Thursday, June 03, 2010

Marbecks closes several stores

Marbecks was sold to the CD and DVD Store a while back, and they subsequently rebranded themselves as Marbecks. Now a number of their stores are closing down - I've heard that their St Lukes and Vulcan Lane stores are closing, and I went to the closing down sale of their 277 Newmarket store. I've heard that their Palmerston North store has closed. (Correction - Beatties blog says Marbecks are planning to open their next concept store in Palmerston North in June.)

It will be interesting to see how they reshape the business. The CD and DVD Store currently lists 33 stores on its website, and Marbecks site lists 30 (Corrected - I misread the Marbecks site map).

In November last year, Marbecks launched a new store/bookshop/cafe in Dunedin, see photos and story on that launch here (from Inside Retailing magazine). It's worth noting that in that article Marbecks CEO Roger Harper says "he expects to open another four new-format stores this year in the main centres, with the second one to open in April; 15 are planned eventually."

EDIT: I removed some information regarding Marbecks and their bills. Unconfirmed rumour.

12 comments:

Manuel said...

That's really sad. Can't stop the game from changing I guess.

Anonymous said...

you might like to check your comment about bill payment.

Peter McLennan said...

Anon - that wasnt a comment, it was a quote from a source. HOWEVER - i have removed it, as its rumour only.

Anonymous said...

Where did you hear this? Or is it an unconfirmed rumour too? I can see the same number of stores on the Marbecks site that are on the CD+DVD store one that you've got a link too. Am I missing something or did you just make an error?

Peter McLennan said...

Anon #2 - read the story. I went to Marbeck Newmarket -their store was covered in signage saying Closing Down Sale. I will correct the error regarding store numbers.

Peter McLennan said...

AND if you want to make comments here, please have the guts to use your real name. Anonymous comments dont carry a lot of weight.

Anonymous said...

Hi Guys

Thanks for your interest. Yes we have closed our 277 Newmarket store, more to do with the economics of retailing in shopping malls than anything else. But yes, the music & movie retail business is changing and us along with it, we said as much last year when we opened our new format store in Dunedin. We’re very excited about our next concept store opening on the Square in Palmerston North on the 18th June, it has a bigger cafe [and fully licensed with a few weeks] our designers and fit-out guys tell me it’s a big step up from Dunedin, so i can’t wait to see it myself.

We opened our digital store marbecksdigital.co.nz a couple of weeks ago – we’ve had awesome feedback, so go ahead buy your digital downloads from a good old kiwi company. You will have seen lots of good changes to marbecks.co.nz in recent times too. So yes business is changing, fast, but we are very excited about the future without pretending it’s easy out here at the moment. There will no doubt be more smaller store closures over time, we believe our future is in larger concept stores that create communities that can meet and share our passion for music, movies, books and art and coffee – and online and digital of course, they are, and will be, a significant part of our business in the future.

....and we’re on top of the bills thanks, but hey, any donations would be gratefully received, wonderful stores like Palmy and Dunedin don’t come cheap!

Cheers Roger Harper (Managing Director, Marbecks)

Peter McLennan said...

Hi Roger,
thanks very much for chiming in. Appreciate it. When are we getting a flash concept store in Auckland, then?

Unknown said...

^ Yes! Can you put a new concept store in Crown Lynn aka New Lynn? Nice new train station being built there...easy access for customers from all across the city. Just an idea ;-)

Anonymous said...

...we’d love to do a new concept store in Auckland, but we need to find the right site. When we find it we’ll let you know, but we’re thinking Ponsonby or Newmarket [hence another reason for not renewing in Newmarket]...nothing against New Lynn!

Cheers roger

Anonymous said...

is Marbecks - Courtenay Central in Wellington now closed?

Anonymous said...

Re Courtney Central - Yes... "economics of retailing in shopping malls" was definitely at play in that one. That mall is a ghost town other than the cinema...