[imagesource: V&A Waterfront]

Remember when you used to go to a physical store when you wanted to buy a new album, or a DVD?

How quaint.

South Africans of a certain age will remember what it’s like to stroll around a Musica, checking out the latest releases, but I can’t say I’m massively surprised to see the Clicks Group announce that it is shutting the business down.

The Clicks Group bought Musica in 1992, when it was by far the country’s leading music and entertainment retail brand.

As Moneyweb reports, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the shift to digital consumption of music, movies, and games, were cited as reasons for the decision:

…for several years “Musica has been operating in a declining market … owing to the structural shift globally to the digital consumption of music, movies and games from the traditional physical format,” Clicks said.

“The inevitable demise of the brand has been accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic which resulted in the rapid decline in foot traffic in destination malls where Musica stores are typically located.”

Since the start of the 2021 financial year, back in September, 19 Musica stores have closed, and the remaining 59 locations will be shut as leases expire over the next four months.

If you hurry, perhaps there is still time to relive the Musica shuffle from aisle to aisle, and I expect some suitably sombre music to be playing at the time.

Clicks hopes to absorb the Musica staff into its health and beauty store network, so that there aren’t widespread job losses, “where this is operationally feasible”.

The group’s most recent financials showed a steady increase in turnover, due in part to a marked increase in demand for immunity-building vitamins and supplements.

[source:moneyweb]