HMV Just Opened the Largest Record Store in All of Europe

While sales of physical albums are on the decline on the whole, with vinyl set to surpass CD sales this year for the first time since 1986, U.K. music retailer HMV is going all-in anyway.

The long-running chain, which was saved from administration (the U.K. equivalent of bankruptcy) earlier this year, opened a new store in Birmingham, known as the HMV Vault, on the site of an old Toys R Us. The store will stock a whopping 80,000 CDs and 25,000 vinyl, purportedly making it the largest entertainment store of any kind throughout all of Europe.

Sunrise Records owner Doug Putnam, who bought the HMV brand earlier this year, offered:

“I believe we can grow the chain. A lot of high streets are challenged and struggling. The U.K. has got an amazing high street and we want to support that. There is something really special about it and when it’s gone, it’s gone.”

“High street” is British slang for a main street with a retail corridor.

[via Kerrang!]