Virgin Megastore Times Square Celebrates Relaunch With Week of Events Showcasing Diversity of Expanded Product Offering

Virgin Megastore Times Square Celebrates Relaunch With Week of Events Showcasing Diversity of Expanded Product Offering

In-Store Appearances by Tiger Woods, Sheryl Crow, Supergrass, Celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver and World Champion Skateboarder Andy MacDonald

NEW YORK, Sept. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- To celebrate the completion of its five-month refurbishment, on Monday September 26, Virgin Entertainment Group, North America, the premier Global music and entertainment retailer, is inviting customers to visit the store to enjoy a week of live appearances and performances and experience the newly revamped and restyled store.

The store demonstrates an emphasis on what's cool in popular culture. The entire first floor of the 63, 000 sq ft Times Square Megastore now presents multiple themed displays representing what's hot in today's popular culture whether it is music, film, fashion or gadgets. Catalogue products have been moved to lower floors encouraging exploration of the full store.

Virgin Megastore, Times Square now carries 27 brands of apparel to suit all pockets and tastes. Most of the chosen lines, including Ben Sherman and Michele Marcombe, reflect music culture and the British and European roots of the brand. To complement Virgin's ready to wear apparel selection the brand has introduced vintage clothing and accessories through a relationship with boutique operators, Cherry. The new Cherry boutique at Virgin Megastore will present original 70's and 80's tour merchandise, vintage footwear, belt buckles and outer wear. Virgin has also introduced an "iron-on" t-shirt staging area in conjunction with field leader, Bang On.

The revamped store will also offer the latest in cutting edge personal electronics including MP3, MPEG4 players, digital cameras, iPod accessories and portable DVD players from category leading brands including Apple, Bose, Samsung and Sony amongst others, with the selection process being based on quality and portability.

Virgin has also placed an emphasis on helping the customer to try before they buy almost any product. 150 digital scanning, browsing and recommendation kiosks have been introduced into the Times Square store, which is more than in any Virgin Megastore in the world. Customers will be able to preview over 11,000 DVDs, over 1 million song titles, and will be able to research over 7,000 games on any one of the new 150 Virgin Vault Kiosks, powered by IBM.

Virgin Megastore, Times Square will host a series of in-store events to inspire customers to come in and check out the expanded and eclectic offering:

* Monday, September 26, at 2:30 PM -- Tiger Woods challenges enter-to-win contestants to a round of virtual golf on his new Electronics Art game "Tiger Woods PGA Tour '06" in the Virgin Megastore, Times Square games department. World Champion Skate Boarder, Andy MacDonald, will be at the store to sign autographs from 4:30 - 6:30 PM. * Tuesday, September 27, at 5 PM -- Supergrass will perform and sign copies of their new release "Road to Rouen" * Wednesday, September 28, at 6:30 PM -- Sheryl Crow will perform and sign copies of her new release "Wildflower" * Thursday, September 29, at 1PM -- Celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver will doing a signing and Q&A about his new DVD, "Oliver's Twist 2"

Since the Virgin Megastore, Times Square opened its doors in 1996, over 50 million shoppers have walked through the doors.

Source: Virgin Entertainment Group

CONTACT: Krysty O'Quinn of SJ Communications, +1-818-881-3889, Krysty@sjcommunications.com, for Virgin Megastore

NOTE TO EDITORS: About Virgin Entertainment Group Virgin Entertainment Group is the world's leading multi-channel music and entertainment retailer, providing customers with a range of superior entertainment experiences through a family of integrated Virgin-branded businesses. The "category killer" Virgin Megastores and Virgin Megastore Online at www.virginmega.com are integral parts of a strategy to provide entertainment customers with what they want, how they want it, and when they want it. For more information, or to check out the location of the nearest Virgin retail, go to www.virginmega.com

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