Does anyone still shop at HMV?

Only Dr Dre can tell.

i find headphones odd as a "must-have item" as everybody who needs a pair already has a pair - they're an upgrade item, not a must-have.

that said, i saw three pairs of those Beats headphones on a single tube journey recently. and they start at £130 a piece.

Is that with an Oyster Card?

i find headphones odd as a "must-have item" as everybody who needs a pair already has a pair - they're an upgrade item, not a must-have.

But that's because you and I buy them for their utility, not for fashion.

Go to any HMV and wait for a while, you'll get all sorts of kids going in and pestering their parents to buy them Beats.

Beats headphones have arrived at ipod levels of one brand now representing an entire product type.

and that's a lot of kids who until a few months ago were happy with white earbuds, now wanting audiophile (price rather than quality) headphones.

I am not surprised that HMV are riding this wave of interested and happy to spend consumers, but with t-shirts > Videos > DVDs > video games > clothes > phones > headphones, the well HMV seems to be happy drawing from seems to get a little bit smaller each time and the amount of music int heir stores gets even smaller as well.

People used to buy music all the time, now a £100+ headphone purchase is a yearly thing (at absolute most)

WTF. Got email from HMV Tickets saying I just bought 4 tickets at £68. Rang them up saying I think I've just been defrauded, they claim it's an error on their system, that the tickets were bought with cash, and not to worry about it. They sounded a bit confused about it. Which doesn't give me a lot of confidence.

Oh dear, a bug in the system? Maybe they have laid off to many IT staff.

On another note, I saw in HMV Oxford St. that they were buying old CDs/DVDs and games. Maybe they are doing the same as Fopp. Fopp Gower St. has quite a selection of used £2 CDs now.

you just spoiled the wifes birthday surprise for you
xp

lol although it wasn't beyond the realms of the vaguely possible (it was for Ronnie Lane's old band after the (Small?) Faces, paying tribute) I was fairly (read 99.9658%) sure she wouldn't have booked tickets for that. The bloke on the phone reckoned it might be because someone with a similar address had bought tickets and someone made a typo entering it into the system. Which actually isn't that impossible, there's a mod looking woman prob about late 30s lives next door, she could've bought tickets to a Ronnie Lane's Old Band gig? Couldn't she? I'll just keep an eye on my statements for a bit.

Further to everything else about declining fortunes, I noticed that the big HMV store in Manchester's Arndale has now shut down, seemingly just after Christmas. They'd thrown the kitchen sink at this last year by trying to fill it with headphones, mp3 players etc, but the only times I've tried to buy music there recently the CD selection was so limited as to be useless. The shop closure gives me an endgame feeling for the chain though, there's been one in the Arndale (in various locations) for a *long* time.

fuck an HMV I only shop at THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT now

every canonical rap artist's second best album for £1.99 a pop

Spent £20 in a real live HMV shoppe yesterday, On Compact Discs. Exciting. I'd probably spend £20 a week if they had any fucking music in stock.

whereas if you can find cds you want in HMV you're lucky.

whereas if you can find cds you want in HMV you're lucky.

Wish there was a record shop in my town. Been a long long time since there was one.

Sometimes pick up the odd 2 for £10 CD and then spend *ages* trying to find one other good thing to get as part of the deal. Mostly fail and walk out empty-handed.

fuck an HMV I only shop at THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT now

every canonical rap artist's second best album for £1.99 a pop

This is true, got By All Means Necessary for 2 quid. That was in Head though

Further to everything else about declining fortunes, I noticed that the big HMV store in Manchester's Arndale has now shut down, seemingly just after Christmas. They'd thrown the kitchen sink at this last year by trying to fill it with headphones, mp3 players etc, but the only times I've tried to buy music there recently the CD selection was so limited as to be useless. The shop closure gives me an endgame feeling for the chain though, there's been one in the Arndale (in various locations) for a *long* time.
Is the big one at the top of Market Street still going? (haven't been in Manchester for quite a while obvs)

Was agog in bafflement at them over Xmas when Girlfriend's son was given an HMV gift card. He attempted to buy 5 or so films (Scooby Doo, mostly, he's a connoisseur) online, but at checkout we discovered after some googling that "The hmv Gift Card can only be spent in stores".

I did the sensible thing + paid for the films in exchange for the card. Thought I could use it in Fopp, but no, the HMV gift card "is only compatible with tills in hmv stores".

And the five films, ordered simultaneously, arrived in five separate packages by the same post.

>Is the big one at the top of Market Street still going?

Yeah, that's still there. I guess that's the final ship in the fleet, although 90% of the time I walk an extra 100yds and go round the corner to Fopp. Do HMV still own Fopp? Would be v sorry to see that go, still a great little shop.

kids got HMV gift cards at Xmas, advised them to spend them as fast as poss before HMV went tits up

I assume this thread is re: HMV uk, but I'd be amazed if the company still existed in Canada in 2013.

And the five films, ordered simultaneously, arrived in five separate packages by the same post.

play.com do this too. I bought some little packs of Lego minifigures as stocking fillers, typed "3" in the quantity box and all 3 were shipped separately. Which was in my favour in the end as they actually sent 4, ahem...

Was in HMV last week, could barely even find the music section. Bought a Hunter S Thompson book and a Nick Kent book for 2 quid each from the cheapy pile at the end of the vast shelf of celeb biographies

They sent them separately as this keeps them under-the-wire regarding VAT.

Yeah, a lot of that stuff will have been posted from Jersey or other offshore tax loophole locations.

'Low Value Consignment Relief' is the trick, I believe.

not for much longer if the government gets their way

Yes, hopefully. It is a very serious issue for smaller mainland shops like us.

not so good for the punter trying to save money though

Getting what you want at the absolute lowest price possible should not be one's driving aim, I believe. It is short-term, immediate gratification thinking which is detrimental to the music industry on a larger, longer-term scale.

i think in a recession/post-recession the punters mostly have a choice - cheap cd or free downloads though.

saving a quid or 2 here and there is the name of the game for most people. Also buy saving a quid or 2 here and there it means they can afford an extra cd.

I'm as poor & desirous of music as anyone else, but I think that as someone who is interested in anything beyond the mass-market it is important to try and support outlets who themselves support that kind of thing, i.e. bands, labels, smaller independent shops (both physical and online), regardless of whether or not they are a bit more expensive than Amazon et al, who will plough on regardless of whether I buy from them or not.

Anyway, we're getting off the specific point, which is that utilising the offshore tax loophole puts the bigger players at an unfair financial advantage over anyone selling from mainland UK and though technically legal is not within the spirit of the law it is loopholing.

Hence I think that it is a decidedly good thing that it be put a stop to, even if it does mean that goods aren't available quite as cheaply to end consumers.

oh i know that. Im just saying that the punters might not be happy about it and i dont think its going to make them anymore likely to buy in shops. They will still go to whoevers cheapest and thats almost never a shop due to all the overheads they have.

Yeah, that is true. Sadly.

CDs are routinely cheaper for us to buy from Amazon than from distributors, which is messed up.

im kinda amazed (and glad) $andy keeps things still going.

We're in it forever! No giving up!

Sorry, a bit OT but: Krakow, what was the score with the glasgow Avalanche? Was it a franchise, or formerly owned by the Edinburgh ones, or just affiliated..?

Avalanche started in Edinburgh and the Glasgow shop was a branch thereof until about 5 years ago when the long-running manager of the Glasgow incarnation bought it out as a franchise. The franchise deal came to an end a couple of years ago, hence the name change. We now run completely and utterly separately, though the only connection was by name for many years.

My time-scales are a bit off, probably, as time flies faster than I think, but that's the gist. Originally a branch of Avalanche, then a franchise, now completely separate. Always ran reasonably autonomously though.

Ah. Thanks - had wondered!

I've still not set foot in Avalanche Edinburgh since the owner tried to take the total piss with his pricing of a big collection of second hand vinyl he got in. It's a shame because I've shopped their consistently for 15 years plus and I was into the ethos of supporting indie shops.

If I lived in Glasgow I'd be hitting Mono daily.

Still, at least we have a Fopp left here.

HMV is one of only a couple remaining cd shops in town here. It does still have a surprisingly large and somewhat eclectic range compared to other HMV shops that I'm aware of.
They got the 2cd 13th Floor elevator sets in for example. Not sure what market there is for those.

I picked up the PJ Harvey let england shake & Neutral Milk Hotel's Aeroplane in a 2 for 14Eur deal a couple weeks ago.

Will keep looking in there on trips to town for a while yet.

this week i picked up the latest On-U cd by Little Axe in HMV/bristol for £15 !
i knew i was paying over the odds, but i wanted it there and then (birthday treat for myself) and not seen it anywhere else so decided to just go with it.
still, i reckon £15 is a lot given that Head just around the corner were selling other recent On-U cds for £11 (just not the Little Axe one)

Nasty shock this afternoon, the Galway HMV has just reorganised so that downstairs now ahs 2 desks , one saying Technology and the music section has been moved upstairs.

I was told that there was actually more space give over to music now than previously but with it being said that so many of them have largely given up on music this came as a nasty shock. I was told they may actually start getting vinyl in now but will see how this pans over the next while.

Oxford Street has had a minor reshuffle, tech, merch and games edging out the books on the ground floor.

I went into an HMV for the first time in years the other week and looked at their £50-man/Later vinyl selection. A couple of blokes next to me were buying a present for someone, "She likes this band doesn't she? How about this one?" They decided on one after a while declaring that "this will look really good on the wall".

the hmv shop in cribbs causeway has 4 racks for music now.

tragic.

i get a better choice in my local charity shops.