Does anyone still shop at HMV?

HMV intent on dragging Fopp down with them then...dunno what would happen if it all went tits up, could some plucky entrepeneur just pick up the Fopp brand at that point or would there be complications with doing that? Assuming that Fopp actually has any value as a business concern, which may or may not be the case.

'they dont want to create a competitor - as this was one of the reasons that hmv bought fopp in the first place'

ladies and gentlemen, may i present to you BRITISH BUSINESS ACUMEN. all hail the job creator.

I had a very similar discussion with an acquaintance from the Argyle Street branch just last night mark e - the 3 months rent/end of March issue is certainly true there too and the fact that despite facing closure they are still getting new stock delivered daily in very large quantities (like hundreds of copies of big new releases).

I hadn't thought about the Fopp issue like that, but it makes perfect sense. Could you hint as to where you heard that so specifically?

no hint necessary : bristol

oh, and i should clarify : they do have new releases in ..

just that the back catalogue stuff is nowhere near as extensive as prior to the chaos ...

(and yesterday in the hmv - they were removing shelving as they were all empty !)

Volcanic Tongue which does underground, presumably Wire-friendly stuff (oh shops, where were you back in '78 and '79 when I was scouring around Glasgow for free jazz cutouts?). So again it's a niche shop, and if no HMV and only supermarkets, then huge middle ground is lost.

It's ironic that you can get Wire in every branch of WHSMiths: streets, stations, airports, and so on...

but you cant get the records they cover anywhere unless you go into a big city

exactly.

Oh, "Republic" has just been saved, by Sports Direct.

Only a tiny number of new CD releases in Nottingham Fopp, along with stacks and stacks of the Skyfall DVD of course.

This week Atoms For MVE are #2 in the midweeks. Last week Nick Cave was #1 in the midweeks but lost out to the Brits swoop (i.e. people who won't buy anything until they see it on TV, even if it's been out for a year plus). Neither was in Sainsbury's.

So without HMV or Fopp (or Virgin or Tower or...) to provide that essential middle ground, it's going to be bland-out time in the album charts from now on.

Looks like the new MBV album is only available physically in Certain London Record Shops (I got mine at Sister Ray last Friday) and given the limited distribution plus the fact that it's been available to download for a month, that'll presumably be number nothing on Sunday.

guys, the album chart is going to be bland from now on

Only until they add in view counts for Youtubes of people holding up album covers.

It has to happen.

Marcello, at least in Glasgow there is us at Love Music and Monorail. We both cover huge amounts of the middle ground and will happily tackle new avenues if they will sell!

yep, Love Music gd for metal and well priced back cat, Monorail v. excellent independent/eclectic range w/out going down the VT route of cd-rs and whatnot

Russell gets in lots of good metal for Monorail.

Both shops do their thing very well. Between them they cover most of my needs whenIm in Glasgow (which sadly isnt often - once a year usually)

Wandered into the Piccadilly Circus HMV last night to have a look around - the jerks have raised the price of all the back catalog CDs before marking everything 30% off. So, say, any random old REM album or whatever is now priced between £13 to £15 (some were at £18!) before the 'discount.' Good riddance.

there is no longer the blue cross sale on.
the stickers are still on the cds, but they called it quits last sunday.

Huh. The shop I was in had everything marked down 30%, with a little chart above each rack telling you how much the discount amounted to.

Yeah, that is still happening.

Still, I got the CSS album, New Order "Get Ready", and Basement Jaxx greatest hits, all for £2 each.

This was in morrisons, not HMV, but hey.

must be a localised thing as bristol cribbs and city centre no longer give the discount ..

from Music Week:

WH Smith re-enters the CD/DVD market – report

WH Smith has reportedly started to stock CDs and DVDs again after the collapse of HMV has left a gap in the retail market. The stationary chain withdrew from the entertainment market over the last few years but is now said to be re-stocking products in a handful of stores, after the closure of 107 HMV sites.

Not surprising, but WHSmiths is such a fucking awful retail experience that I can't see them doing a good job or it working in any way whatsoever. In the face of supermarkets I just can't see the point in any high street retailers trying to be generalist.

I'm surprised Smiths are managing to pull through all this turmoil. Our local branch has felt like one big closing down sale for years and years now.

yeah, i guess people must buy a lot of stationery or something?

I used to love the record and tape department in WH Smith when I was a kid. Bought most of my early records from there (except for a few from Sperrings further down the precinct)

I did used to buy DVDs and stuff from Smiths before they stopped doing em. They had good deals in there.

I'm still beyond baffled that Exeter HMV has Spotify POS merchandising bullshit out on the shopfloor. INVITE YOUR OWN MURDERER INTO YOUR BOUDOIR, WHY DON'T YOU.

Little know fact: Crippen used to sell "Hangman Style" t-shirts from his cell...

i worked at whsmiths through my university years and it was there that i first realised that people who run massive chain store operations can be so blinded by greed and pursuit for profit that they can fuck up their businesses with ineptitude and bad, bad decisions.

Can't imagine WH Smith would stock anything that you can't get in Tesco/Sainsburys etc, it's not as if they're going after 50 quid man.

Every year I'm baffled the WHS hasn't gone under yet.

Asda etc dont stock a lot of magazines that Smiths do

is the retail margin on magazines any good?

I can't imagine so.

all the magazines i read are easily £2 a month cheaper on subscription, including postage. and there's a lot more to whsmiths than the high street stores.

Distribution

this week : buy one get one free on all items with a blue cross on.

hence why i now have the first five killing joke remastered cds.

(note : one of the killing joke cds did not have a blue cross on it, so i questioned saying if it did i would have got that along with another - so they checked the master list, and accepted that it should have had the blue cross sticker on it - result !)

Today: Bracknell shop is closing.

Most things half-price. Everything else reduced by at least 30%

It turns out it's not just Piccadilly Circus - most of the shops have raised the prices (considerably!) on all the back catalog stock before kicking in the big reductions.

I got the Manics' GenTer 'set', it came up £29 before the reduction to £12..

Keeping an eye on the Newport store every day or so, they brought out all their stock of Saint Etienne deluxe dbl cds on Monday, waiting for the right moment to pick them up. Is it ok to feel so vulture-like?

If they put out 'Sound of Water', 'Good Humor' and 'Continental' snap them up quick as they're rare as hens teeth. And get one of each for me while you're there!

The bracknell one had "Lipslide"

Well, the buy one get one free offer was enough to tempt me back in to Fopp and HMV; bought about 8 back catalogue things I've always wanted.

I notice that, after a few weeks when they were only stocking the biggest new releases (as discussed upthread), both stores are now getting in a wider range again. Fopp Cambridge Circus in particular seems to be almost back to 'normal'. This may not last, of course - and it was depressing then going to the HMV Megastore in Oxford Street and seeing all the empty shelves in the music sections. The old jazz section has been closed off completely and what's left of the stock is temporarily squatting in the classical section. It looks as if they're preparing to give up the basement altogether.

world cinema dvds section was absent from westfields branch yesterday. and most of the gadget tables were just full of hi-de-hi and game of thrones box sets.

Braehead branch closed yesterday. I went in around 4pm hoping for some discounted CDRs and headphones and a last-minute bargain but the place was already packed up apart from the current chart and a selection of DVDs. Also felt really uncomfortable when I went in, like a vulture picking the last scraps of meat from the bones, so I didn't bother to browse for anything.