Chris Brown (VP of Finance)
43-607: Bull Moose is an independent retailer and record store chain based in Portland, Maine , USA. The chain has operated since 1989 and has eight locations in Maine and three in New Hampshire . Bull Moose was founded by Brett Wickard in Brunswick, Maine in 1989, though he did not file it as a Business Corporation until 1995. Bull Moose was started with $ 37,000. Chris Brown was hired in 1991 as
86-517: A "50 per cent increase in music revenues from day one." Further to the deal, Virgin would get 1% of all turnover in the stores, in conjunction with offering Brazin a £2 million loan facility. Brazin also made a commitment to restrict the size and proximity of its Sanity stores in the United Kingdom to ensure they did not pose a large competitive threat to Virgin's other music shops. Early in 2002, Brazin experienced multiple delays in rebranding
129-570: A chain of newer, larger stores, which threatened and eventually overtook Our Price in popularity. In 1984, Our Price was the first specialist music store to float on the London Stock Exchange . Two years later, it was acquired by WH Smith for £43 million, with Smith's Sound FX immediately absorbed into Our Price. Several members of senior management left the company in 1989 to create the rival MVC , which itself would eventually be bought by Woolworths. In March 1994, WH Smith also bought
172-649: A clerk and later became the creator of Record Store Day , and the company's Vice President. They were covered by Bloomberg for using predictive algorithms to drive media sales. On January 4, 2022, it was announced that Bull Moose would be sold to its 140 employees. Founder Brett Wickard will stay on as interim CEO and chair of the board during the transition. In January 2022, Bull Moose became 100% employee-owned and created an employee stock ownership plan for its over 170 employees across 11 stores. In May 2022, Bull Moose named Shawn Nichols as its new President and CEO, with Wickard remaining on as Chairman. In December 2022 it
215-453: A closing day party. All the chain's remaining stock was sold to the shops of Oxfam . An Our Price Records branded store was briefly seen in a Virgin Atlantic 1980s styled nostalgia advertisement, screened in the United Kingdom from January 2009. The advert was created to celebrate 25 years of Virgin Atlantic, and ceased airing in mid-2010. www.ourprice.co.uk was a comparison website which
258-572: A failed management buy-out . In August 2000, it was announced that the Our Price name would be dropped from 102 stores, mainly in South East England , in favour of the Virgin name, or VShop. During the announcement, Our Price's commercial director, Neil Boote, told Billboard : "There has been no real investment in the vast majority of (Our Price) stores for a long, long time. Environmentally, they're
301-603: A larger selection than department stores. In many countries including the UK and the U.S., the specialty record store business is booming with hundreds opening from 2013 to 2016. The County of Los Angeles currently has more independent record stores than any other county in the U.S. with over 50 stores ranging from Amoeba Records in Hollywood (which bills itself as the "world's largest independent record store") to The Record Parlour, where patrons can purchase, produce and perform music. In
344-514: A long way away from where we'd like to be." He added, "I'm sure Virgin believes that, if the VShop concept works, it has to have international potential. Frankly, Our Price was just too parochial a brand with no (particularly unique selling points). It epitomised the High Street record store of the '80s." Virgin had no immediate plans for the remaining 127 Our Price branded stores, until they saw how well
387-661: A majority interest in Richard Branson 's Virgin Music retail chain, a move which (with both Our Price and Virgin brands combined) would push them back ahead of HMV in market share. The next year, Virgin/Our Price increased profits by 10%. However, sales dropped by 3% in the year to May 1997, a contraction experienced throughout the industry. Around this time, WH Smith opened 23 new Virgin Megastores, while closing nineteen Our Price branches. Even though Our Price had more outlets, over half
430-474: A remainder and over-stock store on Charing Cross Road branded as Surplus Records, and a mail order business driven largely by advertising in the music press. These markets fell away as the chain grew substantially from 1980 onwards, when the company purchased the existing chain Harlequin Records , which had numerous high street retail sites around the UK. Thereafter, rapid national expansion followed, with
473-792: A total of 18 former VShops were converted to the Virgin Megastore Xpress fascia, increasing sales by around 30% year on year. In November 2002, Brazin acquired the remaining 41 VShop music and mobile phone shops, all former Our Price outlets, from the Virgin Group for £2 million. These shops were added to the network already acquired, in addition to the new Sanity shops being established by Brazin. The first of these new outlets opened in October at Conswater, Northern Ireland , and in November at Southsea , followed by Waltham Cross . By January 2003,
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#1732895779081516-802: Is Tower Records in Shibuya, Tokyo and the largest in the United States is Amoeba Records in Los Angeles. The largest record shop in the Nordic countries is Bengans in Goteborg, Sweden, which opened in 1974. In some countries, electronics stores and department store chains have very large, comprehensive CD departments which now also sell vinyl records. These include Saturn , Media Markt and Fnac (Europe) and El Corte Inglés (Spain). Saturn in Cologne, Germany claims to now have
559-685: Is a retail outlet that sells recorded music. Per the name, in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, record shops only sold gramophone records . But over the course of the 20th century, record shops sold the new formats that were developed, such as eight track tapes , compact cassettes and compact discs (CDs). Today, in the 21st century, record stores mainly sell CDs, vinyl records and, in some cases, DVDs of movies , TV shows , cartoons and concerts . Some record stores also sell music-related items such as posters of bands or singers, related clothing items and even merchandise such as bags and coffee mugs. Even when CDs became popular during
602-576: Is reputed to be the oldest record shop in the world. It originally specialised in the sale of phonographs, cylinders and shellac discs. Shellac and then vinyl records were popular right up to the 1990s when CDs became the most popular form of recorded music. Soon, however, mail order and internet selling caused prices to fall, and with the advent of downloads and streaming, many record shops were forced to close. The vinyl revival has however increased income for record shops, and many new record shops and even chains of record shops have opened. Major chains in
645-505: The South Portland, ME based store to promote sales of The LEGO Movie on June 19, 2014. It was shared by famous Star Trek actor George Takei , and subsequently went viral. It was also covered by local news. Bull Moose is locally known for their in-store music events with musicians like The Decemberists, Mumford and Sons, and Wilco. Bull Moose has hosted the following artists: Record shop A record shop or record store
688-623: The 100th Our Price store opening in the Kings Road , Chelsea, the 200th at Stirling and the 300th in Brixton , South London. In the first half of the 1980s Our Price established itself as the United Kingdom's second largest retailer of records and tapes (with Woolworths the largest). Brand recognition was driven by pun-rich radio advertising built around the "Get Down To Our Price" slogan, which later transferred to television featuring an animated carrier bag called Billy. A sister chain, Our Price Video,
731-593: The 1960s and 1970s, between 500 and 1,000 black-owned record stores operated in the American South, and probably twice as many in the United States as a whole. African American entrepreneurs embraced record stores as key vehicles for economic empowerment and critical public spaces for black consumers at a time that many black-owned businesses were closing amid desegregation. In addition to shops that sell new products, many record shops specialize in second hand , vintage, or used collectible records, which they purchase from
774-467: The 1990s, people in English-speaking countries still continued using the term "record shop" to describe a shop selling sound recordings. With the vinyl revival of the 21st century, often generating more income than CDs, the name is again accurate. Prior to the 2000s, more record shops were privately run, independent businesses, meaning that prices could differ from town to town and store to store. In
817-731: The 2000s has provided an opportunity for growth in some sectors. According to a recent study, Brighton, England has the highest number of record stores per 100,000 residents in the world. With the demise of chains such as Sam Goody (except for 2 stores) and Tower Records in the 2000s, there remained no national retail chains focused on sales of recorded music except for FYE . Although music sales continued in dedicated sections of video stores (until their demise) and at big box retailers such as Best Buy , Walmart and Target . Most record retailers today are independent retailers. Spillers Records in Cardiff , Wales , founded in 1894 by Henry Spiller,
860-438: The 2000s, record shops are largely chain-owned and thus prices are fairly similar in different towns. In the United Kingdom the national chain style of selling records and tapes developed with Our Price , itself originally a small independent business founded in the early 1970s that expanded nationwide. The current record store chains in the UK are HMV, Fopp , and Rough Trade . The enormous increase in sales of vinyl records in
903-637: The Our Price stores due to difficulties with landlords , heritage listings, and negotiations with Railtrack . The company also moved the group's headquarters from the former Our Price central London offices to Alperton . The first rebranded Our Price store with Sanity's darker, urban look opened in London's Waterloo station on 23 April 2002, and the second opened at Paddington station on 9 May 2002, to positive customer reactions and strong sales. The Sanity/Our Price outlets were already starting to return on investments, and overall company operating profit rose to 32% in
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#1732895779081946-647: The Sanity/Our Price/VShop network had grown to approximately 130 stores across the country. In September 2003, even after increasing profitability across their store network, Brazin Limited sold all 118 stores of Sanity in the United Kingdom to Lee Skinner's investment company, Primemist Limited, for an estimated £9 million, citing higher expectations not met. At this stage, some shops were yet to be rebranded from Our Price; however, all VShop outlets were gone. Primemist Limited immediately struggled to operate
989-1190: The UK and North America that have closed in recent years are Our Price, Zavvi, The Wherehouse , Andys Records , Music and Video Club and Media Play . HMV have closed all stores in North America and Ireland, although still present in the UK. Virgin Megastores have closed all stores in North America and Europe. Tower Records has closed all stores in North America except for one store in Mexico . Rough Trade is, however, currently expanding, with two shops in London, one in Cambridge, one Megastore in New York and plans to further expand. Current record shop chains in Europe are now HMV (UK), Tower Records (Ireland), Free Record shop (Luxembourg: complete stores, Netherlands: shop-in shop), Velvet Music, Plato, (both Netherlands) and Golden Discs (Ireland). Record shop chains still present in North America include Sunrise Records (Canada), its subsidiary FYE (For Your Entertainment), which in turn owns
1032-634: The United Kingdom, London has Flashback Records (a small chain), Honest Jon's in Portobello Market London amongst others. There is also the aforementioned Spillers Records in Cardiff, and Brighton has Resident Records. Our Price Our Price was a British high Street chain of record stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland from 1971 until 2004. Ourprice.com reopened online on 30 April 2024 with new owners. Founded in 1971 by Gary Nesbitt, Edward Stollins and Mike Isaacs, their first store
1075-612: The United Kingdom. In September 2007, it sold its domestic Virgin Megastores in a management buy-out, and they were subsequently renamed Zavvi . The group sold their remaining 77 Our Price branded stores to Brazin Limited in October 2001. Brazin was a major Australian entertainment retailer, which operated the 265 Sanity stores. It paid £2 for the Our Price stores and gained exclusive licence rights in Australia for Virgin Entertainment, which had last traded there nine years earlier, under
1118-530: The VShop chain would be received. Five VShops reopened on 4 September 2000, located in Kensington , Ealing , Notting Hill Gate , Hammersmith and Chatham . VShops continued to stock the most popular CDs, but would concentrate equally on selling an expanded range of VHS video cassettes, DVDs, and Virgin branded mobile phone products, with Virgin Mobile taking up 25% of floor space. These reconfigured stores removed
1161-443: The bulk of back catalogue CDs from display with the hope that customers could order these instore for home delivery through dedicated computer terminals, which Virgin called Find & Buy kiosks. The so-called 'clicks and mortar' strategy aimed to combine high street shopping with emerging internet shopping trends. Virgin lost out to music and mobile phone competitors such as The Link , The Carphone Warehouse , HMV and MVC , while
1204-518: The chain due to major credit limit reductions from suppliers, and had no alternative but to enter into administration in December 2003. Buyers for the entire business, or individual parts of it, could not be found. By April 2004, administrators BDO Stoy Hayward had closed all the Our Price stores, resulting in the redundancy of 400 staff members. The final Our Price to close, in Chesterfield , hosted
1247-468: The co-founders at the Department of Record Stores collaborate with multiple artists for exclusive releases made especially for Record Store Day. The releases for 2017 included works from David Bowie , Prince , St. Vincent , and more. The Department of Record Stores keeps a list of participating independent record stores. The Bull Moose Facebook account posted an image of a LEGO Fire Walk they created at
1290-474: The co-ownership of the Virgin Group and Blockbuster Inc . Virgin Megastores were opened in Melbourne and Sydney. In addition to the nominal £2 paid, Brazin paid £900 million to the Virgin Group while getting that exact amount back from Virgin for tax efficiency purposes. Brazin's CEO Ian Duffell said that the music market in the United Kingdom was one of the strongest in the world that year, and he expected
1333-578: The company website was defunct. The website was subsequently relaunched using the Shopify platform, but has since shut down. Between 2012 and 2021, the Our Price domains and trademarks were acquired by a group of friends – all ageing musicians and DJ's. This online-only iteration of Our Price specialises in vinyl, merchandise and hi-fi audio equipment; with CDs , cassettes and books planned for future release. The Our Price brand relaunched on 30 April 2024,
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1376-611: The composer Sir Edward Elgar and had four floors of CDs, LPs, singles and DVDs. During the ‘60s, the in-store recording studio was used by Brian Epstein to record the Beatles' first demo. The revamped store was reopened in 2013 attended by many of the world's biggest stars including Paul McCartney, Robbie Williams and Elton John. The largest record shop in Ireland is Tower Records in Dublin, the largest in Asia
1419-526: The increasing popularity of online shopping rendered the in-store ordering terminals redundant. Despite this, the Virgin Group continued to rebrand Our Price stores to VShop, and by April 2001, 100 Our Price branches had been converted, with the remaining 110 intended to be completed within the year. In addition, Virgin closed another 30 Our Price outlets between 1999 and 2001. In the early 2000s Virgin Group started to scale down its entertainment retail division in
1462-524: The last 2 Sam Goody stores. Outside of Europe and North America, the current record store chains include Virgin Megastores, HMV and Tower Records. The HMV Vault in Birmingham, England is now the world's largest record shop, opening its doors in October 2019. Before this, the former HMV in Oxford Street, London, England claimed to be the world's largest record store. The shop was originally opened in 1921 by
1505-454: The new CD format. In 1993, the by then three-hundred-store chain was renamed for the final time simply as Our Price. The company's headquarters were in London, with an administrative office above the store on Kensington High Street and promotional offices in Wood Lane, White City . It initially focused on the rock album buyer, with regular imports of " cut-out " albums from the United States,
1548-605: The public or other dealers, and sell for a profit. Some used record stores also sell used CDs and DVD movies. It is not uncommon for such shops to contain several items priced in the hundreds or thousands of US dollars (or local equivalent) due to their rarity, as well as items that are fairly common for much less. This type of record shop has also faced fierce competition from Internet sites like eBay and Discogs , where people can sell their own records and avoid "the middle man ". Some pawnshops sell used CDs. Many customers prefer to buy vinyl from small, independent record stores with
1591-447: The turnover then consisted of sales from stores trading under the Virgin brand with their larger footprints in locations with higher customer traffic. In 1998, WH Smith sold Virgin/Our Price for £145 million to a division of the Virgin Group of companies in response to the stores losing £127 million in the year to date. After this takeover in 1998, the Virgin Group attempted to sell Our Price to its own management team, in
1634-539: The world's largest selection of records. The world's largest store selling records, CDs and other related and non-related products is Saturn in Hamburg, Germany. This former department store is the world's largest electronic retailer with 6 floors selling consumer products related to music and electric appliances including record players. Record stores played a vital role in African American communities for many decades. In
1677-699: The year to 30 June 2002. In July 2002, the Virgin Group announced that three VShops in Brixton, which had been Our Price's 300th shop, Hounslow and Notting Hill would be relaunched again as Virgin Megastore Xpress, with a move away from mobile phone retailing and return to a larger number of back catalogue products. Another two VShop outlets in Reading and Colchester were relaunched as Virgin Gamestores, selling both gaming software and hardware. By November that year,
1720-650: Was announced that the Bull Moose Sanford location would be closing and that a new location would be opened in Biddeford, Maine . The new store is scheduled to open in early 2023. Bull Moose had previously occupied the Sanford location for 25 years. In 2007, when Brown was head of Bull Moose marketing, an email chain with Michael Kurtz, head of the Department of Record Stores, sparked the idea for Record Store Day . Each year
1763-561: Was established in 2003, it was owned by Our Price Records Limited, a newly incorporated company in June 2003, just months before the retail arm went into administration. The site sold directly to customers online and through locations in third party stores, much like the Virgin find and buy service, and featured products which extended further than the music and entertainment industry. The business went into liquidation in April 2017, and as of September 2019
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1806-508: Was established to capitalise on the growing success of the new VHS tape format, and some towns eventually had two or three Our Price branded stores. Our Price Video was later rebranded under the Playhouse fascia, but failed to establish a significant market share in VHS sales, and it was wound up by then owners WH Smith in 1997. The expansion of HMV by owners Thorn EMI in the late 1980s established
1849-473: Was located in London's Finchley Road . Until 1976, the first six stores were branded The Tape Revolution , by Bob Fowler of Fowler Coates Ltd and concentrated on selling the then-new compact cassette format and eight-track tapes . From 1976, the chain was rebranded as Our Price Records, in response to higher demand for vinyl records over eight tracks or cassettes. In 1988, it was rebranded once again as Our Price Music , as record labels began to distribute
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