In a show of support for physical businesses in an increasingly online era, British music retailer HMV will open its former flagship location on Oxford Street in London on Black Friday after a four-year hiatus. The store will sell vinyl records, apparel, and merchandise.

Composer Edward Elgar opened the first HMV store at 363 Oxford Street in 1921, and it played a pivotal role in the growth of British popular music and culture.

The business, well-known for its trademarked dog and gramophone, departed the property in 2019 after Canadian music entrepreneur Doug Putman reached an agreement to save the failing company, closing 27 key sites while maintaining 100 operational.

It had recently been vacant or selling American candies in the middle of the most well-known shopping district in Britain.

HMV is returning home as a result of a more advantageous rent and business rates package.

“We feel really good on the future of physical stores for retail,” Putman told Reuters in an interview. “As much as things are still selling digitally, our customers love coming in. They like to browse.”

In addition to 12,000 CDs, 8,000 distinct vinyl albums, music memorabilia, and a variety of music technologies will be offered by the store.

Along with over 750 T-shirt designs, it will also feature over 4,000 merchandise from over 750 different properties, like Pokemon, Star Wars, Marvel, and DC.

“It’s about us offering a lot more than just, say, a CD or a DVD or a piece of vinyl. It’s offering all that accessory product around it,” said Putman.

The new store will also feature performances by well-known performers as well as local talent, paying homage to its history and demonstrating the challenges faced by shops in maintaining a successful physical presence as more commerce moves online. The store features a specially designed performance floor.

The location has a rich past. John Lennon, Cher, Elton John, and Michael Jackson have all shopped there, and a number of British bands, such Blur and Echo & The Bunnymen, have performed both inside the store and outside.

It was also crucial to the Beatles’ ascent to fame. Their manager, Brian Epstein, recorded the group on tape in the store’s recording facility in 1962.

The studio manager loved what he heard, so he set off a series of events that eventually led Epstein to meet George Martin, who would go on to become producer of the Beatles.

HMV went bankrupt twice, in 2013 and 2018, however under Putman’s ownership, the company expanded to over 120 UK locations and earned a profit in 2022. It intends to expand throughout Europe and established a store in Antwerp on Thursday after opening one in Dublin in June.

Its comeback has paralleled the vinyl market’s. According to HMV, half of its physical music sales are vinyl, which is much higher than the UK’s 18% yearly market growth.

“We feel pretty confident that we’re going to still see growth in vinyl for the foreseeable future,” said Putman.

“An experience beyond traditional retail” is what Westminster City Council, which is in charge of Oxford Street, said the HMV store embodies.

(Adapted from TheGuardian.com)