Final days at Virgin Megastore

The Big Apple's last Virgin Megastore closed Sunday, leaving only the Hollywood store, which is closing soon. Here's an article from the New York Times on the last day at the NY store kindly sent by reader Bob House.

The Times Square store apparently closed just days before my visit, but I did find (accidentally) the Union Square store, the one that closed Sunday. I picked up four or five jazz discs at 40 percent off. And a couple of weeks back I bought four discs at the Hollywood store at half-off. That was probably my last hurrah.

I was never a big shopper at the chain until its closeout sales, finding it overpriced (no longer an issue). But I used to like wandering through the Sunset and Crescent Heights store with its in-store disc jockey, enormous genre sections for pop standards, blues, world music, etc., a room devoted to classical and an upstairs solely for VHS and, later, DVDs.

Sigh. On the upside, Claremont's Rhino Records is having a 10 percent off sale Saturday.