Fopp Flop!
So farewell then Fopp! We knew you so shortly in London, with you nice big store being open all of nine months. Why only on Wednesday I was in there, returning some books - not knowing that the money I extracted out of them was coming from the poor salesgirls WAGES! Aggressive expansionism is often a dodgy business strategy, particularly one in a market where there are already considerable downturns. But Fopp’s USP as being a some kind of relatively cool remainder store seemed to be enough to keep it trading (mind you, massive TCR store did seem to buck the trend for small and packed). I blame the cheap decks.
Add this to the HMV wobbles and THE DEATH OF MISTER CD, and we are starting to see a trend here. Ebay has killed the second hand shop, but Amazon is killing the discount record purveyor too. Drunken browsing will never be the same again.
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Andrew Farrell on June 29th, 2007
?? Their London store at Cambridge Circus was open for years before the TCR one, no?
FT's Pete Baran on June 29th, 2007
Only about a year before. Been in Edinburgh etc for donkeys years, but London presence very new.
FT's CarsmileSteve on July 1st, 2007
nah, the cambridge circus one has been there three or four years at least…
…but yes, the scottish ones go a lot further back.
DV on July 1st, 2007
I remember the London one opening. It had a real feeling of “civilisation reaches London”.
For a long time I thought Fopp only existed in Aberdeen.
Lena on July 1st, 2007
When I visited London last year I fell in love with Fopp and went there again this April. I’m sorry to see it close, but that was one spectacularly-ill-advised business decision.
Old Fart!!! on July 3rd, 2007
Curses!!!!!!!!
I got my ultra-early copy of “Tremelo EP” from the original Glasgow store on Byres Road!!!!! So ultra-early it said “promotional copy, not for sale” on it!!!! Which was a might sight better than the raspberry jam prolapse cover they eventually decided on!!!!!! But that was nothing to my disappointmnet that it wasn’t actually by the Tremeloes!!!! Erm, where was I?!?!?!?