Virgin Megastores is an international entertainment retailing chain, founded in early 1976 by Richard Branson as a record shop on London's Oxford Street.

[2] Richard Branson and Nik Powell had initially run a small record shop called Virgin Records and Tapes on Notting Hill Gate, London, specialising particularly in "krautrock" imports, and offering bean bags and free vegetarian food for the benefit of customers listening to the music on offer.

Virgin's first formal store opened on London's Oxford Street in January or February 1971 (exact date uncertain).

In December 2007 Butler Capital Partners announced their intention to mount a majority takeover of the French arm of Virgin from Lagardère.

Both real estate companies wanted to break the leases and replace Virgin with new tenants that were willing to pay the then current higher rental rates that would make an entertainment retail business unprofitable.

In 2003, all US Stores increased their focus on multiple fashion categories[18] spanning Pop culture, Street, Urban, Movie & TV to complement the music, DVD and video games offers.

[22] The download service faced some criticism from consumer groups due to its incompatibility with the popular iPod music player.

In December 2007 Butler Capital Partners announced their intention to mount a majority takeover of the French arm of Virgin from Lagardère.

Prior to this sale 51% of VirginMega, France's number 2 music download website, was transferred to the Virgin Stores company (sold to Butler), and the remaining 49% was kept by Lagardère Active.

[33] The Virgin name is used by the Lagardère Group to brand a small number of convenience stores within airports and railway stations.

In 1996, local merchandising group Fotex opened the first and only Hungarian Virgin Megastore (1000 m2) in the first "western" shopping mall, Duna Plaza, in Budapest.

Galerías Preciados ceased trading the following year and Virgin Retail España quickly re-organised its operations and opened medium-sized stores in ABC Serrano (Madrid), La Coruña, Vigo,[48] Málaga, Bilbao and Santander.

[citation needed] The first Virgin Megastore opened in the United Kingdom in 1979 and between the 1980s and 1990s, the chain grew, including via its merger with Our Price whilst under the ownership of WH Smith.

[51] By February 2009 Zavvi had closed its stores, selling some to rival HMV, and a few to Simon Douglas and Les Whitfield's Head Entertainment.

Virgin entered the Turkish market in March 2011 with a store located in the Demirören shopping centre on Istiklal Street near Taksim, Istanbul.

The product mix of books, digital media and electronics failed to compete with better established chains and the store closed in autumn 2012.

[53] Operating as Virgin Megastores Middle East, Azadea has stores in UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, and Jordan.

Virgin's main store in Lebanon was located in the old Cinema Opera on Martyrs' Square, Beirut Central District; it opened on 3 July 2001 and was shut down[55] in 2018.

[56][57] There are also smaller outlets at ABC Malls at Achrafieh, Dbayeh, Verdun and CityMall Dora, as well as in Beirut International Airport.

[citation needed] The first Virgin Megastore in the United Arab Emirates in September 2001 at the Deira City Centre in Dubai, two months after the opening in Beirut.

[86][87] As well as being an all-rounded entertainment retailer, these Megastores also act as venues, with artist signings/appearances, performances and quiz nights and a newly launched boutique section offering everything from movie memorabilia to jewellery.

[89] In 2007, Best Financière (Label Vie Carrefour) of Rabat received a franchise from Lagardère to operate Virgin Megastores in Morocco.

[54] The Antar Group was in the process of opening a store in the Al Shahba Mall in Aleppo[98] when the Syrian Civil War broke out in 2011.

Related Companies announced that the Virgin Megastore flagship store in Times Square would close by April 2009, with the space being replaced by Forever 21.

As of September 2012, the last remaining Virgin Books & Music outlet operated in Terminal 3 at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The data warehouse named 'Crescendo' collects POS transactions, along with customer traffic counts and generates KPI reports in near real-time.

Brazin also intended to use the Virgin brand to open 45 new Megastores in addition to converting 55 of its existing small-scale IN2 Music stores that had not already been rebranded as Sanity.

Yet, the programme stalled as Brazin battled internal disruptions and struggled to separate the target-markets for Virgin and its chain of more than 200 Sanity stores (at the time).

As a result, the company's entertainment division posted a $27 million loss in financial year, 2002–03, and by mid-2004, Brazin had only managed to open 12 Virgin Megastores.

[126] In December 2004, HDS Retail Asia Pacific opened Australia's first Virgin Books and Music travel outlet at Melbourne Airport.