Oh Shit – Fopp Closes Down
I don’t know if the news that Fopp are shutting down makes my earlier post about small record shops complete nonsense or all the more poignant. It’s bloody shit, whatever it is. Bye Fopp, thanks for everything.
Apparently they say their chain of shops is still profitable, which seems strange given it was a refusal of their creditors to ‘extend working capital’ that finally did for them. I would imagine it is related to their purchase a few months back of around 60 or 70 Musiczone stores that has over-extended them, although I don’t know anything about the details.
Rumour currently has it that a few of the shops may re-open once the administrator has sniffed about for a bit. I hope so, Fopp has always been just about my favourite record shop and it would be a crying shame if they vanished for good. HMV are struggling too apparently – profits are down a pretty hefty 73%. High street music sales clearly are not where it’s at right now. Sad movies, yahoos, sad movies.
The Stills – Love & Death
Gutted, gutted, gutted. Desperately hope that some of the stores will re-open, both as a former employee, but more importantly, as a regular, faithful customer.
We’re heartbroken. Browsing the aisles at Fopp has been the highlight of just about every trip into the centre of Manchester for the past two or three years and usually the reason to go into town in the first place.
Well in particular during my student days in Glasgow I used to just stop by on the way home from Uni nearly every day.
I could, and perhaps should, make either a post or podcast based entirely on the tunes Fopp brought into my life.
Hmm. A former employee at Fopp has been posting some interesting stuff at the Gedge Board:
http://ilovedavidgedge.proboards67.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1183057098
Thanks for helping us out yesterday! Your vote was greatly appreciated!!
Kip
I read that, C&B, and I can see why the lad is so pissed off. But I’ve worked at a struggling company before, and the directors are generally panicking as much as everyone else and trying desperately to scrounge together every last penny to try and keep things afloat. Not that I’m justifying their behaviour, but I’m not all that surprised.
But looking on the bright side Rough Trade are opening a massive new store in the East End of London – 5 mins from where I am when in London for worky meetings!
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article1995894.ece
Obviously written before Fopp announcement though.
Cheers
Rich
Wow, that looks cool. You jammy Southern bastards!