May 12: Goodbye Megastore

On this day in 2009, the 49,000 square-foot Virgin Megastore in Downtown Disney, Florida had its final day of business. Opened since September 15, 1997 as part of Disney World's new West Side, the 11th Virgin Megastore in the U.S. was located between DisneyQuest and the AMC 24 Theatres Complex.
Originally an international chain of record shops, founded by Sir Richard Branson (a flamboyant British entrepreneur) in 1971, the very first Megastore opened in London in 1979. Since then Branson's Virgin label has been splashed across everything from credit cards to airlines, and his Megastores began selling more than just music products. The retailer offered books, magazines, fashion products and in the case of the Downtown Disney location - beverages and snacks at the second floor Coco Moca Café.
Unfortunately in the age of MP3 files, iPods, and video-on-demand, the Virgin Megastore began to lose business and by the end of 2008 had only 5 U.S. locations left. Sadly on March 2, 2009 it was announced that all U.S. Megastores would close.

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