There’s a really good ad’ running on TV at the moment for Virgin Atlantic, set in 1984 it started the old nostalgia glands a twitching. At one point a beautifully recreated Our Price Records shop front comes into shot, remember Our Price Records! Ah! I worked for Our Price from 1983 until 1991 and they were some of the happiest years of my working life.
Originally founded in 1972 by Gary Nesbitt, Edward Stollins and Mike Isaacs, early stores were called "The Tape Revolution" and concentrated on the then-new cassette format. The name was changed to "Our Price Records" in the mid-1970s; then to "Our Price Music" in the mid-1980s; and then simply to "Our Price" following a final brand relaunch in 1993. The company was based in London, with a head office above the shop in High Street, Kensington (where a fresh-faced18 year old Bowlesy went for his induction training in 1983). In 1980 the chain grew with purchase of the Harlequin Records chain. Thereafter, national expansion followed, with the 100th store opening in the Kings Road, Chelsea ( Bowlesy woz there!) the 200th at Stirling in Scotland; and the 300th in the early 1990s in Brixton, south London – there was a party to celebrate this store opening at The Frdge in Brixton, Bowlesy was in attaendance although his memory of that evening is somewhat blurred.
In the first half of the 1980s, Our Price established itself as the UK's second largest retailer of records and tapes (Woolworths was number 1). Brand recognition strong and the "Get Down To Our Price" slogan, could be heard blasting from car stereos all over London in the 1980s. Later these transferred to TV featuring an animated carrier bag called Billy ( I ask you!). A sister chain, Our Price Video, was established to capitalise on the success of the new VHS tape format, and some towns eventually had two or three Our Price-branded stores. Our Price Video was later rebranded under the "Playhouse" fascia, but failed to establish a significant market share in VHS sales, and it was wound up by WH Smith in the late 1990s. However, an expansion programme by HMVin the late 1980s established a chain of newer, larger stores, which threatened and eventually overtook Our Price in popularity.
Our Price was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1984, and then acquired by WH Smith Group plc two years later, with Smith's "Sound FX" chain absorbed into Our Price. The stuffy corporate philosophy of WHS changed Our Price fundamentally, and several members of senior management left the company in 1989 to create the rival MVC (Music & Video Club), which itself would eventually be bought by Woolworths. WH Smith later bought a majority interest in Richard Branson’s Virgin Music retail chain, a move which (with both Our Price and Virgin brands combined) would push them back ahead of HMV, but WH Smith sold Virgin, along with Our Price, to a division of the Virgin group of companies a few years later.
Originally founded in 1972 by Gary Nesbitt, Edward Stollins and Mike Isaacs, early stores were called "The Tape Revolution" and concentrated on the then-new cassette format. The name was changed to "Our Price Records" in the mid-1970s; then to "Our Price Music" in the mid-1980s; and then simply to "Our Price" following a final brand relaunch in 1993. The company was based in London, with a head office above the shop in High Street, Kensington (where a fresh-faced18 year old Bowlesy went for his induction training in 1983). In 1980 the chain grew with purchase of the Harlequin Records chain. Thereafter, national expansion followed, with the 100th store opening in the Kings Road, Chelsea ( Bowlesy woz there!) the 200th at Stirling in Scotland; and the 300th in the early 1990s in Brixton, south London – there was a party to celebrate this store opening at The Frdge in Brixton, Bowlesy was in attaendance although his memory of that evening is somewhat blurred.
In the first half of the 1980s, Our Price established itself as the UK's second largest retailer of records and tapes (Woolworths was number 1). Brand recognition strong and the "Get Down To Our Price" slogan, could be heard blasting from car stereos all over London in the 1980s. Later these transferred to TV featuring an animated carrier bag called Billy ( I ask you!). A sister chain, Our Price Video, was established to capitalise on the success of the new VHS tape format, and some towns eventually had two or three Our Price-branded stores. Our Price Video was later rebranded under the "Playhouse" fascia, but failed to establish a significant market share in VHS sales, and it was wound up by WH Smith in the late 1990s. However, an expansion programme by HMVin the late 1980s established a chain of newer, larger stores, which threatened and eventually overtook Our Price in popularity.
Our Price was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1984, and then acquired by WH Smith Group plc two years later, with Smith's "Sound FX" chain absorbed into Our Price. The stuffy corporate philosophy of WHS changed Our Price fundamentally, and several members of senior management left the company in 1989 to create the rival MVC (Music & Video Club), which itself would eventually be bought by Woolworths. WH Smith later bought a majority interest in Richard Branson’s Virgin Music retail chain, a move which (with both Our Price and Virgin brands combined) would push them back ahead of HMV, but WH Smith sold Virgin, along with Our Price, to a division of the Virgin group of companies a few years later.
After this takeover, the Our Price name began to be dropped in favour of the Virgin name, or VShop. The VShop continued to
sell videos, DVDs and CDs, but concentrated equally on selling Virgin branded mobile phones, (this was a mistake in my opinion) with stores removing the bulk of back catalogue CDs from display with the aim that customers could order these in store for home delivery through dedicated computer terminals in a so called 'clicks and mortar' strategy to combine high street shopping with the emerging internet shopping phenomenon. It lost out to competitors in the fields of music and mobile phones to competitors such as The Link, The Carphone Warehouse, HMV and MVC, while the increasing popularity of internet shopping rendered the in store ordering terminals redundant.Virgin Group, while maintaining their megastores until 2007 (then sold to Zavvi), sold the VShops and the remaining stores still under the "Our Price" brand on to Brazin Limited in 2001, a major Australian music retailer, who operates the Virgin, Sanity and, from 2006, HMV music store brands in that territory. Brazin re-branded all the stores as “Sanity”, a move which cost over 8 million pounds. Sanity never took off in the UK. In 2002 they announced a plan to trade in the UK under two names, their current one and a re-launch of the Our Price name (which continued to have resonance with UK consumers). This never happened and the stores closed the following year, with Brazin concentrating on the Australian market.
The remainder of the Sanity/Our Price chain was sold to a private investor (owner of Prism Leisure) in October 2003 but due to difficulties with credit and stock purchasing the chain entered administration in December 2003. In January 2004, the administrators started closing stores and within a 2 week period all stores were closed, ending with the Chesterfield store with a closing day party. The remaining stock in the chain was sold in its entirety to the Oxfam shops, whilst staff had to wait until May 2004 before the administrators paid the back wages that were owed to them from December 2003 and January 2004.
It was a sad end indeed. Still I have some great memories from my years at Our Price and some terrific friends; not to mention a pretty good record collection.
Nice fact:. In 1987 Shakin’ Stevens chose a branch of Our Price to film the opening scene of his video for "What do you want to make those eyes at me for?”
