Virgin Entertainment Group Opens First Virgin Megastore in Columbus, Ohio

Business Wire, June 16, 1999

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 16, 1999--

25,000-Square-Foot Store in the New Easton Town Center to be

Largest Music/Entertainment Destination in Ohio

Virgin Entertainment Group will open its 20th Virgin Megastore in North America in Columbus' new Easton Town Center.

The Easton Town Center is a 76,000-square-foot urban entertainment and retail complex themed like a 1930s rail station and town center. The store spans 25,000 square feet, making it the largest music/entertainment destination in Ohio.

"The Easton Town Center is the first of its kind in Columbus, and we're very proud to be one of the anchor tenants in this tremendous development," observed Christos Garkinos, senior vice president of product and marketing for Virgin Entertainment Group.

The store will open its doors on June 30, with an official grand opening celebration in conjunction with the Easton Town Center's Carnival weekend, July 16-18. Grand opening activities will include a ribbon cutting on Friday with a special guest appearance; a special promotion for the first 1,000 customers that weekend; as well as a live concert in the "Town Square" (right in front of the Virgin store) on Saturday night, July 17.

The Columbus Virgin Megastore will carry a massive amazing selection of music and entertainment including: -0-

--   More than 150,000 music titles on CD and cassette across a broad
     range of genres -- a deep catalog selection of rock, pop, r&b,
     urban, metal, as well as imports, and expanded country, dance and
     hip hop sections.

--   20,000 movie and music titles on DVD and video, including new
     releases, classics, international cinema, anime documentaries and
     the Criterion Collection.

--   More than 2,000 entertainment and productivity multimedia
     software titles for PC, Mac and Sony PlayStation.

--   A large specialty book section with a reading area covering
     music, art, pop culture and travel, as well as entertainment and
     general interest periodicals.

"Virgin Megastores have met with incredible success throughout the world as exciting and dynamic destinations where shopping meets entertainment," noted Garkinos. "Columbus already has a vibrant music culture, and we look forward to being an active addition."

Other highlights of the Columbus Virgin Megastore include:

--   Digital on Demand: Virgin will offer the first-ever digital
     download and fulfillment system in the Columbus Megastore. Unlike
     previous kiosk systems, this one will offer music that has
     traditionally been unavailable in any music retail store.
     Customers will be able to create custom CDs in a matter of
     minutes, with music from a variety of online-only and established
     labels.

--   Music listening stations that allow customers to sample more than
     350 full-length CDs.

--   Multimedia demonstration stations that allow customers to sample
     CD-ROM game titles.

--   More than 20 video monitors broadcasting the latest music videos,
     feature films and special events, including a 12-screen video
     chandelier.

--   A regular series of in-store concerts and artist signings.

--   Satellite uplink and downlink capabilities for special event,
     television broadcast and remote-location production.

Each Virgin Megastore is an innovative and exciting architectural showcase that incorporates unique design elements, dramatic artwork and interactive components into an overall shopper-friendly environment, fully complementing the breadth and diversity of music/entertainment product that is the company's trademark, and is unequaled in today's music retailing.

Virgin Megastores have received two recent design awards for creating environments that successfully bring entertainment and retail together with high energy and excitement.

The Ohio Megastore will also introduce Virgin's new genre signage system. The new system in both Virgin's online and bricks-and-mortar megastores will make it easy for customers to find the music for which they are looking.

Virgin Entertainment Group opened its first U.S. Virgin Megastore on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles in December 1992, followed by Costa Mesa, Calif. in 1993; Sacramento, Calif. in 1994; and San Francisco and Burbank, Calif. in 1995. In April of 1996, the company opened the largest music and entertainment store in the world, the already legendary Times Square store in New York City.

The Times Square store, a huge success and major destination for tourists and New Yorkers alike, generates approximately $1 million in sales per week. Two other stores opened in 1996 in Ontario, Calif., and Vancouver, Canada.

1997 saw openings in Las Vegas; Orlando, Fla.; Dallas; Tempe, Ariz.; and a second New York location in Long Island. 1998 openings included stores in New Orleans; Union Square (New York City); Denver; Anaheim, Calif.; and Chicago.

The Virgin Megastore in South Miami was the first to open in 1999 on Superbowl weekend. Next month's Columbus opening marks store number 20 for the chain.