update:
http://tinyurl.com/yvepzh
<i>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. Gordon Montgomery, the chairman and a major shareholder, denied the company is considering calling in the administrators although he admitted there are problems with falling sales. He said: "We are experiencing difficulties. However, I can categorically state we will not go into administration."</i>
― djmartian, Sunday, 24 June 2007 13:56 (sixteen years ago) link
I wish I'd read this thread on Friday before buying a substantial ammount of Fopp vouchers for my best mate's birthday. Bollocks.
― rockford, Sunday, 24 June 2007 22:49 (sixteen years ago) link
Where is TCR? What is it?
― Mark G, Monday, 25 June 2007 07:12 (sixteen years ago) link
Tottenham Court Road, Mark. Da big Fopp.
Vouchers still valid, Rockford. Also the receipt for goods purchased with vouchers is the same as any other receipt, so if absolutely desperate you could buy something and then take it back under the "suck it and see" clause.
― PJ Miller, Monday, 25 June 2007 08:05 (sixteen years ago) link
Ach, TotCtRd.
Guess Rdg won't have an "FavShop" for £3. Will check tho.
― Mark G, Monday, 25 June 2007 08:26 (sixteen years ago) link
TCR update? time's a wastin. -- Roughage Crew (Enrique), Monday, July 17, 2006 1:36 PM (11 months ago) Bookmark Link
What's TCR, my friend? -- mark grout (mark grout), Monday, July 17, 2006 1:39 PM (11 months ago) Bookmark Link
The stop on the Northern Line between WS and LS. -- Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, July 17, 2006 1:51 PM (11 months ago) Bookmark Link
or GS and LS. -- Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, July 17, 2006 1:51 PM (11 months ago) Bookmark Link
Tottingham Court Road. I wish to vist Fopp today.
-- PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, July 17, 2006 1:51 PM (11 months ago) Bookmark Link
― That one guy that quit, Monday, 25 June 2007 08:31 (sixteen years ago) link
dvds in hmv are mad cheap right now. it does look like fopp has overextended itself.
re "closing down all but the top 40 performing stores." -- amazed they have even 20 anyway. it wasn't so long ago that they had about six.
― That one guy that quit, Monday, 25 June 2007 08:34 (sixteen years ago) link
OK, so I keep thiinking it's some sort of "Total Control Retail" named shop about to go under. Baah,,,,,////....
― Mark G, Monday, 25 June 2007 08:46 (sixteen years ago) link
Reckless in Berwick Street is temporarily "back" though - even if they're calling themselves Revival Records; it's the same stock and the same staff, but it looks as though they're simply selling off the stock they already have and then will probably go 100% online.
― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 25 June 2007 09:38 (sixteen years ago) link
this has already happened with 2nd hand bookshops a lot, but regular bookshops still seem to survive -- unlike, apparently, regular record shops. hmv and waterstones are in the same company. i suppose the advantage of a bookshop is you can go in and check the goods before purchase, but with cds there's no real advantage over the internet unless they've got a bbig sale on. which can't be good for profits.
― That one guy that quit, Monday, 25 June 2007 09:50 (sixteen years ago) link
i'm amazed they have so many too, it seems a bit foolish, really. fwiw, the first 6 fopps were in scotland before you had even heard of fopp.
― jed_, Monday, 25 June 2007 12:22 (sixteen years ago) link
can't download a book
― acrobat, Monday, 25 June 2007 12:33 (sixteen years ago) link
So is Revival/Reckless any cheaper or are the prices the same as before they closed?
Anyone been to TCR Fopp today?
― Colonel Poo, Monday, 25 June 2007 12:33 (sixteen years ago) link
I went to Reading Fopp, it's like they say: No sale other than cash, no price reductions, noticeable thinning of stock.
― Mark G, Monday, 25 June 2007 12:39 (sixteen years ago) link
what a palarver.
― That one guy that quit, Monday, 25 June 2007 12:44 (sixteen years ago) link
It shows what I know, but I thought that if I had to pick one music chain store that might not see a long-term decline of sales and/ or revenue, it might be Fopp, since their prices were just about rational. This is all a bit of a pity.
― Neil S, Monday, 25 June 2007 12:54 (sixteen years ago) link
I still feel like it was "our little secret" as HMV is madly packed at weekends and evenings/late shopping days.
― Mark G, Monday, 25 June 2007 12:57 (sixteen years ago) link
So, at the risk of this thread having not much longer to run:
What's cheap at Fopp still?
The Sly/Family Stone remasters are still a fiver, although they only had "A whole new world" left.
(Special TCR offers don't count: Help the UK here)
― Mark G, Monday, 25 June 2007 12:58 (sixteen years ago) link
Revival/Reckless - same prices and in most cases the same price tags.
― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 25 June 2007 13:44 (sixteen years ago) link
-- Mark G, Monday, June 25, 2007 6:57 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link
yeah -- even though it's huge and everywhere, i still meet people who havne't heard of it. i guess it doesn't advertise as much as hmv.
i am so there for the sly remasters.
― That one guy that quit, Monday, 25 June 2007 14:04 (sixteen years ago) link
You may be too late tho.
― Mark G, Monday, 25 June 2007 14:11 (sixteen years ago) link
It's still there, isn't it? Was on Sunday anyway.
― Tom D., Tuesday, 26 June 2007 09:24 (sixteen years ago) link
i'm going to the cambridge branch in a bit. i am sure i went to TCR on friday and that it was open, tbh. my memory may be shot, i guess.
― That one guy that quit, Tuesday, 26 June 2007 09:36 (sixteen years ago) link
I think I'm going to take a look at the TCR one at lunch today.
― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 26 June 2007 09:51 (sixteen years ago) link
If they've got a cheap "Our fav shop" grab me one?
― Mark G, Tuesday, 26 June 2007 10:02 (sixteen years ago) link
Well that was rubbish. Same as usual except they only take cash. Supposedly a sale on but it was one aisle of crap.
― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 26 June 2007 13:24 (sixteen years ago) link
However, if you're looking for Twisted Sister live albums, today's your lucky day.
I also went to day, marvelled at the aisle of crap, and left empty-handed. I did have a look for Our Favourite Shop though, and they had four copies @ 15 quid a pop. Makes me wonder if that feeding frenzy was all a dream.
There was a recenet Bert Jansch album for a quid, if anyone digs that kind of thing. It boasts Bernie Butler, Hope Sandoval and Dave Swarbrick among its guest appearances. I bet it's quite good, but I couldn't be arsed.
― PJ Miller, Tuesday, 26 June 2007 18:35 (sixteen years ago) link
they didn't have very many sly albums in cambridge. they also had a sale o'crap.
― That one guy that quit, Tuesday, 26 June 2007 18:46 (sixteen years ago) link
Ah well, all I can say is:
GET WELL SOON, FOPP!
― Mark G, Wednesday, 27 June 2007 08:33 (sixteen years ago) link
Well, I went to get (or find) what may be gone forever if I don't buy it now:
The first two Stooges CDs with the extra discs, £6 each.
May be the last time, I don't know.....
― Mark G, Wednesday, 27 June 2007 13:00 (sixteen years ago) link
couldn't find the general thread about british record shops dying so i'll put it here
HMV on the slide
In the heart of London's record-collecting district, more and more small shops are pulling down their shutters for the last time.
― acrobat, Thursday, 28 June 2007 08:27 (sixteen years ago) link
But note that sales are up by 3.8% by value, so it must be their costs that are the problem. Or just that margins are being squeezed by having to sell things at a more reasonable price. Given that prices are falling, that 3.8% increase must equate to a much larger rise in volumes.
All this is further evidence that we're actually doing OK in the UK, especially in comparison with the US. We now buy the most music per head of any country in the world.
― Jamie T Smith, Thursday, 28 June 2007 08:41 (sixteen years ago) link
And Fopp's troubles seem entirely self-inflicted.
(They lost £15 of my business with this cash only lark. I left my CDs on the counter.)
― Jamie T Smith, Thursday, 28 June 2007 08:43 (sixteen years ago) link
I do hope the Oxford Street HMV keeps its range, though. It's pretty special.
It has got noticeably worse recently, though. The singles section was pretty amazing and is now not, although you can understand that.
You'd think it could make sense to keep it as the (possibly loss-leading) flagship store, even if sales migrate online.
― Jamie T Smith, Thursday, 28 June 2007 08:47 (sixteen years ago) link
So if the distributors are refusing to deal with Fopp, who exactly are they selling to instead? You would have thought they'd be glad of the business in the current climate, or maybe I'm misunderstanding the way it works.
― Matt #2, Thursday, 28 June 2007 08:58 (sixteen years ago) link
If Oxford Circus HMV loses its range we may as well shut the door on London and turn off the light.
― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 28 June 2007 09:02 (sixteen years ago) link
I DID think it was strange that they didn't have the new Pet Shop Boys album in both TCR and Cambridge Circus Fopp's that I went into last night! Oh...
― Sarah, Thursday, 28 June 2007 10:37 (sixteen years ago) link
They're out of the Wilburys too.
― Mark G, Thursday, 28 June 2007 11:45 (sixteen years ago) link
the fopp in central glasgow was shut today
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 28 June 2007 18:09 (sixteen years ago) link
tcr fopp had fewer sly LPs than cambridge ;_;
― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 28 June 2007 18:17 (sixteen years ago) link
<i>He (HMV spokesperson) added that efforts were under way to "reduce our dependence" on the sale of physical music such as CDs.
These efforts include selling digital downloads in store and continuing to expand its online business. </i>
Is there any demand for digital downloads in store?
― Bob Six, Thursday, 28 June 2007 18:29 (sixteen years ago) link
supposedly it's all over. gone. kaput. adios.
― stirmonster, Thursday, 28 June 2007 18:53 (sixteen years ago) link
The Glasgow one has been closed since the initial "stocktaking" thing.
From: http://www.retail-week.com/nav?page=retailweek.news.detail&resource=6897573
In its accounts for the year to April 2006, Fopp posted a £184,000 profit on sales of £40 million.
That is one shitty sales:profit ratio.
― onimo, Thursday, 28 June 2007 19:04 (sixteen years ago) link
The Times:
Music chain in talks with administrators http://tinyurl.com/29d99x Fopp, one of Britain's biggest music retailers, is readying to appoint Ernst & Young amid crisis talks with bankers
― djmartian, Thursday, 28 June 2007 19:07 (sixteen years ago) link
after telling some staff that they would not receive their pay packet tomorrow
Let's hope the staff emptied those cash only tills before going home.
― onimo, Thursday, 28 June 2007 19:17 (sixteen years ago) link
what a mess :(
― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 28 June 2007 19:27 (sixteen years ago) link
this is our tower records
the chain of ruin...
Woolworths sell MVC stores to a new private company who run into cashflow problems and go into administration, who then sell the stores onto to Music Zone who run into cashflow problems and enter administration, company is wound up, after this Fopp agree to acquire 67 Music Zone stores in February and now in June 2007 it seems Fopp have called in the administrators.
Classic case of expanding too fast without the necessary finance.
There are three likely outcomes now:
1 Fopp are sold to a private equity company who inject cash into the company with Gordon Montgomery staying on [the current Chairman and founder]. This could be an option of agreeing to taking ownership of a company for a significantly reduced price but taking on existing debt and short-term cashflow problems. Gordon Montgomery would see his shareholdings in the company significantly reduced.
2 another retail? company acquires Fopp, but who?
3 The administrator cannot find a private equity partner or a company to buy Fopp as a going concern and the company is wound up.
― djmartian, Thursday, 28 June 2007 19:28 (sixteen years ago) link
i hadn't realized they'd taken on MVC/Music Zone. doh!
― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 28 June 2007 19:32 (sixteen years ago) link