1971 was a good year. Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge over Troubled Water swept up three Grammy Awards; Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange shocked the nation; and Richard Branson opened the first ever Virgin Records store.

Richard had a distinctive vision of what a record shop should do for its customers. Why for instance were all music retailers at the time so drab and dreary? Why shouldn't they reflect the attitude that people had towards the product itself? After all, as Branson put it; "people take music far more seriously than other things in life". His vision was to change record stores from being places people had to go to buy their favourite records - into an enjoyable experience where people could meet and listen to music together.

Whilst zavvi is no longer part of the Virgin Group, we are proud of our heritage and in many ways we are moving back to Richard Branson's original vision of what a record store should be like. We are now in a position to differentiate ourselves from other retailers of entertainment product, through offering the customer an entertainment experience, with live acts, interactive games areas, listening posts and most of all an authoritative and extensive range of entertainment products at competitive prices. You won't get all that in a supermarket!