Leave it to Billboard to be the bearer of MORE bad news…

The planned closures of the Virgin Megastores in Times Square and Union Square in New York City and the Market Street store in San Francisco are the beginning of the final wind-down of the Virgin Entertainment Group North America. Over the next few months, the company also plans to shutter its other three stores in Orlando, Fla., Denver and Los Angeles, with the company expected to be liquidated sometime this summer.

I’m feeling like Cousin Oliver at the moment, but it was just a matter of time. Turns out that there was a little more effort to save the chain than folks might be giving them credit for…

But the company was also working on improving its concept for a smaller space. With CD sales sliding, “I tried my hardest to come up with a new model, and we were making a lot of headway with it before the holidays,” says (CEO Simon) Wright. But, the “economy is so bad; it’s all about batten down the hatches.”

I think I’m going to be spending a LOT of time in that store once the discounts get to 40% or so. This also creates another rough situation for Denver, as that’s a huge space to fill down on the 16th Street Mall. I wonder if Virgin has a tenant lined up for this space like they did in Times Square? Only time will tell…