Fopp enjoys great esteem among west end music and video fans, and has built a solid reputation on the back of its excellent book, CD and DVD deals. Its financial collapse and subsequent renaissance on HMV's nickel more or less coincided with the growth of digitally available content, and the increasing dominance of online retailers of traditional packaged media. Nowadays, Fopp feels a little less relevant. It's undoubtedly still a great place to snag a bargain, and always worth a look to see what is available for often ridiculously cheap prices. In music terms this is more often than not classic rock, and the "nu-classic rock" of artists like Radiohead and suchlike. New releases too are typically reasonably priced. Likewise, DVDs are frequently available for less than you'd pay for a pint in most nearby bars. So what's the problem? Well, for me, there is too little diversity in these offers. It rarely makes sense to go looking for a specific item in Fopp, either because they won't have it beyond it's initial release period, or because the cheap prices don't really extend to back catalogue stuff that's not part of the bigger offers - instead, you'll typically find comparatively quite high prices. This is understandable, since the premises has limited shelf space, and must offer focused savings. But the issue is more noticeable when you seek products other than books, DVDs and CDs. Bluray discs for example are extortionate, even in comparison with HMV (and ridiculously so in comparison with supermarkets or online), and a (now seemingly aborted) decision to stock video games was never going to succeed, with every release priced at its RRP of £39.99 (when such products are rarely sold for more than two-thirds of that price in most alternative retailers).
Nowadays, I see little incentive to shop in Fopp rather than a supermarket or online. The historical motivation has been (at least partially) to support local business, but that no longer really feels that persuasive, given its corporate parent. Now, unless I'm picking up a short-notice gift for someone, or I happen to see a good deal, I'm unlikely to do much else but browse for inspiration that I can take to my Amazon shopping cart.
To compound my feelings towards this specific branch of Fopp, I've frequently seen cheaper prices on the same products in their Edinburgh Rose Street branch (and no one in Glasgow likes to see those folks getting better treatment!) read more