CookyMonzta
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Post by CookyMonzta on Feb 20, 2009 2:18:02 GMT -5
The STORE CLOSING signs have now gone up at 1540 Broadway, and so have the discount signs. Right now, the maximum discount is 30% off (20% on CDs). Though they have been removing fixtures ever since the holiday shopping season, and canceling their magazine subscriptions since the beginning of this year, it is yesterday (Thursday 02/19) that liquidation officially began.
It'll be interesting to see if they can empty the entire store (which amounts to 70,000 square feet). I imagine that what they don't sell will go to Union Square at Broadway and 14th St.
In any case, once they close Virgin Times Square, gone will be the centerpiece of Times Square retail for 13 years. Toys 'R' Us, which opened its Times Square store in November, 2001, now becomes the premier retailer there.
When Virgin closes the Times Square store, what will remain are Hollywood, San Francisco, Denver, Orlando and Union Square (NYC). When they're gone, the era of the music and media megastore comes to an end.
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summers
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Post by summers on Feb 20, 2009 3:47:57 GMT -5
NOOOOOO!!!!!
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HolidayGuy
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Post by HolidayGuy on Feb 20, 2009 11:08:08 GMT -5
When the liquidation hits, like, 40% off, do post. :)
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CookyMonzta
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Post by CookyMonzta on Feb 20, 2009 16:36:39 GMT -5
When the liquidation hits, like, 40% off, do post. :) Aye. I go there every Tuesday and Friday night after work.
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Libra
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Post by Libra on Feb 20, 2009 16:52:10 GMT -5
When Virgin closes the Times Square store, what will remain are Hollywood, San Francisco, Denver, Orlando and Union Square (NYC). When they're gone, the era of the music and media megastore comes to an end. Some would argue that that era is already over, and that the stores haven't caught up to that fact yet because they're still open.
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CookyMonzta
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Post by CookyMonzta on Feb 22, 2009 5:48:54 GMT -5
When Virgin closes the Times Square store, what will remain are Hollywood, San Francisco, Denver, Orlando and Union Square (NYC). When they're gone, the era of the music and media megastore comes to an end. Some would argue that that era is already over, and that the stores haven't caught up to that fact yet because they're still open. Good point. Almost all of my CDs since 2002 came from the Web, mostly via eBay. The only time I bought from a music superstore was if the price was very low, and I have bought many an $18.99 CD from Virgin for $10.
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eatbananas
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Post by eatbananas on Feb 25, 2009 1:18:09 GMT -5
this makes me sad I'm new here btw hi everybody im tania ;-0!
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Post by areyoureadytojump on Feb 28, 2009 20:17:37 GMT -5
The Union Square store will close in June.
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CookyMonzta
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Post by CookyMonzta on Feb 28, 2009 22:02:30 GMT -5
The Union Square store will close in June. www.playbill.com/news/article/126760.htmlNo surprise. I thought maybe it would survive to September. With Union Square closing, that will leave New York City without a major music/video superstore of this size. This one is 45,000 square feet, which opened in the fall (October or November) of 1998. Meanwhile, CDs, DVDs and books are now 25% off at Times Square. Clothes 15%. Virgin New York shirts, 20%. What's going on in Hollywood, San Francisco, Denver and Orlando? Any word on when or if they will close? And by the way, what becomes of all those Virgin phones and subscriptions the people bought at Virgin, not to mention those Virgin V.I.P. memberships? Those memberships had better be good for purchases over the Web or from the U.K., when they're done shutting down its U.S. operation The good news from all this is that maybe the mom-and-pop (i.e., independent) record stores will rise again; maybe not at the level they were before May, 1996 (when Virgin came to NYC), but there'll be a place for them.
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Niarchos
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Post by Niarchos on Mar 2, 2009 7:53:21 GMT -5
When Virgin closes the Times Square store, what will remain are Hollywood, San Francisco, Denver, Orlando and Union Square (NYC). When they're gone, the era of the music and media megastore comes to an end. Some would argue that that era is already over, and that the stores haven't caught up to that fact yet because they're still open. exactly
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CookyMonzta
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Post by CookyMonzta on Mar 3, 2009 0:26:08 GMT -5
Some would argue that that era is already over, and that the stores haven't caught up to that fact yet because they're still open. exactly When Virgin checks out of the U.S., FYE will be the big dog on the block. But for how long? And is Sam Goody still around? They closed all of its New York State stores in 2006.
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Post by areyoureadytojump on Mar 3, 2009 10:07:23 GMT -5
Billboard.biz:
Remaining Virgin Megastores To Close, VEGNA To Liquidate March 02, 2009 - Retail
By Ed Christman, N.Y.
The planned closures of the Virgin Megastores in Times Square and Union Square in New York City and the Market Street store in San Francisco are the beginning of the final wind-down of the Virgin Entertainment Group North America. Over the next few months, the company also plans to shutter its other three stores in Orlando, Fla., Denver and Los Angeles, with the company expected to be liquidated sometime this summer.
Virgin Entertainment Group North America has been a question mark since August 2007, when it was acquired by two real estate companies — the Related Cos. and Vornado. The former controls the Union Square real estate where Virgin and Circuit City are now running going-out-of-business sales, while the latter owns the real estate for the Times Square store. Upon that acquisition, there was immediate speculation that the two companies bought Virgin for its New York real estate.
While it now looks like Virgin was always destined to lose its Times Square space—Virgin pays $54 a square foot in rent there, according to press reports, while the market price for that location currently is in the $400-$500 per-square-foot range, according to Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate Chairman Faith Hope Consolo — the company still had a chance to continue, Virgin Entertainment Group North America CEO Simon Wright says.
For a while there was talk of moving Virgin to the empty space next door where Barcode closed down years ago—until the economy went south. VEGNA had successfully re-merchandised its Times Square store into a lifestyle experience where clothing and portable electronics were more of a factor in the store's profitability, while using music as a draw-in factor.
But the company was also working on improving its concept for a smaller space. With CD sales sliding, “I tried my hardest to come up with a new model, and we were making a lot of headway with it before the holidays,” says Wright. But, the “economy is so bad; it's all about batten down the hatches.”
In this case, that means the total shutdown of Virgin stores. That leaves J&R Music World as the last music superstore in New York City.
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Slinky
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Post by Slinky on Mar 4, 2009 12:38:06 GMT -5
I think all Sam Goody's became FYE's.
That company is also struggling quite a bit. It only seems to do well where there are no other large music retailers around (i.e. Best Buy, Barnes And Noble)
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CookyMonzta
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Post by CookyMonzta on Mar 5, 2009 1:03:03 GMT -5
Virgin moving into the Bar Code space? I could have lived with that. I visited that place 3 times before they shut it down. 30,000 square feet, I assume. It would have been a very good fit for a scaled-down Virgin. Too bad Vornado seems hell-bent on killing the franchise in this country. And this mild depression we're in doesn't help things, either.
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PinkyD
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Post by PinkyD on Mar 5, 2009 1:13:33 GMT -5
Wow, so the store at Hollywood and Highland is gonna close too?? How sad. That's a big store and it takes up a nice amount of space...and it hasn't even been open long...less than 5 years if I am correct. Then LA will really only have Amoeba as a destination for music, not counting Best Buys, Borders and the like...
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CookyMonzta
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Post by CookyMonzta on Mar 6, 2009 3:27:40 GMT -5
CDs, DVDs, books, Virgin T-shirts, bags and umbrellas are now 30% off at Times Square. All other clothes 25%. They moved everything out of the TV on DVD section. The racks are being stacked in the jazz, classical and world music sections.
They're starting to strip the facade from what used to be the Bar Code, next door. I wonder what store will move in. Like I said before, Virgin would have been a good fit. Unfortunately, Vornado was obviously intent on closing down the franchise in this country, even though the Times Square store was still pulling in a profit.
I suppose in their minds they thought Virgin Times Square was getting away with murder, because they were paying $55 a square foot, and they've been saying the present 'market value' is at least 10 to 15 times that much.
How much do they charge for space at 692 Broadway? Except for a temporary holiday shop, that place has been empty ever since Tower moved out during Christmas week in 2006. Three floors (2 plus the basement) and a mezzanine; a wild guess, maybe 35,000 square feet.
Does Vornado own all of the Virgin North America stores, or did they simply buy up the rights to liquidate them? If it were up to me, I'd buy a piece of that franchise, and move them into that smaller space, either at 692 B'way or the Bar Code, or both, with one rule on wholesale purchases: Don't buy more than what you think the people will buy. Some retailers make the mistake of buying too much of a CD or a DVD that not everyone will buy in the long run.
Cases in point: Michael Jackson's Number Ones and the Beatles' #1s. Virgin had too many of them, even 4 years after they were released, and hardly anyone was buying them at that point. That's what happens when a store buys too much of anything, thinking people will snatch it up, and they are forced to put them all in the bargain bin; and even then they still don't fly out the stores.
Another thing: Some CDs and DVDs they should be marking down, they don't. From time to time they designated $10 sales on certain CDs and DVDs; but there are a lot more of them that should have been marked $10 (or lower) all the time. Anything that is 10 years old should be fair game; and I might add, 2-year-old flops.
To be quite blunt, after HMV and Tower closed, I always wondered when it would be Virgin's turn. They obviously had the biggest space of any of these 3 franchises. The fact that no one is buying CDs like they used to obviously made 70,000 square feet completely obsolete. But unlike HMV and Tower, they sold more books, more clothes and more electronic devices; and even though music sales are down, it looks as if DVD sales are steady. The only space they really needed to get rid of was perhaps half or even two-thirds of their CD space, and maybe a third of their DVD space. What the store would have been left with is just about the size of 692 B'way or the former Bar Code location, or maybe the size of J&R's music racks plus the space Virgin used for clothes, DVDs, books and electronics.
Bottom line: They could have saved Virgin profitable as it still was, at least at Times Square. All they had to do was move into a smaller retail venue (30,000-35,000 square feet), keep all of the other retail item space the same, but cut the DVD space down a bit and cut the CD space way down. I wonder if the Virgin North America franchise even thought about it. Probably not. That's why 692 B'way will probably remain empty for the 3rd-straight year.
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CookyMonzta
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Post by CookyMonzta on Mar 7, 2009 0:14:22 GMT -5
And to add insult to injury, I didn't even know that FYE on the corner of 6th Ave. and 51st St. closed. I went up there looking for dance music that I couldn't find at either Virgin, and it was no longer there.
I assume it closed in December, because they've got it boarded up with the logo of its replacement: Another bank! This time, Sovereign Bank.
Why is it that when something closes a bank always moves in? It is getting ridiculous to watch bank after bank move in when retailers move out. I'm pretty sure that a lot of people still think it was a major insult to watch the 2nd Ave. Deli close its longtime location, only to see Chase Bank take over the spot!
Absolutely disgusting. Given that banks everywhere are on the edge of collapse these days, you would think that the opposite should be happening. Apparently not.
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CookyMonzta
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Post by CookyMonzta on Mar 9, 2009 4:49:17 GMT -5
My bad. It seems that the Virgin name is disappearing all over the world. I didn't know that the Virgin stores had been bought out in the U.K. They've all been renamed Zavvi.
I wonder how long before the Web site itself disappears altogether.
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Post by areyoureadytojump on Mar 12, 2009 7:06:53 GMT -5
Cds are now 40% off. They had a lot left of the new U2 album last night.
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HolidayGuy
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Post by HolidayGuy on Mar 12, 2009 11:49:52 GMT -5
How is the inventory looking? Going fast or no?
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Post by areyoureadytojump on Mar 12, 2009 11:54:22 GMT -5
^Going fast.
Of course I checked Madonna. Only had STR left and 1 COADF.
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thehellion
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Post by thehellion on Mar 12, 2009 14:55:51 GMT -5
My bad. It seems that the Virgin name is disappearing all over the world. I didn't know that the Virgin stores had been bought out in the U.K. They've all been renamed Zavvi.All the Zavvi stores have closed over here.
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CookyMonzta
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Post by CookyMonzta on Mar 14, 2009 23:33:49 GMT -5
My bad. It seems that the Virgin name is disappearing all over the world. I didn't know that the Virgin stores had been bought out in the U.K. They've all been renamed Zavvi.All the Zavvi stores have closed over here. All of them?? I didn't know that. I suppose it's going to be a Web-only retailer like Tower is today. I don't know if I can say the same for Virgin, because when last I checked the music/media retail site, it looked like it was on life support. I'm betting that when they close all the megastores worldwide (if it comes to that, and I'd bet it probably is), they'll shut down the music/media site. How many HMVs are left in the U.K.?
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Houster
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Post by Houster on Mar 15, 2009 7:34:26 GMT -5
I saw a report that DVD sales are down substantially, by about 1/3, but that Netflix is booming.
In NYC, that pretty much leaves J&R as the only game in town.
Out here in Long Island, other than Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Target, there is a pretty large FYE in Levittown that's still in business, and a small independent store in Rockville Centre call CD Island.
The Tower in Massapequa Park is still vacant, and a small FYE in Freeport closed down about a year ago.
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Slinky
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Post by Slinky on Mar 15, 2009 19:59:15 GMT -5
Why is it that when something closes a bank always moves in? Banks are one of the most preferred tenants of landlords for a few reasons: they tend to be pretty stable, they always pay their rent on time, and they don't cause much noise or disruption to other businesses. They're extremely low-maintenance. Plus, bank branches are fairly cheap for the banks to operate, and many people choose their bank based on proximity, which is why every bank wants to be on every corner.
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CookyMonzta
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Post by CookyMonzta on Mar 17, 2009 4:13:30 GMT -5
I saw a report that DVD sales are down substantially, by about 1/3, but that Netflix is booming. In NYC, that pretty much leaves J&R as the only game in town. Out here in Long Island, other than Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Target, there is a pretty large FYE in Levittown that's still in business, and a small independent store in Rockville Centre call CD Island. The Tower in Massapequa Park is still vacant, and a small FYE in Freeport closed down about a year ago. Have you been to your FYE lately? Do you notice that the space for CDs has decreased while the space for DVDs has increased? I've read stories about that for over a year now, and I've just started to notice it; at an FYE in Brooklyn (the difference was alarming, even a year after my last visit) and at a Barnes and Noble at Lincoln Center. Had Virgin figured this out at Times Square, they would have moved all of their DVDs to the 1st lower level and shrunk their CD space and moved it down to the 2nd lower level, where the DVDs were... ...Come to think of it, they once had their DVDs on the 1st lower level, now occupied (but not for much longer) by the jazz/classical/vocals/country/world music section, when they still had VHS tapes down on the 2nd lower level. The way things are going in NYC, if J&R suddenly closes their music and movie stores, it's going to be either the Web or nothing from that point on. Fortunately I've been buying my movies and music from eBay for years.
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CookyMonzta
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Post by CookyMonzta on Mar 17, 2009 4:30:18 GMT -5
Why is it that when something closes a bank always moves in? Banks are one of the most preferred tenants of landlords for a few reasons: they tend to be pretty stable, they always pay their rent on time, and they don't cause much noise or disruption to other businesses. They're extremely low-maintenance. Plus, bank branches are fairly cheap for the banks to operate, and many people choose their bank based on proximity, which is why every bank wants to be on every corner. Stupid me. I should have figured this one out. Now, suppose if Forever 21 moves into the Virgin space at Times Square (at $600/sq. ft., as opposed to Virgin's $55/sq. ft.), will they purchase all 70,000 square feet? I don't have an architectural degree, but visually, in my opinion, I really doubt that Forever 21 needs all of that space, and it will be almost impossible to divide the space, unless they tear out many of the walls within the store. If they keep the escalators where they are, and build walls to divide sections of the lower levels into cubicles they could turn that space into a mini-mall. Forever 21 could be on the ground floor, and they'd probably have as many as a dozen small stores on the lower levels. But what of the space that was the Loews State Theater, which closed in 2006? And Union Square? That one will not be so easily divided at all. Speaking of which, when Virgin closes down there, next to the now-defunct Circuit City, the Union Square South complex is going to be quite dark on the 14th Street side for months, if not years if there is no buyer. There is space in this city that used to be occupied by The Wiz, and even 6½ years later that space is still empty.
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Post by JOJO SIWA DERANGEMENT SYNDROME on Mar 17, 2009 13:46:04 GMT -5
All U.S. Virgin Megastores To Close By June March 16, 2009 05:37 AM ET Ed Christman, N.Y.
The planned U.S. closure of the Virgin Megastore chain by mid-June will mark the end of the British music retail invasion.
HMV was the first to land in November 1990, with an East Coast incursion, followed soon by Virgin's entry on the West Coast and W.H. Smith's focus on the country's heartland malls.
The three chains came in thinking they could teach the Americans a thing or two about merchandising music. But their high-handed attitude wasn't directed at their competitors, like Tower Records, Camelot Music, Record World and other long-dead music chains. Rather, it was targeted at the record labels.
"They were arrogant," a label sales executive told Billboard about the British chains before Virgin confirmed its U.S. closings. "They thought they knew everything. They thought they were going to take the U.S. by storm. But I grew to love them. They were all good music guys and their stores were great."
The British merchants were especially known for championing certain kinds of artists and genres. But their fatal flaw was a failure to understand the U.S. real estate market. HMV and Virgin had a history of overpaying for locations, which meant both chains usually had more unprofitable stores than profitable ones.
At its peak, the Virgin Megastore chain had 23 stores and revenue of $280 million annually, but at least 12 of those stores weren't profitable. After a four-year store-closing spree, the chain was down to six stores by January, all of them profitable, and combined they were doing a very respectable $180 million in annual sales. The chain's New York Times Square location generated $55 million, with $6 million in profit, while its Union Square store downtown had $40 million in sales and a few million dollars in profit, according to sources.
SALES SLIDE INSURMOUNTABLE
With CD sales sliding, "I tried my hardest to come up with a new model, and we were making a lot of headway with it before the holidays," said Virgin Entertainment Group North America CEO Simon Wright.
Virgin outlasted HMV and W.H. Smith, with the former pulling out in 2004 and the latter selling out to Camelot Music in 1998. But Virgin couldn't withstand the combined blows of big-box loss leaders, chain-store exclusive releases and digital cannibalization.
"We have made a great contribution to music retailing, but it's time to move on," Wright said.
In August 2007, Virgin Entertainment Group North America was bought by two real estate companies, the Related Cos. and Vornado Realty Trust, which hold stakes of 51 percent and 49 percent, respectively. In June 2008, a Vornado executive told Reuters that the Times Square store would shut down in first-quarter 2009 because the company could make more money on the real estate.
Virgin was destined to lose its Times Square space, but it might have been given a shot next door in the much smaller Vornado-owned space formerly occupied by the Bar Code bar and gaming arcade, sources said.
"But the holidays were what they were and the economy is what it is since then," Wright said. "The economy is so bad, it's all about batten down the hatches."
Just as Tower Records once helped transform Broadway from a warehouse district into a top-notch retail street, the Virgin Megastore was key in revitalizing the Union Square area, which 10 years ago was filled with bargain stores and pot dealers.
"We changed the face of Union Square," Wright said. "What will happen there now with both us and Circuit City leaving at the same time?"
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musicfan20
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Post by musicfan20 on Mar 18, 2009 11:47:55 GMT -5
I loved Virgin Megastore. It's a shame this is happening. :(
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CookyMonzta
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Post by CookyMonzta on Mar 19, 2009 23:11:13 GMT -5
Next week may be the last week for Virgin Times Square. The caption FINAL WEEK appears at the top of the latest flyer.
The 2nd sub-level has now been emptied and closed. All remaining movies have been moved up to the 1st sub-level in what used to be the Jazz/Classical/Vocals/Country section (which was once the DVD section before they got rid of all the VHS tapes down at the B2 level), and all remaining books have been moved to the ground floor. Some items are now 50% and 60% off. Music, movies and books are still 40% off.
I don't think they'll get rid of everything in the store, even if they mark everything 90% off. My guess is that, when they shut the place down, whatever is left will be put on a truck and driven down to Union Square.
I say once again, I still think 70,000 square feet is too big for a clothing retailer like Forever 21. And word has it that they might grab more space down there, most likely the space that used to be the Loews State Theater, or the space that used to be the Bar Code next door, making it 90,000!
At $600 per square foot, maybe $800 (as opposed to Virgin's $55 a square foot), I don't see this place lasting more than 5 years when it opens. They will have to burn the midnight oil and maybe a little nuke (in other words, sell as if every day was a liquidation sale day) to make a decent profit and pay that much rent for that much space, even in the middle of Times Square.
This might be an amateur opinion, but again I think they might do better to divide the space into cubicles; and after taking a second look last weekend I can see the basement levels yielding as many as 14 stores, with one store on the ground floor...
...In other words, turn it into a huge mini-mall.
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