HMV Gone, but not forgotten

[Macspur]

I'm as responsible as anyone for the demise of the record store... Now As a visually impaired person, it is great to be able to go onto Amazon, listen to clips, buy and wait for the CD to arrive by post to my door, still enjoying that physical thrill of unwrapping an album.

The problem is, now the competition has gone, watch the online prices rise!

Mac

 

[BigH]

There are afew record stores left in London, from an article in the evening standard, some vinyl only: Haggle Vinyl, 114 Essex Road, N1. Rough Trade East, 91 Brick Lane, E1, Harold Moores Records, 2 Great Marlborough Str. W1, Flashback Records, 50 Essex Rd, E1, Sister Ray, 34 Berwick Str, W1. Ray's Jazz is still going to.

So Essex Road looks a good place to visit. Then down Brick Lane and have a curry after.

 

[chebby]

I use HMV fairly regularly and would miss them. I try - like with books - to give the shops a chance first and then use Amazon as a 'fall back' if I can't find what I want.

I have spent £49 since Tuesday in HMV (a bit more than usual) to give a bit of support to our local branch.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

I always pop in and look around, bought another G N R rock t-shirt the other day, and did go in this week to buy a Thin Lizzy one too but could not find one!

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

I worked at Our Price from 1989 - 1995. It finally went bust in 2004, and I have no idea what it was like in the final years, but the rot had already set in by 1995. The hierachy became so obsessed with competing with the supermarkets, that the choice they offered was reduced, it just became almost anti-music. We had to play chart music all day long, with certain cds having to be played at certain times of the day, I hated it at the end.

Went to Tower then, but not in a shop, in an office. Tower was run by music enthusiast, and virtually all of it's staff were obsessed with music, this is why Tower Piccadilly Circus was such a good store for real music fans. Unfortunately, Tower had no business model, no business plan, and no chance of ever surviving.

HMV I think was somewhere inbetween Tower and Our Price, but I think it lost it's way somewhere along the line. I hope it can survive, but I fear it will be bought, asset stripped, and then chucked away, and we the tax payer will end up paying for the staff redundancies a la Comet.

 

[relocated]

Haven't read the posts on here, just wanted a moan really.

How could you forget HMV when they have been a pillar of maintaining an unacceptably high price on music and visual media. Even when other people saw which way the wind was blowing they still tried to squeeze the last farthing out of everything.

At this moment I don't know if it has been sold, but their reputation has been shot [if it still had a positive rep] by failing to honour gift vouchers. ALL those vouchers purchased in good faith around Xmas time gone down the crapper. It would have been a better bet to put a tenner in a Xmas card and run the gauntlet of the postal system.

Very sad for the staff, but good riddance to HMV.

 

[JoelSim]

The High Street is a victim of its own blandness, every high street having exactly the same lot of chain stores. And nothing of any interest. Many more chains are going to go bust, the likes of Argos I would imagine as their business models are out of date.

I buy all my stuff online, I positively hate going shopping, it's so dull. And to be honest the times I have been I haven't been able to find what I want. All so much easier online.

HMV as well as resting on their laurels, and Amazon paying no tax, and Tesco et al, has been blitzed by downloading and Spotify. It's probably a year since I bought a CD and I have a very expensive CDP. I still play them as they sound better than streamed music, but most of my listening these days is internet radio and spotify. This unfortunately will be the case for many people an will only increase as time goes on. I don't think there is a place for HMV any more, certainly not in its current form, maybe as a niche store but I struggle with seeing what that niche may be.

 

[JoelSim]

Haven't read the posts on here, just wanted a moan really.

How could you forget HMV when they have been a pillar of maintaining an unacceptably high price on music and visual media. Even when other people saw which way the wind was blowing they still tried to squeeze the last farthing out of everything.

At this moment I don't know if it has been sold, but their reputation has been shot [if it still had a positive rep] by failing to honour gift vouchers. ALL those vouchers purchased in good faith around Xmas time gone down the crapper. It would have been a better bet to put a tenner in a Xmas card and run the gauntlet of the postal system.

Very sad for the staff, but good riddance to HMV.

Oh I dunno, they are selling the Toy Story triple pack for £9 now!

 

[JoelSim]

And not allowing people to spend their gift cards is disgusting. Nothing short of stealing, I'm sure Deloitte will be handsomely remunerated.

 

[MajorFubar]

Illegal downloading has played a major role imo, not just with HMV but Blockbuster as well. No one's mentioned that so far in this thread, so allow me to be the first. Add to that the outdated business-model of both outlets and you have recipe for disaster. Amazon is less hurt by illegal downloading than HMV and Blockbuster because their business model is different. But it hurts them nonthe less. I work in an office of 20 people (mostly females) and actually buying films and music is alien to at least a quarter of them, yet they've all got the latest releases on their devices.

 

[hammill]

The High Street is a victim of its own blandness, every high street having exactly the same lot of chain stores. And nothing of any interest. Many more chains are going to go bust, the likes of Argos I would imagine as their business models are out of date.

Actually Argos has a good christmas, helped by the demise of Comet. I have been using their click & collect for years and it works very well - apparently this side of the business is growing strongly. Although it is not personally a problem (I work from home), a lot of people have problems receiving deliveries from Amazon et al and the click and collect market is growing - John Lewis are also seeing big growth in this area.

 

[jjbomber]

..... and Amazon paying no tax,

It pays a fortune in tax and National Insurance on all it's staff in Great Britain. It doesn't pay any Corporation Tax as it doesn't make a profit in Great Britain, as it makes money elsewhere in Europe where they have lower taxation. HMV pays a fortune in tax and NI in GB, but doesn't pay any Corporation Tax, as it doesn't make a profit in Britain, but does elsewhere in the World. That is not the reason HMV has gone into administration.

 

[Anonymous]

Haven't read the posts on here, just wanted a moan really.

How could you forget HMV when they have been a pillar of maintaining an unacceptably high price on music and visual media. Even when other people saw which way the wind was blowing they still tried to squeeze the last farthing out of everything.

At this moment I don't know if it has been sold, but their reputation has been shot [if it still had a positive rep] by failing to honour gift vouchers. ALL those vouchers purchased in good faith around Xmas time gone down the crapper. It would have been a better bet to put a tenner in a Xmas card and run the gauntlet of the postal system.

Very sad for the staff, but good riddance to HMV.

Well said they have always been a rip-off and going out with a giant voucher rip off!

 

[andyjm]

Haven't read the posts on here, just wanted a moan really.

How could you forget HMV when they have been a pillar of maintaining an unacceptably high price on music and visual media. Even when other people saw which way the wind was blowing they still tried to squeeze the last farthing out of everything.

At this moment I don't know if it has been sold, but their reputation has been shot [if it still had a positive rep] by failing to honour gift vouchers. ALL those vouchers purchased in good faith around Xmas time gone down the crapper. It would have been a better bet to put a tenner in a Xmas card and run the gauntlet of the postal system.

Very sad for the staff, but good riddance to HMV.

Well said they have always been a rip-off and going out with a giant voucher rip off!

When you purchase a gift voucher, you are effectively lending money to the voucher seller. If the seller becomes insolvent, you become an unsecured general creditor, along with all the other unsecured creditors to whom the seller owes money. The administrator has a number of statutory obligations, one of which is to secure the best outcome for creditors as a whole - which unfortnately means that you can't jump the queue in front of the landlords, utilities and whoever else the seller owes money to.

 

[MajorFubar]

^^ Yes that is absolutely true. When HMV brought the administrators in, they wouldn't have been allowed to honour the vouchers. It's not a discredit to HMV or bad customer service, sadly it's just how the system works. Unsecured creditors like customers are way down the pecking order.

 

[relocated]

Haven't read the posts on here, just wanted a moan really.

How could you forget HMV when they have been a pillar of maintaining an unacceptably high price on music and visual media. Even when other people saw which way the wind was blowing they still tried to squeeze the last farthing out of everything.

At this moment I don't know if it has been sold, but their reputation has been shot [if it still had a positive rep] by failing to honour gift vouchers. ALL those vouchers purchased in good faith around Xmas time gone down the crapper. It would have been a better bet to put a tenner in a Xmas card and run the gauntlet of the postal system.

Very sad for the staff, but good riddance to HMV.

Oh I dunno, they are selling the Toy Story triple pack for £9 now!

Yes, NOW they do. Horse,[sorry Tesco], stable door and all that.

 

[k77stan]

remembre queing up for hours back in the nineties at oxford str. HMV for Machine Head and Paradise Lost signing sessions following their respecive new albums....those were the days :rockout:

 

[DandyCobalt]

..... and Amazon paying no tax,

It pays a fortune in tax and National Insurance on all it's staff in Great Britain. It doesn't pay any Corporation Tax as it doesn't make a profit in Great Britain, as it makes money elsewhere in Europe where they have lower taxation. HMV pays a fortune in tax and NI in GB, but doesn't pay any Corporation Tax, as it doesn't make a profit in Britain, but does elsewhere in the World. That is not the reason HMV has gone into administration.

i had to pick up a parcel from the local Royal Mail sorting depot at Christmas. The whole place was full (to the ceiling) with Amazon boxes. How many postmen are actually kept in full-time employment by the success of Amazon? (And eBay).

Any postmen out there?

 

[Alantiggger]

I have little or no sympathy for them if truth be told.

I used to wander around their store in The Fort Glasgow and wonder at their weird pricing.

Many a top made movie (costing plenty) was at a price of say £8.00 Whereas a duff movie costing little or next to nothing in comparison cost like £18.00 pounds or so.... this never ever made any sense to me and as such I'd shop and buy elsewhere that odd wee extremity that din't cost so much to make yet had good write-ups online ?

Other decent films cost a lot and to me it never ever made any sense as to WHY the shop 's pricing was so strange ?

It got around to me KNOWING that the likes of HMV prices would be rubbish so I'd not even bother checking.

In a way I'm glad then the more expensive shops go out of bussiness rather than the ones who try to keep pace.

Online shopping WILL become the norm and dinosaurs like HMV and others will have to bite the dust... such as life eh ?

 

[matthewpiano]

Maybe we want to become a nation of people who do everything at the touch of a computer keyboard. I certainly don't.

 

[chebby]

Maybe we want to become a nation of people who do everything at the touch of a computer keyboard. I certainly don't.

There are some benefits. If you worked from home as well, you'd never need to spend money on outdoor clothes or a car. You would never need to 'go out' for anything. It could all come to you. (Virtually or in the post or on a supermarket delivery van.)

It's why I left the quote from 'The Machine Stops' (E.M. Forster 1909) back on page 3. It was published 104 years ago but was remarkably prescient.

Here it is again...

"Then she generated the light, and the sight of her room, flooded with radiance and studded with electric buttons, revived her. There were buttons and switches everywhere - buttons to call for food for music, for clothing. There was the hot-bath button, by pressure of which a basin of (imitation) marble rose out of the floor, filled to the brim with a warm deodorized liquid. There was the cold-bath button. There was the button that produced literature. and there were of course the buttons by which she communicated with her friends. The room, though it contained nothing, was in touch with all that she cared for in the world."

 

[matthewpiano]

Its a frightening vision Chebby.

 

[moon]

I think one has to be a little optamistic about the future of HMV, it is still a very strong brand and you never know a phoenix might rise of the ashes, in a different shape. Imagine if they had had a proper streaming service from the outset.

or maybe not.

 

[matthewpiano]

I don't think HMV will disappear. It will inevitably be a much smaller company but that is what it needs for survival. There are reported to be 50 suitors showing interest, some of them in the HMV business and some, such as Game owner OpCapita, in a number of the shop units.

The HMV brand is still valuable and with the right business plan, management and customer offer, it could be successful again.

 

[Covenanter]

I don't think HMV will disappear. It will inevitably be a much smaller company but that is what it needs for survival. There are reported to be 50 suitors showing interest, some of them in the HMV business and some, such as Game owner OpCapita, in a number of the shop units.

The HMV brand is still valuable and with the right business plan, management and customer offer, it could be successful again.

I'm not convinced Matthew, well at least as far as music is concerned. Do I travel to a store to seek to find a certain piece of music knowing that they won't have the widest selection and that it won't be the cheapest or do I hop onto the internet and have the widest choice and a cheap price?

Chris