HMV tits up again. Bricks & mortar retailing is it fucked?

In their case I think it’s more to do with what they sell.
Music and films can be and more and more frequently are streamed.
That only leaves vinyl…

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Didn’t compete on service, stock or price.
What was the usp?
Highstreets should be renamed “coffeehairs”
The first mr mws topless instant coffee hair bar and chicken gril bookies will be opening in April

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Heard a ‘retail consultant’ on the radio.
She said that HMV don’t sell anything you can’t get on line, and even on line sellers are struggling because of streaming services.
She also said that if you do go and visit one of their stores the customer experience is shit.

yep, that last bit is the kicker. It’s the underlying problem with a large number of high streets,they are just shit places to visit.

If I look at where I live then I would name Cockermouth, Keswick, Ulverston and Manchester as places I would travel to spend a day where shopping was part of it. Other than that I visit supermarkets and can’t remember the lasr time I went to my local high street.

Last HMV I visited was after their last rescue, it was 3 floors of dire. They didn’t even have the nouce to put in something like a themed burger joint with jukebox or any usp.

I see some town councils are now buying up shopping centers at bargain prices using cheap loans(8 mil instead of 70), I think a lot will be left regretting it.

My Barnardo’s charity shop can’t shift CDs and DVDs at six for 99p so the HMV revival story, on a pretty much unchanged business model, was always an interesting tale.

Drift in Totnes seemed to be thriving last weekend but then it feels cool to go there, they really push new music & it isn’t in the centre of a big city.

image

A good shop if you’re ever in the vicinity.

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HMV’s approach to shop-selling vinyl seems to have been to jam as much as you can into the shelving units making it nigh on impossible to flick through what is on offer…

I paid £13 for this today in Oxford’s Fopp, Amazon can do one.
I hope they manage to save the chain, would be a shame if HMV take them down. HMV are the Woolworths of music retail.

HMV’s on-line offerings, although traditional (read dull / 20th Century) are often very competitive and, when you factor in their free p&p, meant that I often used them.

Just like their shops though, it is dull, without personality or identity (no story in today’s parlance), so I fear that they won’t even manage to save their on-line presence.

Guy posted an interesting contrast with drift records above.
Family run shop who are seriously into music. They produce their own magazine, host their own festival, are very active in support of local bands and have made their shop a community hub and pleasant experience to visit. Yes they do coffee. Make a fuss of kids and go out of their way in many ways.
HMV did nothing you couldn’t do more pleasureably online.

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Sad but not unexpected. Nice to see that they waited until after Xmas so that people had a chance to use their loyalty points before they become worthless.

Got asked yesterday if I wanted a loyalty card.
Didn’t today…

Best price on Amazon is £16 - does anyone actually bother buying from Amazon on amazon.co.uk? I know I don’t, viewing the Amazon price as there to be beaten.

Anyways, it was HMV and supermarkets which shut all the record shops I actually liked, so it’s nice to see streaming do for HMV. Let’s hope it’s really the end of ‘em this time while there’s still the odd independent left, I say.

I suppose a few days selling music will make a change from flogging royalty cards :smiley:

I’d buy a royalty card. :grin:

Having said that, I do feel for the staff. Rotten.

Yep, trying to find another retail job in the current retail climate with the looming Brexit economy certainly isn’t going to be easy.

One of the only reasons I go into town is to collect my online purchases from my local independant record store, I also use them for tickets for local gigs as they sell practically everything that is going on (and in Brighton that is a lot).

There is an HMV in Brighton but I can’t remember the last time I went in there.

I went in the Cardiff one on the 22nd to buy my wife the latest Casey Musgraves album. It wasn’t in stock despite them having a big Country section. I was a bit annoyed as I wanted to give them my custom. Makes sense now as I suspect suppliers weren’t willing to supply. There is now just the independent record shop left it town, it’s good but there’s a lot they don’t stock.