Farewell HMV... farewell!

[Cykotic]

HMV 1921 - 2013

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/news/a450998/hmv-to-go-into-administration-tomorrow.html


HMV has confirmed that it is to go into administration.

Deloitte will take over the firm's 238 stores after attempts to save the troubled music retailer, which has over 4,000 employees, failed.

[Neil]

Another major high street retailer gone!

[Cykotic]

so thats Play.com, Jessops and now HMV...

Who's next??

[Tricky]

It's a shame but inevitable, I don't know about you chaps but I go in HMV a lot and its rare that I ever purchase anything, I tend to browse, see things I want, then umm and arr over the price and have a look on Amazon when I get home.

[Mr.G]

That sucks. I always visited that store when I was in Southport/Liverpool....in fact I bought the Fog there last month. I still miss Woolworths!

[Danny]

It's a shame but inevitable, I don't know about you chaps but I go in HMV a lot and its rare that I ever purchase anything, I tend to browse, see things I want, then umm and arr over the price and have a look on Amazon when I get home.

aye back in uni when i had a hell of a lot more disposable income it wasnt uncommon for me to spend like £30 and walk out with 2 dvds and a cd. However online stores like Amazon and itunes have rendered that an expensive waste of time. In fact i remember seeing a gorillaz album for £15, bought it, then in class a friend said "just return it and get an itunes card for the same value" i did, got the same album for £5.99 on itunes as well as a couple of movies.
and if someones going to Apple instead of you because its saving them money? then yeah maybe your business prospects aint looking so hot.

I mean its a shame to see yet more of the typical 90's/2000's uk high street dying off, but at this stage where the internet gives us a global market with better value for money and a far larger selection i cant say ill miss it all that much.

And personally? i think i havent actually been in a HMV in like a year, and havent made a purchase in one for 3, and then it was a superman shirt and a generic scarf because it was winter at the time :lol:

[MinionZombie]

so thats Play.com, Jessops and now HMV...

Who's next??

Since when were Play.com in trouble? :confused:

As for HMV - yeah, I used to go in there all the time as a student and would easily spend £50. I often bought DVDs on two-for-one deals and the like, but I also bought discs for my course - and as such once I spent £40 just on Nosferatu and Metropolis, and nowadays that's just a moronic amount to spend on a mere two movies. I've bought things in there when I've been in on occasion - but always items that were on sale - either at the same price as online, or surprisingly at a cheaper price. Most of the time I'd just browse - I liked the act of browsing in HMV - I remember we'd always rush to the massive HMV in London when we were on trips to London with our school (after we'd visited the gallery we were there to attend in the first place), and I'd just love browsing the shelves of VHS tapes (aye, back then).

However, when you've got three HMVs in Edinburgh (two of which are on the same ruddy street), you do have to wonder who is in charge and how out-of-step with the current climate they are. Like with Jessops - they're a niche store for enthusiasts, but how many people really are photography enthusiasts. Most people have a camera phone and that'll do them, and those who do spend cash on SLRs and additional lenses etc aren't doing so every month. They'll buy a camera and keep it for years, so you're not going to get much traffic - I feel as if Jessops wasn't really keeping up with current market trends, just like Woolworths where it tried to supply everything, but in the end couldn't really attract people into the store. We all felt a sense of nostalgia for Woolworths, but how often did we really go into it?

When I was a kid Woolworths was an ideal store, providing a lot of different items for good prices, but they go overtaken by an expanding and diversifying market and they failed to respond to that - and as such they shut down. Sad, but it's inevitable if you can't keep up with the wider market.

So often I've seen the prices in HMV and they're piss take high. We do need variety and competition on the high street, but you've got to be competitive in your pricing and corporate/commercial structuring as well.

A right old bugger for those who got HMV vouchers over Christmas - although hopefully they won't be scuppered for long and will be able to use them online soon. Game recently went through troubles, but it's still going, and Zavvi is online now (not sure if they still have stores though) ... although I do remember Virgin Megastore going down the drain a while back (I'd often leap frog between HMV and Virgin Megastore at Uni comparing prices, but more often than not they had the same items at the same price - what was the point of that? - the only difference was what type of sales they had on - e.g. 4-for-£30 on DVDs in Virgin Megastore, versus two-for-one on DVDs in HMV).

[Cykotic]

Since when were Play.com in trouble? :confused:

since they shut down the retail side of the business and are now, a marketplace

[MinionZombie]

since they shut down the retail side of the business and are now, a marketplace

Play.com? They're an online retailer akin to Amazon, they've never had a physical presence on the high street, have they? :confused:

Comet was in trouble recently though, that's gone IIRC ... but it was so similar to Currys, I'm not surprised.

[Cykotic]

Play.com? They're an online retailer akin to Amazon, they've never had a physical presence on the high street, have they? :confused:

No, thats not what i meant. On some of the orders, they would come directly from play.com themselves, not a third party...

[Neil]

Some of HMV's management are saying, "watch this space!" ie: The company may be saved?!

[Tricky]

Some of HMV's management are saying, "watch this space!" ie: The company may be saved?!

Hitler said similar as the Russians advanced on his bunker...

[Neil]

Hitler said similar as the Russians advanced on his bunker...

I suspect the outcome will somewhat parallel too!

[MinionZombie]

No, thats not what i meant. On some of the orders, they would come directly from play.com themselves, not a third party...

Still confused by what you're getting at though ... I've not heard anything about Play.com being in financial trouble. :confused:

Play.com are like Amazon in that they sell a bunch of the stuff themselves, but they also have a 'marketplace' where other businesses - or indeed private individuals - can sell brand new or used products. So, for example, you might buy it for a quid cheaper from Zoverstocks (one of many marketplace businesses who are VAT registered), but then Play.com themselves might lower their own price (or Zoverstocks, for example, might increase their price, so Play.com become the lowest price once again - and therefore the default price on that particular item).

Play.com merged with Rakuten a while back, is this what you're referring to? IIRC it was around this time that Play.com got into the 'marketplace' game (akin to Amazon's Marketplace), as described above.

[Cykotic]

oh and now Blockbuster just went under too

[DjfunkmasterG]

oh and now Blockbuster just went under too

what do you mean just, they went under in the states a few years ago. :D

[Cykotic]

they just went under here

[MinionZombie]

Yet another business that couldn't/wouldn't compete with changing market trends.

They tried DVD rentals through the post, but the quality of their discs were shocking - most of them were mucky (one had what I hope was glue stuck on the data side), and I kid you not, one disc turned up in the post cleanly snapped into two pieces. On the other hand, LoveFilm's discs - from my experience - have all been rather clean and tidy.

I perused Blockbuster's used sales too - and the prices were rubbish - you had used items selling for more than brand new items online. :confused:

Times have changed. We had a local rental shop in town that we always used to go to (they had £1 rentals on Thursdays, a time I fondly remember), but that went under a decade ago or thereabouts - it's certainly been gone for several years now. If you're not streaming media, you're doing postal rentals - the most convenient form of delivery wins out in the end, and Blockbuster was an out-dated business model - just like Jessops and HMV - they didn't change to keep up with the market, or perhaps they just weren't capable, in which case that's just how the market rolls eventually.

[Cykotic]

I remember a local video rental place from when I lived in Newcastle. The guy who owned it was an encyclopedia of movie knowledge and knew every film he had in his catalogue. I can guarantee, if you went in that store, you would come out with what you were looking for EVERY TIME... Blockbuster moved in near by and the little shop of treasures went tits up.

I tried blockbuster... I swore from that moment, I would NEVER go back. The staff were always rude, they had no idea what they were talking about, their movie knowledge was the same as a nun in a swingers club (no idea what they were doing or how the f*** they got there) and they didn't care about their job.

Things like netflix, LoveFilm and on-demand services are killing things like Blockbuster and HMV, in the same way that they killed the Indie shops. Jessops either couldn't or wouldn't accept the fact that most people have the same technology in their smart phones that they do in their DSLR's.

Maybe there is hope for HMV... I wanted Jessops to stay around... Game went under but was saved.

See ya later Blockbuster... don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out biatch!

[MinionZombie]

I remember a local video rental place from when I lived in Newcastle. The guy who owned it was an encyclopedia of movie knowledge and knew every film he had in his catalogue. I can guarantee, if you went in that store, you would come out with what you were looking for EVERY TIME... Blockbuster moved in near by and the little shop of treasures went tits up.

I tried blockbuster... I swore from that moment, I would NEVER go back. The staff were always rude, they had no idea what they were talking about, their movie knowledge was the same as a nun in a swingers club (no idea what they were doing or how the f*** they got there) and they didn't care about their job.

Things like netflix, LoveFilm and on-demand services are killing things like Blockbuster and HMV, in the same way that they killed the Indie shops. Jessops either couldn't or wouldn't accept the fact that most people have the same technology in their smart phones that they do in their DSLR's.

Maybe there is hope for HMV... I wanted Jessops to stay around... Game went under but was saved.

See ya later Blockbuster... don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out biatch!

1) :lol::lol::lol: Classic.

2) Yeah, I don't remember our local rental shop being particularly movie-nerdy, but it was pleasant in general. We used it most weeks, so it seemed, and I've still got some big box ex-rental VHS tapes in my collection from there. They had a whole section for videogames (and yes, a porn area behind a beaded curtain - classic), and you could buy amounts of time on the consoles they had set up. I remember the protests kids would put up when their time was up and the staff would come over and turn off the console, lol.

I also have fond memories of going to the Mega Drive (Genesis) section of games which was right next to the horror section - I'd see all these wonderful covers and just think "wow, someday I'll get to see these movies".

Blockbuster though, I never used one generally as we didn't have one in our area, but I have been into a few elsewhere and they just felt like factories. Nothing special.

Perhaps some HMVs will stick around, like maybe they'll vastly shrink their number of shops to just some key areas and try to focus their approach ... or maybe it will go belly up. Game, as you say, survived - although when you go to their site you can't help but wonder how. They're flogging Gears of War 3 (bog standard edition) at an "on sale" price of £39.99 ... i.e. the standard launch day price. :confused::rockbrow::confused: Hmmm...

[Cykotic]

So what do we think of this development?

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news/a451915/game-interested-in-buying-up-to-45-hmv-stores.html

[Neil]

oh and now Blockbuster just went under too

It's clear the internet is hitting the high street hard!

[MinionZombie]

So what do we think of this development?

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news/a451915/game-interested-in-buying-up-to-45-hmv-stores.html

Hmmm ... you would have thought that a company which was only very recently under the gun and nearly went bust itself, and whose prices aren't exactly competitive (but not always crap to be fair), would be wanting to knuckle down and focus on embedding what they've currently got.