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FOPP in trouble

stevied said:
Bugger! Fopp was my music shop of choice in Bath. I felt *dirty* if I had to go into HMV and don't relish the thought of having to do it again :(

Anyway, I hope they somehow sort themselves out and re-open.
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Only Fopp I ever went to was in Bath - a really neat little store - and they knew what I was talking about (Comus) whereas in HMV in Swindon you just got the spawn of Mick Parry.

Guy
 
Oh well, I guess that's one reason not to go to Reading on the weekend.
The people who haven't got their wages should club together and send the bailiffs around to the shops!
 
Arse, and in fact bugger.

A few of thier stores did vinyl, like the Glasgow, Bristol, Shaftsbury Avenue, and the new on in Guildford, many of the others had very limited range.

But the £5 CD, cheap books and DVDs were always worth a look at, I rarely left without something interesting.

Another bad sign for the High Street independent music retailer.

HMV want to move to selling more gadgets and hardware (which you can't download!)

DS

ITIR - Various - Min2Max
 
I think they may have gone mad with expansion eh? They even opened one in Andover. I live in Andover and its a shit pit full of chavs who couldn't give a shit because the content would not make their Nova's sound louder.

If they opened one in Andover, well there is a gaping wound for a business right there. And they were springing up everywhere.
 
You're not wrong there Garyi, and Andover isn't even the worst garrison town by a long way.
 
I think it safe to say the internet in one form and another has pretty much killed highstreet music sales. HMV is struggling and Virgin is no doubt being propped up by other areas of his business.
 
Plus ca change ...

Bloody low-quality shit downloads...

Real little record-tape-CD shops have almost all gone, and only recently despite daughters' advice did I find the £5 stuff in FOPP.

All their best to their staff.

If this carrys on, we'll all have to make our own music...

I like apples/cheap moderate cider, but **** off IPhone and all of that bollox.

Recently, UK Asda stopped stocking CD singles.

Now all I have left is Virgin real-shops (!), and HMV/amazon - all - Playcom online, plus a few US or Japanese importers.

Although I have bought 5 otherwise legally unobtainable songs online from ITunes, I still shall not install ITunes on this Vista m/c.

Meatloaf sounded ok free from a few hundred yards away in Bristol last night when the wind dropped.
 
garyi said:
I think they may have gone mad with expansion eh?
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Maybe. The old Fopp in Aberdeen was an interesting place that always seemed to be busy - they moved to larger premises in the centre of town, and became utterly characterless. Last time I was in there was a totally unenjoyable buying experience, I got the impression that they could have been selling anything. Didn't feel like a record shop at all, more like a fast-food joint.
 
fox said:
Who gets the old stock? Where and when will it be sold off?
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The receivers and then whoever they sell on to.
The wife who is a director of one of the biggest companies on Tottenham Court Road couldn't believe that a music company was opening such a big store in central London in the internet age.
Seems that the straw that broke the camels back was the purchase of Music Zone.
Fopp was a much better place than ViginHMVinc. Hope something gets to live on from it.
 
I just don't get it. Music Zone bought out MVC, in Salisbury and Andover they didn;t even bother to change the signs. Then they went out of business. but in Andover Fopp opened in a new premise not the old music zone one.

It almost sounds like a hell for leather, do or die sort of thing as opposed to any sort of real sound business plan.

They still were not as cheap as amazon any how, but long and short is no music in Andover.

I should point out however Andover has 8 million charity shops, 3 Clintons (seriously) a car hifi shop and a crack convertors. I thought I would buy a harddrive this weekend, and there is no where in Andover where this could occur.
 
Hi Guys,

This just in from a friend, "Fopp has finally shut down "due to incompetent senior management/greed" so the notice on the door says." He was referring to the store in Shaftesbury Avenue, London.

Never my favourite shop but I agree that the concept looked sound enough. Oh well!

Best regards,
Mole Man
 
I think it is the curse of MVC, who went bust. "The new lot has got to better than the current management", said the staff who were transferring to Music Zone, who also promptly also went bust, selling their best stores onto Fopp...

Fopp recently opened a nice bright shiny new shop in Horsham (just before Music Zone went bust..) and almost exactly at the same time that HMV opened a new shop. Now there is just HMV. Better than nothing I suppose.
 
I used to go the Fopp in Byers Road, Glasgow, when I was at Uni, that was brill, so bloody cheap and a great range of music, I always ended up speding £80 -100 every time I went in, the expanstion and opening of a large quantity of Fopp shops recently must have cost them a packed. I went to the Tottenham Court Road store about three weeks ago, went back the last two weeks to find it closed.

Not suprised at all, the record buisness is in serious trouble, I have quite a few freinds who have record Labels, been going for 10 -15 -20 years and alot of them are srcaping a living, some are looking at getting out the buisness altogether.

The younger generation, seem to be happy with the quality MP3, and to copy all or as much music as they can. its been a long time coming, but within the next 5 years there will not be any high street music stores in the UK.

It would seem the only people making money are the like of Apple Itunes etc, The majors label will be vertually wiped out within the next 10 years. A lot of indipendants are struggling. The music busuiness is in a bloody mess. live performance is the only guarentee of earning a crust in the business for a lot of Artists, that and self promotion using the interweb.

FOPP will be sadly missed by me.

G
 
Was amazing that at a time when high st recorded music retailers sales were already in freefall that anyone was willing to finance their rapid expansion and acquisition. For what it's worth I liked their Tottenham Court Road store's pricing policy on CDs but found the store itself anodyne, the range of vinyl paltry and the filing system perverse. I hope that the few remaining in centrla London like Sister Ray (nee Selectadisc) survive, guess it's in our hands and wallets.
 
I went in yesterday (nottingham) Pans Labyrinth and best of the Cars (yea I know) £10, nice.

Pete
 
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