On Saturday the Tribune reported that the Virgin Megastore on Michigan Avenue would shutter its doors in July; a clothing store will take over the 40,000-square foot space. While it’s hard to mount an enthusiastic defense of such a mediocre store, following the loss of Tower last fall Virgin became the only genuine deep-catalog shop in the city. It’s shocking that the third largest city in the country is so poorly served by music retailers—please pardon me, Reckless Records boosters. However erratic Virgin has been, there are little niches it has served fairly well—including a strong selection of imported CDs from France (I don’t mean French music as much as stuff released by French labels), some specialist magazines, and, uh, well, I’m sure there’s something else. The situation certainly reinforces the dire state of CD sales today, but I find it hard to believe that a solid, intelligently run store couldn’t do well in such a depleted market.
