Does anyone still shop at HMV?

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.

£16 for the Magical Mystery Tour DVD? Does HMV WANT to go out of business?

(Also: £20 in Rough Trade, ditto as above)

For a very long time, Beatles' *anything* was prevented from being offered at 'discount' prices.

Even now, it's unusual. (Excepting 'second-hand' obv)

Just been to HMV..

That MMT DVD £16, build quality = DVD section in everythings's £1

Still, the one I went to had most of the Blur deluxe editions for £3 each!

Whats in the deluxe editions?

1. Original album on CD
2. "Extra tracks' CD
3. 4 postcards
4. Booklet
in: Nice box

e.g. http://shop.blur.co.uk/media/AbstractArticle/image/WarehouseArticle-60134/Blur-Blur-2CD-Special-Edition.jpg

Fuck me, that's a drop from a tenner a couple of months ago on those Blur sets. Still full price here in Newport, but they are selling all their books for a quid, like they've realised they aren't going to be Waterstones anymore.

I reckon somebody made a mistake and lumped these in with the 'original' CD issues.

The only ones I didn't get were 'Think Tank' which I'd bought already, and Parklife which wasn't there.

Just checked the sale box in HMV Newport (it wasn't there yesterday) - the old Blur issues are there for three quid but not the new boxes. Millions of copies of the Villagers album for a pound, though. Did anyone buy that, ever?

this week i got the recent s.cu.m., apparet, zola jesus, and girls cds for £3 each from the hmv in bristol!

and they had the blur reissues for £3 each - but i skipped on those ..

Local HMV had alll the Blur reissues for £3 apart from 'Parklife'. Did a swap shop for my old Blur cd's so effectively got them for £2.

i guess there was a massive mismatch between expected demand, and sales re the blur reissues for them to crash the price so quickly following their release ..

Don't really know how their pricing works, £3 for the new Blur reissues. Was looking at getting the Coen Brothers bluray box, £30 in HMV, £14 on Amazon. Don't expect every thing to price match Amazon but £16 more expensive, will give it a body swerve and wait for the postie to deliver.

Grrrr.. Why can't the Blur boxes be in Newport? I may need to travel... I was considering the Morrissey HMV / Parlophone singles 3 cd set from HMV for £15 then check on Amazon and it was £8 so no contest there.

HMV staff are nearly always of the nu-metal fan type..tattoos and piercings etc. Nothing wrong with that but just seems odd to me. I only use the Southport branch now for browsing. Their prices make me laugh and every monday you will see me walking up and down the aisles giggling and smiling to myself.

Picked up the most recent Malkmus, Beach Boys and Gruff Rhys albums for £3 each between the two remaining Glasgow shops today. The Blur thing seems to be a regional pricing screw-up, sadly

Incidentally, all 3 of these albums were on my 'wait til they go down to £3 in Fopp' mental list. Seems to be working out rather well

Well, Billy Dodds, depends on which HMV he tried...

Well, I got the "Parklife" one, £10, just to complete the set..

fuck blur reissues.
today i picked up a ton of kiss cds for £3 each (all of the original band releases basically)
under normal circumstances i would feel ilm-duty bound to report that they are all crap.
but the fact is that they are not.
they are chocka with glam'd up low grade fun that really hits the spot at the moment, and makes me realise just where urge overkill got a lot of their sound from.

oh yeah, I saw those too.

Also, the Beach boys latest...

classic era kiss vs revival beach boys : hmmmmm .. lemme think !

well, quite.

how boring

got the Peter Hook Joy division and Neil Young autobio for something like half price, actually less since the listed one is in £s & I paid €s.

Was also looking at the new Barney Hoskyns Led zep and Pete Townshend autobio.

bought the 1st Kiss & Alive about a month and a bit ago. & they do have some pretty toe-tapping stuff on them.

In Oxford Circus HMV yesterday, buying stuff; picking up (amongst other things) the new Martha Wainright (on CD) when this old bloke slopes up next to me and picks up the vinyl copy. "Ooh, nothing loike voinyl, is there-a!" he hissed. "WHAT IS THIS THE FUCKING JIMMY SAVILE FAN CLUB?" I yelled and got him chucked out.

I mean, record shops, if you want to stay open and attract people, keep the Jimmy Savile types out, otherwise we'll all just stick to Amazon.

sp. Martha WAINWRIGHT, sigh ilx introduce edit post function.

Hadn't realised until today's trip into town that the other place that was selling the books I got from HMV was selling paperbacks for pretty much the same price, I think Hook was even maybe €5 more. & that was part of a current offer, 3 for the price of 2, cheapest free but also most of the books around €15 each. Pricetagged on the back about €21.50.
HMV had them all in hardback at about that, Hook €10, Zep €13