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

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.

I only ever returned one sucky CD to Fopp: the "ba ba ti ki di do" EP by sigur rós has that dubious honour.

At the time that Fopp opened in Central London, I was working at the big HMV on Oxford Circus, and company policy was def, cash refunds given on any product w/ a legit receipt, no questions asked. This was changed when a) it became obv that 'customers' were pretty much burning off copies of everything they cld get their mitts on and then returning them DUH and b) when the Oxford Circus store handed out half a million quid's worth of refunds over the course of a single Xmas campaign. The last time I checked, HMV will now only exchange goods, tho as I say, even now they will pretty much always cough up a cash/credit card refund if hassled hard enough.

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.

8080 -- just the other week, i think, sainsbury's had the two-disc 'hot fuzz' for around a tenner in its first week (harry potter syndrome), and fopp did become less essential than a few years back.

fopp was never really a place to go if you were looking for something in particular unless it was a nick drake album or something

were they called fopp because of their excellent nick drake sourcing?

HMV just doesn't compare on suck it and see. I should know, as suck it and see is one of my hobbies. One - you can only exchange; two - one item per receipt; erm... that's it.

What a shame we won't get to see Rick and Bruce from The Smiths at the TCR Fopp in July.

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

They have to fight like hell with lawyers to try get it back. I know this to be the case in this situation.

In other bankruptcies with which I am all too familiar, the stock generally becomes the property of the trustee handling the bankruptcy and eventually is sold in lots at an auction along with other (say, physical) assets. If there is indeed a retail markdown sale, it is generally because a customer will pay more (and thus raise more cash for the trustee) for the product than it would at the type of auction I have just described.

Like I would pay $5 for just about any Blue Note CD I don't have, but once it enters into a huge lot along with 2000 Bon Jovi CDs, it's value diminishes greatly and just goes for cents on the dollar. (or pence on the pound, in this case).

"Fopp" is a Kool and the Gang song, I believe.

Ohio Players innit

They had the Ut reissues for a fiver in TCR but I didn't buy In Gut's House (I already have Griller) cos I wasn't sure if it was the reissue or an older version. Why that matters is now beyond me, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Damn, damn and blast it.

xpost That's it! I was rackin' me brane.

Workers at collapsed music retailer Fopp are set to learn their fate on Monday as prospects for the possible sale of the business are considered.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6258910.stm

the Fopp website has been taken down

Fopp
http://www.fopp.co.uk/down.html

Dark times ahead.

Disque in chapel market london, seems to be closing as well.

I'm predicting a Mad Max style wasteland for good record shops by 2009.

*cue gag about well that means HMV and Virgin will still be with us*

I'm predicting a Mad Max style wasteland for good record shops by 2009.

2009 !
crikey.
in bristol - thats as of right now sir.

About 700 workers at collapsed music retailer Fopp have been made redundant by the company's administrators.

"We would urge anyone with a genuine interest in taking on stores as going concerns to contact us immediately," said joint administrator Tom Burton.

Suck it and see?

I am in TOTAL denial about this.

without Fopp, I'd probably be...........

actually best not to finish that sentence.

best Fopp memory'; the £1.99 12"s or 3 for a fiver.

or the day off school i took to buy the Second Coming and picked up the first Roots album just cause.....

So, I strolled up to Reading Fopp this lunchtime.

All it looks like is closed. All the stock still there, a couple of brochures stuffed through the letterbox, on the floor.

Who knows.