Virgin Megastores

Yeah.

Like, I remember, just back to that Choose Life thing now when I think about it, I remember when Topshop was in Virgin, the Virgin megastore, which was on Aston Quay,

and

Topshop was upstairs there, and you'd go and get your puffball skirts and those kind of T-shirts and stuff.

Who, wondered the FT's architecture critic in 2020, lingers any longer than they have to in London's worst fire affair? The grime itself is no joke.

In the 1990s, when Oxford Street was known for its huge record shops such as HMV and Virgin Megastore, I remember returning to my South London home on the Tube, blowing my nose and seeing a tissue full of jet black snot.

Its narrow streetway and tall buildings on either side create an urban canyon, trapping the heavy diesel fumes emanating from its buses and taxis.

Private car access has been restricted since 1972.

There'll be an episode on the last gasp of big retail, I guess.

HMV dying, sanity, borders, Virgin Megastore's brief existence, and the rise of the $20 CD shop.

Indie retail, on the other hand, was hit hard.

It was probably the toughest decade in its history.

But I didn't have the grades I'd need to get into college at that point.

I had two jobs, one of which was still my favorite job, Virgin Megastore.

It was the best.

The amount of time I spent in those stores.

Yeah, it used to happen all the time.

And so this is what also was odd about this story was, you know… These midnight launches used to be in the Virgin Megastore, HMV, but this one's in an Argos.

Have you ever been to an Argos at midnight for any other reason? Is that

a thing? Argos was my first ever Saturday job.

That went from two riders to three riders, and then other Virgin companies were approached to brand them.

So there was a Virgin Megastore bike, a Virgin Clothing bike, a Virgin Atlantic, etc.

So they were used almost like billboards to promote other Virgin companies.

And we were then used for promotional stuff, gigs, gimmicks, TV stuff.

And the huge...

A virgin megastore.

Yeah, about to say that.

The huge virgin megastore.

I was like, wow.

No wonder they went bankrupt if that was a real store.

It was fucking gigantic.

I mean...

I had videos every week.

I was going to the... into Manchester getting the tram in and I was buying videos from Virgin Megastore and all that.

And this one was a classic, Dev.

I had this on VHS.