: Thu Feb 19, 2009 9:25 am
Just to clear a few things up, i worked in both Virgin Megastores and Zavvi until 6 months ago and know what is & has been going on.
At the moment the store IS a jumble sale.
This is because until yesterday they were receiving stock from every other Zavvi store in the Country that closed, around 100. Leeds was one of the last to be decided upon because it made money anyway.
Regarding the state of the place, working in such a massive store with around 750,000 items is not easy to index when stock arrives every couple of hours and when customers are treating it like they're vultures it's almost impossible.
It would have cost more to return it to the suppliers who, due to EUK[woolworths] going bust, was now the producing companies like Universal, Sony BMG et al.
As for virgin, like most kids growing up in music, working in a Record shop
was a childhood ambition! It was good at first but as the 00's rolled in, it was trading on past glories and re-brand after re-brand came to nothing.
When the MD took it from Richard Branson they had to use a new name and although it was a random one which most people didn't know, it was giving HMV a run for its money and often outperforming it in many departments. Through no fault of Zavvi did its demise come about.
That is eveident through the MD, who i've met and respect, again refusing to leave the business and market.
He's bought 8 stores to start again. At least it prevents HMV from having a total monopoly.
Suffice to say I'm incredible happy that 24 of my friends ain't lost their jobs and Leeds'll have a shop, albeit called 'Head Entertainment', that will have friendly, knowledgable staff selling you things you don't REALLY need!
