The news that Real Groovy was closing on April 1st was initially thought by many to be a not-so-funny April Fools joke but, alas, it was not. Wellington music lovers were saddened when long time Real Groovy manager Mark Thomas confirmed that the iconic store would be closing its Cuba Street doors permanently.
The Real Groovy franchise has had it rough the past couple of years, starting when its parent company went into receivership in 2008. The Dunedin branch was the first to close its doors and, when this happened, Mr Thomas mortgaged his house to buy the Wellington branch hoping that the store would regain financial stability. Unfortunately, around the same time, the economic recession took a turn for the worst and the store never fully re-gained its financial footing.
This announcement comes a week after the Christchurch branch announced it too is closing due to severe structural damage caused from the earthquakes, leaving the Auckland branch of the much loved stores to stand alone to carry on the Real Groovy name.
The store is best known for its vast eclectic music collection in both CD and vinyl form. Josh Hollis, an avid raider of the Real Groovy dub-step and drum & bass sections, said “It’s going to be a pain in the arse to find dub-step now that Real Groovy and Samurai Store have closed.” With the closure of both of these much loved specialist stores, it leaves only the smaller Slow Boat Records as the last standing non-commercial music store in Wellington.
The chain store Marbeks closed its Cuba Street store earlier this year but still has its larger café/store located on Lambton Quay. However, they deal largely in popular commercial music and DVDs and their vinyl collection is near non-existent, which will make anything that isn’t Justin Bieber related harder to come by.
Mr Thomas did say that he was hoping to start up a smaller store if it is financially viable after Real Groovy closes its doors in late May.