Does the sun shine on for Fopp?
I was heartened by the news two weeks ago that HMV has bought six of the 105 failed Fopp stores, which suddenly fell silent at the end of June.
Closing for an ‘extraordinary stock take’, some of the shops reopened for cash sales only, before online – and eventually all – trading was halted. The company’s unbelievable story to customers was that it was profitable, but that it couldn’t gain support from stakeholders and suppliers.
Blaming the closures on the slump in CD and rise of online and digital sales, the independent chain had been trading for 25 years, and being a big music junkie, was my favourite record shop. (I know that’s not quite the right term to use, but such shops will always be record shops to us sentimental oldies.) I don’t think I am alone either, in being fond of the budget prices, knowledgeable staff, and sometimes offbeat stock selection.
The £5, £7, and £10 CD offers were the stuff of legend, and there was rarely a time when I didn’t come out of the Shaftsbury Avenue store with a small see-through plastic bag, with that fabled red splodge printed on it. The book and DVD offers were equally as good, and it was one of the only places that still had a select selection of good old-fashioned vinyl.
It even introduced me to new music, just by browsing through the black plastic-divided racks. Lucky Soul sold their charms to me just by a glimpse of their album’s cover, while Charlotte Gainsbourg‘s ’5.55′ got the better of my weighty anticipation pangs in Cambridge. A good part of my joyous Saint Etienne back catalogue was sourced from the first floor of the Shaftsbury Avenue store, too.
A nice brand of store, the shops were always unpretentious and no-nonsense, with industrial-type decor (usually meaning smooth concrete and glass), and genuinely interested indie-type workers who wore only the slightest hint of a uniform. Just like new owners HMV used to be in fact, before the corporate machine and brand took over. And even more like that other bastion of small and independent record shops, Andy’s Records.
I’m disappointed now that I never made it to the recent flagship store in London’s Tottenham Court Road.
HMV states that it wants to keep the Fopp brand and ‘trading culture’ alive, and I’m all for that. I just hope it keeps its promise, and doesn’t let the six newly-resurrected Fopp stores flop once more.