Does anyone still shop at HMV?

HMV oxford st today,

I found a Electronic music CD that was free with Mojo magazine in the dance compilation racks today and the guy at the desk had to give me it for free as it had NOT FOR RESALE on the cover....

Its a good CD as well.

http://www.mojocovercds.com/cd/2064

No wonder they are in financial trouble!

It is a good CD, I remember it.

Shame about the Trocadero branch. They'd only recently reorganised the upstairs bit (after the Bond St branch closed) and it was actually a pleasure to shop for music there.

So, is the Troc catching that 'shopping centre of the past' disease?

The basement used to be wonderful, loads of marketty stalls. Now it's games machines..

The bit along from it underneath is the sort of place The Face would do articles about: Loads of hipster kids practicing hip-hop dance moves..

Still heartbreaking to pass that awful "THE STING" fashion place at Piccadilly and think to myself: "But this should be TOWER RECORDS."

what the fuck is that place - I've found it slightly mystifying ever since they had the advertising hoardings up about a year ago.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/21493542

I find it interesting that the digital market seems to be the rationale behind why HMV has failed on the high street. No mention of supermarket competition, the fact that it started to dilute its main offer with ribena and shitty phone covers or that senior management fucked up. No straight to the e-commerce channel.

The repeated falsehood that will prevent them sorting themselves out, very true.

dont forget their old friend - the blame of illegal downloading.

That is the reason though, isn't it? Plus whatever factors have driven prices down. They might have managed their decline better, but there isn't going to be such a big music chain again, no matter how well-run it is.

well if retailers didnt charge up to £18.99 for cds in the 90s then maybe downloading would not have taken off quite like it did. And supermarkets seem to have no problem shifting cds at £7.99

I looked at a pile of cds yesterday that were all bought early to late 90s. they ranged from £12.99 - £16 (i refused to ever buy a single cd that was more than that, but hmv used to sell cds at £17.99 back then if they were non-discounted releases - imports were even more). Ridiculous how much they charged.

Do you think a music retailer could turn a profit on the high street selling CDs at £7.99?

supermarkets seem to have no problem shifting cds at £7.99

Supermarkets also have no problem shifting beer at less than the cost of beer - supermarkets are not really representative here as they sell such a range of things that they can take hits on certain items to attract customers. Supermarkets might have problems shifting anything slightly removed from the mainstream because they don't like using up shelf space for thing that aren't popular - I reckon less than 2% of your music collection has ever been available in Tesco.

my point is they cheated us for years with high prices. If they hadn't done that then maybe people would have stayed loyal.
And onimo is right most of my music was bought from indie shops or our price in hamilton.

That BBC link - why do they always find "record collectors" who look like serial killers?

they dont go out of London?

my point is they cheated us for years with high prices.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AkCU0tSKErA/TqFZk_eep8I/AAAAAAAALZg/cauE8yGCvO4/s1600/capitalism_creates_jobs_and_wealth_e1hq.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_elasticity_of_demand

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profit_(accounting)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_limited_company

http://tiki.oneworld.net/sustain/sustain5.html

I'd pay £10 for any album I wanted on CD.

Also their clientele today isn't the people who were cheated in the 90s, it's their kids. Loyalty doesn't come into it.

you're saying only kids are interested in music? Those who bought music in the 90s just stopped buying it as they're too old?

it's a weird use of the word "cheated" as if people in 90s HMV were being chatted up by alluring pretend shoppers who slipped them a Mickey and when they came round they found at they'd been overcharged for a Dodgy cd

The role that supermarkets have to play is that they are instrumental to driving the consumer away from the high street, selling new releases on all entertainment and being able to sell at more competative prices. You could argue that a savvy business understands the markets and acclimatises accordingly. I get the feeling that HMV were too late, too arrogant or too lazy to develop their offer to meet the changing retail climate.

I'm saying mostly kids consume music; new music by new acts anyway.

I'm also saying that loyalty, insofar as relevant, is loyalty to the acts, not to the retailer. The retailer is at best peripheral to the relationship.

I dunno a lot of people go to the same record shops and that's not just restricted to indie shops. If they have a good selection suited to their tastes or think the staff is knowledgeable and get to know them and can recommend stuff. Andy in Tower Records soul/funk section in the 1990s was like that. I bought nearly all my funk from them or fopp because they had staff who knew my tastes well. Just like the staff in Our Price did or in missing or do in avalanche or monorail. Supposedly HMV used to be like that for people. Centralised stocking from head office clearly had a bad effect on these places. Shops used to know their customers and cater to them. The good indie shops still do.

a percentage of customers do/did have that kind of relationship with stores yeah, but once again the evil empire of the internet has replaced that for a lot of people thru the availability of information as well as purchase/intellectual property theft

I worked for HMV in the early 00's, at this point they should have been investing in creating an online shop to rival amazon and the like. Instead we were asked to sell store credit to customers and sell the shitty new releases from a top ten chart owned by the fat cat distributers. Had they focused on customer service and creating a USP things may have been different. I'm just not convinced the internet killed HMV, I think it was poor retailing.

my point is they cheated us for years with high prices.

I don't disagree, but I don't think this entirely or remotely explains or excuses illegal downloading. artists didn't cheat the fans with higher prices, artists rarely saw higher profits, but its artists that are primarily suffering.

there shd probably be a broader thread for looking at the relationships between producers, merchants/distributors and consumers and the impact of the internet on this, plus the High Street as conceptual and functional space, cos the discussion is scattered over a few different threads, and it's much bigger than individuals' sentimental (trying to use that in a neutral-ish sense) attachment to particular retail brands.

maybe once i've had a better night's sleep tho.

I suppose it's the artists who don't chart - who only appeal to specialist minority niches - who have to get the big price mark-ups since it's their livelihood at stake rather than major label loss-leaders.

Then again, Rough Trade, Ray's etc. sell CDs (generally) more cheaply than HMV so you do wonder whether you're paying the artist or HMV's business rates.

Not that I'm sobbing too much about it, but how does Adele get paid anything when her CD is £5 in HMV?

Standard economy of scale; it's cheaper to press 4 million of the same thing than 10,000 of 400 things.

Or do I mean 40? You know what I mean.

Yes, but.

xpost no but.

About 50p, same as ever, I'd guess.

Another 37 shops to close.

(I'd link the BBC news page, but that's pretty much all it says)

no mention of which shops?

Not yet

The last lot of "to close" had no actual date apart from "within two months", that was about 2 weeks ago.

from sky news website

Is Your Local HMV Being Axed?

Updated: 12:15pm UK, Wednesday 20 February 2013

The latest 37 HMV stores identified for closure are:

Ashford, Basildon, Bolton, Cheltenham, East Kilbride, Enfield, Folkestone, Glasgow Argyle, Gloucester, Grimsby, Hatfield Galleria, Heathrow T5 Departure Level, Heathrow Terminal 1, Heathrow Terminal 3, Heathrow Terminal 4, Hemel Hempstead, High Wycombe, Isle of Wight, Lancaster, Leadenhall, Mansfield, Middlesbrough, Newbury, Newcastle Silverlink, Newport, Nuneaton, Redditch, Salisbury, Scarborough, Southport, Stafford, Staines, Stockport, Swindon, Taunton, Torquay, Woking.

Is Your Local HMV Being Axed?

Updated: 12:15pm UK, Wednesday 20 February 2013

The latest 37 HMV stores identified for closure are:

Ashford, Basildon, Bolton, Cheltenham, East Kilbride, Enfield, Folkestone, Glasgow Argyle, Gloucester, Grimsby, Hatfield Galleria, Heathrow T5 Departure Level, Heathrow Terminal 1, Heathrow Terminal 3, Heathrow Terminal 4, Hemel Hempstead, High Wycombe, Isle of Wight, Lancaster, Leadenhall, Mansfield, Middlesbrough, Newbury, Newcastle Silverlink, Newport, Nuneaton, Redditch, Salisbury, Scarborough, Southport, Stafford, Staines, Stockport, Swindon, Taunton, Torquay, Woking.

The 66 stores already earmarked for closure were:

Ashton-under-Lyne, Ballymena, Barnsley, Bayswater, Belfast Boucher Road, Belfast Forestside, Bexleyheath, Birkenhead, Birmingham Fort, Blackburn, Boston, Bournemouth Castlepoint, Bracknell, Burton-upon-Trent, Camberley, Chesterfield, Coleraine, Craigavon, Croydon Centrale, Derry, Dumfries, Durham, Edinburgh Fort, Edinburgh Gyle Centre, Edinburgh Ocean, Edinburgh Princes Street, Edinburgh St James, Falkirk, Fulham, Glasgow – Fort, Glasgow – Silverburn, Glasgow Braehead, Huddersfield, Kirkcaldy, Leamington Spa, Leeds White Rose, Lisburn, Loughborough, Luton, Manchester 90, Moorgate, Newry, Newtonabbey, Orpington, Rochdale, Scunthorpe, South Shields, Speke Park, St Albans, St Helens, Stockton-on-Tees, Tamworth, Teesside, Telford, Trocadero, Wakefield, Walsall, Walton-on-Thames, Wandsworth, Warrington, Watford, Wellingborough, Wigan, Wood Green, Workington, Wrexham.

There are 4 branches of HMV at Heathrow?!

Well not for long I guess

last chance for foreign visitors to pick up that Alt-J cd

"we don't have anything like this back in my country"

Is there one at Terminal 2?

If there is it'll be quiet as T2 closed years ago (though they're building a new one).

The administrators from Deloitte said the HMV stores would close over the next four to six weeks and would probably lead to all affected staff being made redundant, although it would try to relocate employees to other stores where possible.

Flagship stores at London's Heathrow airport, where ground rents are high, are among those set for closure.

I shall give Heathrow Terminal 5 a last look on Friday, then.