimed they had not been told of the move in advance.

Retail analyst Nick Bubb, from Pali International, said that Fopp's decision in February to take over 67 stores from its failed rival Music Zone could be the cause of current events. "Taking on Music Zone was a risky move considering the retail market in that sector this year," he said. "When even someone like Tesco is saying that entertainment sales are weak it's a sign of the times of how the music and book retail market is performing."

[Pip Madeley]

And now the end of the line:

Fopp closes doors as administration looms
29.06.07 Philiip Jones

Entertainment chain Fopp has officially closed down, it has been confirmed. It follows media reports today that suggested it was about to be put into administration.

A statement put out by its management at 12.30 today read: "It is with great regret that we announce the closure of Fopp. Our chain is profitable, well regarded and loved by our loyal customers and staff. However we have failed to gain the necessary support from major stakeholders, suppliers and their credit insurers to generate sufficient working capital to run our expanding business. We would like to thank staff and customers for their support over the past 25 years."

A shame.

[P-Bal]

My friend was working in our FOPP which opened before Christmas, and apparently the staff haven't been paid yet, which isn't good.

Music Zone's original outstanding debts seem to have crippled it from the start.

[Captain Tancredi]

This sort of thing seems odd, I think because you generally expect large chains of shops to be run by people who know what they're doing and understand things like supply chains and overheads. But then again, now that it's not just online retailers but the supermarkets getting into CDs and DVDs in a serious way and discounting heavily, it may well be impossible to make money as a high street retailer in that particular area unless you have the buying power of a major player or become the specialist shop in a large town.

[P-Bal]

According to my friend, so don't hold me on this, but EMI called in a one million pound debt, which they just couldn't contend with. A last minute buy-out also fell through, so they're still in limbo.

[Ralph]

From the news last Thursday:

HMV struggles in 'severe' market

"Some HMV stores could face closure. Profits at music and book retailer HMV have more than halved as the firm battles against competition from supermarkets and online retailers. The firm made pre-tax profits of 48.1m before exceptional items in the year to 28 April, down from 98.2m a year ago. This was despite sales growing by 3.8% to 1.9bn."

High street music retailers may become a thing of the past...

[Captain Tancredi]

According to my friend, so don't hold me on this, but EMI called in a one million pound debt, which they just couldn't contend with. A last minute buy-out also fell through, so they're still in limbo.

That would tie in with the comment in the official statement about the suppliers and their credit insurers- reading between the lines, it looks as if the money wasn't coming in fast enough to pay their suppliers.

Ralph's comment on HMV is also interesting, not least because their Leeds store is the flagship outlet in a shopping centre which is currently about to be refurbished. It's not beyond imagination that they might pull out of the city centre entirely.

[Perry Vale]

reading between the lines, it looks as if the money wasn't coming in fast enough to pay their suppliers.

That's exactly what happened.

Taking over Music Zone was always going to be risky, imo, but even moreso just before the quiet 'summer' period of trading.

[Lissa]

This came up earlier. We realised that you don't see toy shops in town centres any more. You have your ELC and an out of town Toys R Us but the days of city centre stores are gone. There used to be two or three in Manchester - not one off private shops but chains like Toy and Hobby - and now I don't think there are any. Music and DVD stores look likely to go the same way. At least until the supermarkets are the only ones left selling DVDs, at which point Tescovision and Sainsburyzone stores will start opening.

[Captain Tancredi]

That's not a bad analogy, not least because these days the supermarket chains are also selling toys in the knowledge that parents can bribe their children with a remote controlled Dalek or whatever if they're good while they do the weekly food shop. If the supermarkets can do it cheaper and are just as convenient if not more for CDs and DVDs (because they're selling them somewhere you're going anyway) then you need a reason to go to HMV or Virgin in your lunch hour.