Head

I’m not a fan of this store, its not the most welcoming of places and I don’t particularly like the layout. I came here particularly looking for a DVD didn’t find what I wanted so just went home and got it on the internet instead. It does seem to have a good range of music but again when you can listen to music online before you click buy and buy individual tracks, this store needs to have something more special if it is to survive. As it is, its been reinvented countless times but they have to think also, what are they doing wrong if they are not being successful? A music store generally has to have something to draw me in, whether it be friendly, knowledgable staff or a really nice atmosphere. I can’t see what is different and special about Head that will make it any more successful that its previous incarnations.

Sam was on to something when he said ‘Doing well to stay open’, because they did recentley close. A few weeks ago they had a massive closing down sale, everything was reduced to quite low prices, and when I went in all they seemed to have was countless copies of rubbish childrens films and Sylvester Stallone in a film called ‘Stop or my Mum will shoot’! Sounds pretty bad.
But recentley this store has re-​opened, nothing is really any different other than a seemingly large re-​brand. It’s still called ‘Head’, and they have got rid of the horrible green that could be seen everywhere which I think was a good move.
I think the DVD’s are a little bit cheaper though.

Doing well to stay open, Head has a farily large selection of DVD’s, but a much bigger pool of music. In direct competition with HMV which is only a 2 minute walk away, and desperatley trying to stave off the growth of Cex Head trudges on by, step by step.
Very friendly in here. I do find, despite their cataloging sytem, it is quite difficuly to find what I am after, and quite often it seems they don’t have it.
The Computer games and consoles atract a few people, but I don’t know how much longer they will keep them in stock, we shall have to see what time brings…

For those of you that haven’t moved over to the internet for all your movie, music and gaming needs, this place offers some remarkably cheap DVDs (including blu-​rays), CDs and computer games (plus the consoles themselves). You see, it seems to be in a perpetual state of closing down and hence it has prices to match. I don’t know what the deal is — it used to be a Virgin Megastore for ages, then became Zavvi and a couple of other names that I can’t even remember now (they were very short lived) — but I’m not going to complain, and whoever the hell Head are, they have filled this place with ideal presents for birthdays and Christmas. Go grab a bargain next time you’re in or around the Galleries.

This places has been few a couple of different makeovers. Previously Zavvi, and before that Virgin Megastore, it’s always been a big city centre record shop where you can get all the usual chart stuff plus a bit more (mostly in virtue of their need to fill all space I think) that’s never looked like it’s doing all that well. The impact of music downloading and Amazon seems to have continued to eat into the business here, with more and more discounts on offer.
At the moment there’s racks and racks of four pound CDs. So even if you’re tech savy enough (and these days, who isn’t?) to get it cheap off the net it’s still worth coming down here to do a bit of impulse shopping.
It isn’t the most pleasant of retail experiences in my opinion. This might just be because the tastes of the staff (who get to put the music on pretty loud here) don’t usually match my own. Though it does feel a lot more impersonal than any of Bristol independents. It isn’t too oppressive though, and if you’re in the city centre with a tenner burning a hole in your pocket then head to Head to see if you can find anything you like.