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

Would another retailer buy the Fopp chain / brand?

Tesco: Are always looking to expand

WHsmith: Once owned Our Price.

Woolworths: would they buy the Fopp Brand for a knock down price and once again enter the specialist music chain business.

Sir Alan Sugar

if they owe both employees and the bank then they are operating under a very different definition of "profitable" than the one most people i know are familiar with

Onimo is right. Many companies run with high levels of debt at the same time as being profitable. It's not realistic to fund operations with cash. But if they get to a situation when investors not only don't see a positive return in the medium term, but think they may actally lose money, with no prospect of ever getting it back, they'll cut and run.

Funny, I had to rescue this thread from "unanswered questions" before it managed to get going...

PJM - I shall miss your exhortations for people to 'suck it and see' when ever they're not sure about a record. :)

I never used that facility myself. That must mean that I'm still sucking.

So...*cough*...anybody heard anything about a closing down sale?

That never happens

Presumably distributors get their stock back - or some of it.

I remember the Virgin Megastore in Glasgow (beside Central Station) had a closing down sale - there were queues outside it - but that's the last one I remember

It is thought the stores are closed temporarily and some may be re-opened once the administrator has examined the books.

So, who knows (as yet)

It is thought the stores are closed temporarily and some may be re-opened once the administrator has examined the books.

I never reckoned much with the book section myself.

RIP Fopp. The best record store Leamington Spa ever had for sure. This stinks.

-- Ned Trifle II, Thursday, 28 June 2007 22:10 (Yesterday) Link

Amen - the internet will be the only option for me now :(

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6252300.stm

Analysts say that the chain has been hit by the rise of supermarkets and online retailers selling CDs and DVDs, as well as the surging popularity of downloading music from the internet.

I can't see supermarkets in direct competition with Fopp apart from new release indie albums, which were (I assume) a tiny part of Fopp's sales.

Where else can you pick up all this back catalogue stuff new, assuming you want a physical disk?

supermarkets are not the main competition for fopp.

Where else can you pick up all this back catalogue stuff new, assuming you want a physical disk?

Amazon. Often for the same price.

Internet sales are probably a bigger problem for high street stores than downloading, illegal or otherwise, I should think.

Aye, that's my belief.

supermarkets are not the main competition for fopp.

Indeed. So why so many outlets?

I thought most Amazon marketplace stuff was 2nd hand, or at least the stuff that was comparable with Fopp on price? Also Amazon marketplace = + postage.

Fopp's online shop was a bit of a mess to navigate for most of its life, I think the statement above re online/download sales is true for most retailers except Fopp.

Between Amazon and HMV.co.uk you can get pretty much anything at the price Fopp would have had it, I'd wager. It may be second-hand from a seller, or sourced from Caiman or whatever, or take two weeks, but it's do-able.

but for how long?

I thought most Amazon marketplace stuff was 2nd hand, or at least the stuff that was comparable with Fopp on price? Also Amazon marketplace = + postage.

a lot of it is new + what nick said

Yeah lots is brand new. Same for ebay shops.

In reality there aren't many big players in the UK online CD shopping market in the UK:

big 3 "internet only" e-commerce CD retailers

Amazon (the market leaders)
CD-Wow (limited range)
Play.com

lesser known:

Powerplay direct
Streetsonline / Audiostreet
thehut.com

Specialists retailers that have e-commerce websites:
HMV
Virgin Megastores

major retailers that sell CDs on-line:
Asda
Boots [powered by theHut.com]
WHSmith
Woolworths
Tesco

Sainsburys have stopped selling CDs on-line.

You're forgetting something: www.ebay.co.uk

eBay is an e-commerce platform made up of many sellers

http://music.ebay.co.uk/

Thanks for that link - not sure it'll catch on though.

rofl

Yes, I know, but since we're talking about websites taking business away from high street stores, Ebay is huge.

xpost!

It's cheaper for me to buy cds and lps from the USA, even with their recent hike in postage charges.

Yeah, a few times lately I've ordered stuff from Amazon.com and even with $7 postage it generally works out at only about $20 or so, and current exchange rate makes that a tenner, there or thereabouts.

gotta watch out for customs :(

Not if it's a 'gift' which it will be if the seller has any sense

I got busted a couple of times by customs ordering from CDNow way back when. There's still a limit for gifts, but I think it's quite a bit higher.

caiman have stiffed me twice on that score. it was still cheaper than uk though.

I must say I balked at paying the $7 postage charge US->UK the other day. Monsieur le Fopp's £5 and £6 racks really have spoiled me! Now I even quibble at paying more than $12 (inc postage) on Amazon marketplace. :(

/stingygit

how do you afford to buy so many cds and lps, Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy?

I'm up for buying and running one of the fopp stores. I reckon I can contribute £300 but I'll need a bit more. Anyone wanta help?

wait actually, I'll sell all my CDs and Records on eBay becuse I wont need a personal collection when i OWN A FOPP.

So I still think I need a couple hundred-thousand from someone. Who fancies it?

Ernst & Young press release:

Fopp Ltd (in Receivership) & Music Zone 2007 Ltd (In Administration)
http://tinyurl.com/yvsx2c

The Times are reporting this:

Virgin Megastores fails to rescue rival Fopp
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article2005501.ece

The Fopp music chain has closed all stores after a plan to merge with Virgin Megastores failed to win supplier support

Do these "suppliers" have a problem with someone selling CDs for them?

In a deal negotiated by Virign Retail's chief Simon Douglas, with Fopp's managing director David Pryde, who once ran Our Price records,

I think I may have spotted one of the problems at Fopp.

ha, This bloke: David Pryde

David Pryde, was also previously HMV Managing Director in the early part of this decade.

interesting article from 3 years back: in The Scotsman: Fri 9 Jan 2004

Gordon Montgomery has built Fopp from a single stall in 1981 into a major chain.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/business.cfm?id=26252004

When Fopp opened their first store in the centre of London - 4-5 years ago - it really was an eye-opener. Their buyers seemed to be sourcing some GREAT bargains from across Europe,and the inspired company policy of pricing classic back cat at a fiver (or less) made almost anything seem worthy of a suck and a see. I know for a fact that along w/ general rec collecting scum, London HMV management types were all over the shop, and there's no doubt in my mind that Fopp's example and expansion initiated the across-the-board price decreases that occured in both the Virgin and HMV chains 2-3 years ago (tho of course, the discs you really really want never seem to make it into a sale - but that's another story...) 'Suck and See' was a good gimmick/'brand' but actually the shop's returns policy was really no different than HMV's returns policy (I think even now if you kick up enough of a stink over the price of a £5 CD you will prob get yr cash back from any of the High St Rec Shops)

Over time, Fopp seemed to be sourcing less and less interesting cheap gd stuff, and you were as likely to find a bargain in HMV, particularly on DVDS. Fopp cldn't really compete w/ HMV's market share/purchasing power, and were often actually more expensive on new product than HMV, Tesco or Amazon.

In Glasgow, their takeover of the Music Zone shops resulted in the closure of two (including a 'megastore' round the corner from Fopp that had been open for less than a month) and the transformation of the third, on Sauchiehall St, into a glum dump devoid of bargains or charm. A shame, because the old Music Stores in Glasgow were very good sources of cheap DVDs

actually the shop's returns policy was really no different than HMV's returns policy (I think even now if you kick up enough of a stink over the price of a £5 CD you will prob get yr cash back from any of the High St Rec Shops)

but kicking up a stink over the cost of something is quite far from returning something just because you listened to it and didn't like it.