RIP HMV

Another shop that no one uses anymore, disappears.

I wonder who is next? Next?

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher
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I use the London shops mainly to buy box set DVD's which are too lumpy to get through the letter-box, happily paying a bit extra. Otherwise I use Amazon Amazon Marketplace etc. Except that a lot of them are out of stock even in the Oxford Street store.

They've also fallen victim to the pareto principle 80% of sales both in music and DVD/Blue ray probably come from the top 20% of titles. All of which can be found in one or two aisles in the larger Tesco and Asda stores.

Their queuing sytem is also like something out of the stone age. In Primark and larger post offices etc they have an electronic indicator board and a automated voice "go to till number two please." In HMV they have to shout and wave. Before Christmas they pushed to boat out and issued them with HMV pink aircraft carrier style paddles.

michael adams

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Reply to
michael adams

Well PO's and the like are normally fairly busy most of the time. A complex, technology based, expensive queing system is worth it. In HMV the friendly wave over works most of the time and low tech pink paddles work well enough on the few occasions it was busy.

Who will be next? Next? Not so sure, they have a strong mailorder side with a good try and return practice/policy. The clothes are also priced well and reasonable quality. The clothes chains that have recently gone have been the higher priced boutiquey ones.

I think HMV failed by not shifting from entertainment media content to entertainment media devices fast enough, not including gameing in any great form and not having a competative mailorder side.

I still like physical media but I can't remember the last time I actually went to shop to get it. Mailorder from Amazon normally (due to price) but I have used HMV mailorder when Amazon didn't have stock or the HMV price was better (rare).

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

I just bought a CD from them today.

Reply to
Frank Erskine

Well Nipper would turn in his grave if he had not been stuffed and put on display in a Lloyds bank.

You say nobody uses any more but its nearly always heaving in ours. I suspect people used it to browse, then went home and ordered the same thing on Amazon Its just like the old days of hi fi shops and when the likes of Comet box shifted the same gear at a discount, people wnt had a demo and a cup of tea in the specialist shop then went round the corner to comet. Not that many specialist hi fi shops around. I suspect there will always be niche openings for specialist shops, selling the more obscure stuff, but then the sort of people who go there are not short of money. I'm not so sure about the downloading and streaming markets. Lots of people are very distrustful of the big companies gtting into this no hard product market, as drm and other nasty devices stop you using what you bought.

Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

I think the days of bricks and mortar shops are seriously numbered - forever. Unless you can ask "would you pay £2 to browse in every shop you go into" and get the answer "yes".

HMV going is another blow to the local shopping centre ... here's the list as of last Wednesday:

If we re-order that into floor area, we get:

Alders, TJ Hughes, JJB Sports, HMV, Peacocks, Officers Club, Birthdays, Jessops, Past Times, Millets

If I were a shop there, I would be very nervous. The loss of Jessops and HMV - neither of which has an alternative - are two less reasons to actually visit the place.

One mystery is how the mobile phone shops can survive. The same shopping centre has an EE, O2, CPW, Phones4U, 3, Vodafone and Orange.

Reply to
Jethro_uk

What? Only one of each? I lose count of them all, but we have two EE shops - right next door to each other.

Reply to
polygonum

Does that make you a nobody?

...I'll get my coat...

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

He would, not least because he'd not be sure exactly who his master is now.

HMV actually stopped using DRM on their music downloads long ago. For a limited period, if you had a protected download, they would let you download the .mp3 version for free, if it had been released that way by the record company.

Reply to
John Williamson

That's because you had an Orange and a T-Mobile shop there. One of them will close shortly, following the merger that formed EE.

Reply to
John Williamson

Going by observed footfall in our area I would say HomeBase and B&Q are not long for this world. Any shop which has a large footprint, masses of stock, staff wandering around with nothing to do and only one till in operation isn't making an in-store fortune. Unless the margins are so huge they only need a few customers per hour.

Cheers

Dave R

Reply to
David WE Roberts

Homebase should simply lock up and go home except when they have a 10% day (or whatever they do these days). Feels like the policy is "you were stupid enough to come on a non-special day so we'll rook you 11.1% extra".

But I really cannot believe that we need TWO Homebase stores...

And they feel ever so like the late and largely unlamented Focus.

Reply to
polygonum

yes. agreed.

:-0)

I'd not be sorry to see the back of both.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Was in B&Q a few weeks ago, looking for a replacement shower screen seal. It's a strip of "rubber" which slides in the bottom of the screen.

Got to the aisle, spent 5 minutes up and downing, looking for it, when the "plumber" came over and asked if I needed any help. I explained what I wanted, and he took me straight to a section where they had a piece of drainpipe with these rigid seals in. He said that was all they had as they must have stopped selling the screen I had. When I pointed the screen I had out on the shelf, he then said they didn't sell the seal separately. Luckily then he had a real customer, so buggered off, leaving me to wonder how to search google for what I wanted. Then SWMBO nudged me, and pointed to the rack behind the rigid seals. Slightly obscured (hence my not finding them first time) were the exact seals I wanted. In white, black and grey.

I originally wanted to go online, but since SWMBO wanted a run out, I thought I'd have a punt at B&Q - there's a nice bacon butty van in the car park ;)

Reply to
Jethro_uk

Presumably the network branded ones are funded in some way from the network. The others get fairly hefty kickbacks from the networks when th= e sign someone up.

Where doe all this money come from? The punters on PAYG at 20p/min or people on contracts at =A360/month with 6 years/month inclusive minutes,= enough texts to send one to every other mobile in the world per month an= d more data than you can consume connected 24/7 and filling the pipe both =

ways but only make 2 30 second calls, send not texts and don't know what= data is for...

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Ah yes - but we also have at least another Orange shop (might have been re-liveried - have not seen it in a while) in same shopping centre. Had two Orange shops for years. I really have lost count.

Reply to
polygonum

Not in Newbury by any chance? Only one I know with a bacon butty van - and that was a really good one :-)

Reply to
David.WE.Roberts

I find HMV handy for xmas presents (when you're not sure what to get).

I recall when HMV was "His Master's Voice" and you could ask the assistant to put on a record (classical, of course) and go into a soundproof booth to listen to it.

Reply to
Mark

"Shower seal UK" Loads on Ebay, plenty of others at 4x the price.

MBQ

Reply to
Man at B&Q

Aylesbury store has one.

MBQ

Reply to
Man at B&Q

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