Not in a million years do I want to sound like a know-it-all, but I happen to have inside ties to the people who run Virgin in NYC (I was the regional sales rep/vendor on behalf of a major music recording company for the store for two years), and the reason they are closing is because they can't afford the massive increase in rent.

Despite what you might think, Virgin Times Square never stopped turning a profit. What happened was the new "landlords" (which are actually a large corporation) discovered that they could charge ten times the amount of dollars-per-sqaure-foot for that real estate location (1540 Broadway), and THAT is when Virgin said "Hey, if we have to pay THAT much in rent, we won't be able to turn a profit".

Everything you're all saying about physical media dying and brick and mortar music stores being irrelevant are true, but the real reason Virgin Times Square (and probably Union Square) are closing is that they can't afford the insane rent increase enacted by the greedy landlords.

Sadly, music industry insiders have known that Virgin would be closing their doors for well over a year now.


Last Edited By: Rakshasa Feb 27 09 8:15 PM. Edited 1 times.