As someone old enough to recall the excitement of Virgin Records opening in Sheffield back around 1970, the closure of the Zavvi store in town in 2009 was the end of an era. Virgin first opened on The Moor, a two storey shop with records downstairs and a hippy boutique upstairs. They were there for years, but then moved for a time to a bigger, more central, shop in the eighties. They then moved to their last site in the new Orchard Square development and were rebranded a Virgin Megastore. The store was refurbished in 2004 in steel and industrial fittings.When Virgin sold off most of their Megastores a couple of years back some were rebranded under the Zavvi name and continued to operate. Curiously as Zavvi the Sheffield shop actually got better. They increased space given to books and began stocking new vinyl once more, so it began to feel like a proper record store again. Zavvi went under in late 2008 though some stores were kept open while they looked for a buyer. The Sheffield central shop closed in early 2009 following a big sale, and Sheffield lost it’s biggest music shop, leaving just a smaller HMV.
One Zavvi store remained in the Meadowhell (sic) shopping centre near the M1 motorway. It was then rebranded as Head and operated as a bargain store to clear remaining stock for a couple of months before shutting.
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