Virgin Megastores
Virgin Megastores is an international entertainment retailing chain, founded in early 1976 by Richard Branson as a record shop on London's Oxford Street.
Company type
In 1979 the company opened their first Megastore at the end of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road.[1] The company expanded to hundreds of stores worldwide in the 1990s, but has lost a large number of stores in recent years, largely with the sale and eventual closing of the European, North American, Australian, Japanese and Chinese stores. By 2015, it operated only in the Middle East and in North Africa.[2]
Technology[edit]
In 2005, Virgin Digital was launched to cater for those that bought their music digitally or wanted to rip and burn their current music collection. This is designed to add to the services provided by Virgin, rather than replace the Megastores.[22] The download service faced some criticism from consumer groups due to its incompatibility with the popular iPod music player. The service has since been discontinued.[23] Around the world there were other Virgin branded digital music retail websites, such as VirginMega.fr, France's number 2 music download website.
Virgin Books and Music[edit]
Virgin Books and Music is a Virgin-branded entertainment retail chain exclusive to airports and travel locations, operated by the Lagardère Services division of the French conglomerate Lagardère Group. Such stores have a much smaller size than Virgin Megastores and currently operate in 10 countries: Canada, China, Germany, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.