You’re on vacation at Yester World. There’s more to do than just visiting theme parks. Whether you’re looking for a specific, hard-to-find CD or you just want to spend hours listening to whatever kind of music you like, head over to the Virgin Megastore.

There are more than 300 listening stations on the first floor alone. If your taste runs to classical and jazz, you’ll be pleased to know that there’s an enclosed classical and jazz room. Your previews aren’t limited just to music. There are also 20 DVD viewing stations. The children’s department has kid-sized listening and viewing stations.

You don’t need fancy technology to preview books. (Well, you might need reading glasses.) There’s a 10,000 square-foot book department.

Perhaps there will even be a live music performance while you’re there. Get autographs from the music stars.

This store is big—49,000 square feet big.

Wow! Exploring this store is almost as tiring as visiting a theme park. It’s time to relax. Head to the front-left corner of the second floor.

How about gourmet brewed coffee, or something more decadent; perhaps a white chocolate mocha? Try one of the four Signature Sandwiches, such as “The Cape”—mesquite chicken breast, topped with melted Swiss cheese served on a Kaiser roll with mayo and honey mustard—or “The Buena Vista”—roast beef brisket with chopped onions, melted cheddar cheese and BBQ sauce on a kaiser roll. There are also deli standards, panini sandwiches, salad, and combinations.

The fruit smoothies are not for the indecisive. There are eleven to choose from, and they all sound good: Strawberry Smash; Raspberry Razzler; Banana Burst; Bananaberry; Mango Delight; Tropicalada (piña colada, mango, banana); Berry Apeeling (raspberry, banana); Burst o’ Berry (strawberry ice cream); Wildberry Breeze (strawberry, raspberry); Purple Potion (raspberry ice cream); or Mangolada (piña colada, mango).

Take your Coco Moka Café items to the outdoor balcony high above the West Side. Savor your sandwich. Sip your coffee. Read the book that you’re about to buy. What a nice way to spend some time at Yester World!

The Virgin Megastore at Downtown Disney in Florida opened on September 15, 1997, as part of the new West Side. It was the eleventh Virgin Megastore in the United States, and part of a much larger international collection of stores founded by British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson.

The Virgin Megastore chain in the United States kept growing, reaching a peak of 23 stores.

In the age of iPods, MP3 files, iTunes, Netflix, video-on-demand, Amazon, and Wal-Mart, the Virgin Megastore became the Virgin dinosaur. The chain was headed for extinction. The beast didn’t go out without a fight. Virgin Megastores became iPod retailers. They even tried to sell their own Virgin Player by Virgin Electronics, the electronics unit of the Virgin Group.

The Virgin Megastore chain wasn’t alone in watching their business slide away. At shopping malls, strip malls, and downtowns all over America, familiar stores—Blockbuster Music, Camelot, Coconuts Music & Movies, FYE, Hear Music, Media Play, Music Plus, Musicland, Planet Music, Record Bar, Record Town, Saturday Matinee, Spec’s, Streetside Records, Sam Goody, Suncoast Motion Picture Co., Strawberries, Tape World, Tower Records, Tracks, Turtles, and Wherehouse Music—were closing many or all of their locations. The once-great Tower Records chain closed their last U.S. stores on December 22, 2006. Similar stories happened all over the globe.

In August 2007, a partnership of the Related Companies and Vornado Realty Trust—two real estate development firms—agreed to buy Virgin Megastores North America. No, these real estate developers didn’t really want to sell CDs, DVDs, books, and electronic gizmos. They were after the real estate. Even though Virgin had leased space, the rents were often well below market. In a New York Post article on August 18, 2007, writer Braden Keil quotes a broker: “There’s rental gold in the Times Square Virgin Store. Virgin is probably paying $100 a foot, compared to the $800 a foot Vornado could be getting today.”

The Virgin Megastore chain in the United States dwindled to just five stores—Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, New York, and Downtown Disney. On March 2, 2009, the company announced that even those five survivors would close by summer. For a short time, it was business as usual. In early April, “30% off” signs popped up all over the Downtown Disney store. (Some customers commented that many items had been on sale previously, and actually cost more after the clearance sale began.)

May 12, 2009, was the final day for the Virgin Megastore at Downtown Disney.

The closing left a gaping 49,000 square-foot vacancy across from the Wolfgang Puck Café, between DisneyQuest and the AMC 24 Theatres Complex. No replacement has been announced.

Internet rumors have claimed that a flagship Apple Store is on the way. The store would showcase Apple’s product line to Walt Disney World visitors from around the world (with plenty of those visitors also leaving the store with purchases). Currently, the biggest Apple store is the London Regent Street location, with over 28,000 square feet of selling space. Of course, the rumor could just be wishful thinking by Apple fans.

Sports fans, on the other hand, think the former Virgin Megastore would be perfect for an ESPN Zone. After all, ESPN is owned by Disney. Unlike the Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World doesn’t have an ESPN Zone, only the comparatively small ESPN Club at Disney’s BoardWalk.

Apple fans and sports fans might both be disappointed. The former Virgin Megastores at New York’s Times Square and Chicago’s Michigan Avenue are now Forever 21 clothing stores.

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© 2009 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks
 
Updated November 5, 2009.
 
Photographs of Virgin Megastore by Werner Weiss, 2008.