Oh, Monseur le Fopp, you are really spoiling us...

Emmas album is very laid back, 60s styled pop music and rather nice, if a little cheesy, perfect for when your ears need some light easy listening relief, whereas Robbies album is hilarious/offensive - easily worth the 3 coins for the sheer 'WTF!' factor, and the Pet Shop Boys tracks are gorgeous.
still not spun the Prince one ..

I never understood the criticism that album got which seemed seperate from the usual Williams hate, as if it was much worse than his other albums. It's probably his most interesting record. He did release the absolute worst choice as first single though, that didn't help.

Marketing people should pick up on this generally; there are some albums which you wouldn't mind buying for three quid but would shirk at paying full price or even the £10/11/12 Fopp new release price template, and I think both Rudebox and Life In Mono fit into that category very easily. They probably would have ended up selling more copies as well.

Indeed, if Fopp sales qualified for the chart, Rob'd be outselling TakeThat now.

Fopp going into liquidation rumours, anyone?

Overstretch?

HMV are having a bit of a DVD chuckout sale: MIB box (2 films, 4 discs) £3.

They said they had Clockwork Orange for £3 also, but I found none save the £10 ones.

Fopp going into liquidation rumours, anyone?

just came on to post this too - cheap stuff, even cheaper!

According to someone on the DiS boards there are three current theories amongst staff:

* closing down all but the top 40 performing stores.
* someone is buying out the bigger ones and they're closing down the smaller ones
* closing all of them

However:

But a girl who works in Fopp Truro just rang my boyfriend, who sells his band's CDs in there, to tell him to come and pick them up cos they're closing down! So from the horse's mouth, Fopp = dead...

Some other quotes/speculation:

someone on my other forum who has connections in the music world: "I'm being told by more than one source that Fopp have gone bust after being cut off by their distributors. It seems all stores are closed today."

someone else says "There are reports saying it's all one big stock take but it seems unlikely. Apparently they will all be open for trade again tomorrow."

A friend of mine who is in the music retail business in Scotland has given a pretty full picture of this but remember that NONE OF THIS IS CONFIRMED. It seems that Fopp wanted to buy Music Zone for a while knowing that they were in trouble. They waited until Music Zone went bust so that they would get all the stock cheap - the bust "Music Zone" being the debtor rather than the newly formed "MZ 2007" set up by Fopp. The distributors disagreed and billed Fopp for stock not yet paid up by Music Zone, claiming that Fopp were now responsible for all debts. Fopp refused to pay. The distributors cut Fopp off, refusing them restocks and new releases. It is being reported that they declared voluntary bankruptcy yesterday.

I'm now hearing that the company's auditors were instructed to undertake an immediate full stocktake as a consequnce of the ongoing dispute over Music Zone's stocks and that all stores are expected to be open tomorrow. Whether or not they are bankrupt is not yet confirmed.

This is a bit sad, I feel like me and Fopp grew up together!

... still down there tomorrow to pick over the corpse! Luvvly!

I feel obliged to say:

Noooo... THEY BE TAKING MY FOPP AWAY!!!!

"Monsieur Fopp, Monsieur Fopp
Is it true what mummy says
You won't come back
Oh no-oh no-oh no"

i know fopp is dead - long live fopp!

I feel obliged to say:

Noooo... THEY BE TAKING MY FOPP AWAY!!!!

Q: which one ?

was it an ex Music Zone / MVC store

I was in Glasgow yesterday and didn't even go to fopp after I spent all my money in Monorailmusic.

No wonder they went out of business! The amount you spend on CDs!

A4 sheet on the door of the Glasgow Fopp says "Closed for stock taking"

Where they takin it?

When Quique was reissued I went into Fopp and I asked the staff when I couldn't find it (because I'm never really sure what section anything will be in there) and they said "er, no, and we can't order it because we're having trouble with distributors... (looks on computer) oh no, wait, they're with the one distribution company that's still ok, we probably could."

I've heard enough grumbling about music distros that I didn't think much of it at the time, but now I've read this news...

Maybe it's hypocritical to be sad at Fopp going because when they opened here (only last year) I was annoyed that the independent shops would have to close and they did, but I'd take a Fopp over not having anywhere except HMV and Virgin, which is what Oxford will have by the end of the year.

Any point in my going to the TCR one in about an hour's time or is that closed for stock taking as well?

Checked elsewhere and TCR is shut for "stock taking" although there appears to be little stock taking going on and quite a lot of plastic crates in situ.

same situation in Bristol ..

the stock-taking is apparently to see what assets they have, if they are bankrupt or not.

i remember the day i fell in love with fopp. in HMV in Union Street in Glasgow i'd found Deserters Songs - but it was £17.99! I really wanted it but thought I'd try the NKOTB across the road, where I found it for £7, and a whole load of other treasures besides

i blame amazon marketplace for taking my eye off the ball :(

I got vouchers for Father's Day :-(

Having said that, on Monday they were having a "warehouse clearance" so perhaps that will continue until their warehouse is cleared.

It would be good to know for sure if they're going to be open tomorrow so that I can use my vouchers, so if anyone knows...

Griff Rhy Jones was in buying cheapo DVDS on Monday, perhaps he had insider information.

Apparently Fopp has been having distro problems for a while. The manager of a certain rubbish Glasgow rock trio whose name rhymes with Whiffy Spiro apparently went into one of the Glasgow stores and had a go at the manager as there were no copies available in the two Fopps. Not the staff's fault of course - the distro had refused to send it out.

I bet HMV and co will be delighted if FOPP goes. People weren't paying a tenner for their cds because FOPP was a fiver.

I wonder if its the same situation as happened with Missing Records.
They expanded to lots of shops and the money wasn't there. Missing had trouble with paying bills for years and a few times they weren't getting new stuff in. They closed some shops and concentrated on the one store. Then they closed the basement of that and eventually moved to a smaller shop and then after a while went second hand only because they couldn't get new stuff in.

So did anyone get into FOPP today?

Or are they all still shut?

i didn't go in but apparently most were open today and only accepting cash "because the credit card machines are out of order" :/

I see..

Just checked the website (online ordering, etc)

Due to circumstances beyond our control we cannot currently take orders online. We should be back to full operation early next week. Sorry for any inconvenience caused. -Fopp Webteam

If Fopp can't survive in the current climate then every other bricks and mortar operation may as well pack up now.

<i>If Fopp can't survive in the current climate</i>

this sounds like a specific cock-up rather than a general decline -- even if they weren't overstretching themselves anyway by adding 60+ stores to 40something. The credit card thing is a dead giveaway -- cash taken in for current stock presumably easier to hide from the MVC creditors' lawyers if this story is true.

I managed to offload my vouchers in the Reading shop. (Phew!)

But now that I know about it, it does seem quite obvious that the stocks are not being replenished. There were no crazy bargains to be had (unlike TCR last Monday) and the satff seemed to have a (possibly imagined) air of resignation. And there were only three of them.

What I got with my vouchers-

Folk is not a Four Letter Word Vol 1
Suicide - 2nd Album

and from TCR carzy bargain warehouse clearance last Monday (price in pounds in brackets) -

Classics from John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1)
Sonic Youth - The Destroyed Room (3)
The Style Council - Our Favourite Shop 2 CD Deluxe Edition (3)
The Shadows of Love Intense Tamla 1966-1968 (1)
Hard Workin' Man The Jack Nitzsche Story Volume 2 (1)
and
Soundgarden - Screaming Life/Fopp (1) (didn't really want this, but got it to make it up to a tenner for the lot - would have preferred TAD).

I reckon TCR is still worth a look if they are still having a "warehouse clearance".

Bargain hunters may be more interested in the HMV sale, particularly for DVDs. 14 Hitchcock films for 25 quid, although our Rear Window is faulty and has to go back :-(

If the rumours for the reasons behind Fopp's difficulties are true, I have to say what a bunch of prize plonkers.

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>

I wish I'd read this thread on Friday before buying a substantial ammount of Fopp vouchers for my best mate's birthday. Bollocks.

Where is TCR? What is it?

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.

Ach, TotCtRd.

Guess Rdg won't have an "FavShop" for £3. Will check tho.

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

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.

OK, so I keep thiinking it's some sort of "Total Control Retail" named shop about to go under. Baah,,,,,////....

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.

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.

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.

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.

can't download a book

So is Revival/Reckless any cheaper or are the prices the same as before they closed?

Anyone been to TCR Fopp today?

I went to Reading Fopp, it's like they say: No sale other than cash, no price reductions, noticeable thinning of stock.

what a palarver.

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.