The Closure of HMV

[lacktheknack]

It's their own damn fault for being so uncompetitive in terms of pricing. What did they seriously expect would happen?

You kidding me? HMV often put on sales where good, new albums were going for five bucks a piece.

Maybe Canadian HMV is different than Aussie HMV.

Yeah they probably are different. I was just referring to their prices on new release games though. Always seemed to be more expensive than the competition

Ah. HMV around here doesn't even sell games, aside from the occasional Nintendo DS rack. We think of it as a music-n-movies store, and those are actually fairly reasonably priced.

Whereabouts in Canada are you? Because where I'm at the HMVs sell a large amount of games. Have been for a while.

My biggest beef with HMV isn't the prices. Its the fact that I can't find any albums by artists I like. If its anything other than a well known indie hip hop artist or a mainstream artist, Sunrise Records usually gets my business. Used to be CD Plus but they went under.

Another problem I have with CD stores in general is the obscenely long time it takes to restock. It should not, in 2013, take 4 weeks to get a CD to a store.

I'm in Alberta.

And they sell a lot of lesser known music here. I got all my Portishead, Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin and the like at HMV.

Now, if I want actually obscure stuff (like :wumpscut, I have to go to Revolver, but that's expected.

 

[FamoFunk]

Not surprised, they were very over-priced and seemed behind the times. I do feel for everyone who has lost their jobs though, along with those from Comet, Jessops and Blockbusters.

I wonder who will be next (I bet somewhere like WH Smiths or Waterstones)

 

[Frezzato]

The British high street is carnage atm, Jessops, HMV, Comet and now Blockbusters have all gone tits up on the last few weeks. Its pretty obvious noncompetitive pricing is a big part of it but there are other issues too like high VAT rates. Go and buy an Xbox or a PS3 and you will pay around £30 (minimum) on top in VAT.

Theres a worrying trend made horribly relevant with the Jessops and HMV collapse, gift vouchers will not be redeemed. This is particularly shitty straight after Christmas, the peak time for them being sold. A lot of people get those things for Christmas and now they are useless.

Yeah, I was just reading about Blockbuster in the UK as well.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-01-16-now-its-blockbuster-uk-to-enter-administration?utm_source=eurogamer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=net-daily

And then I got this blurb [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-01-16-angry-grandfather-walks-out-of-hmv-with-3-games-after-staff-refuse-to-accept-gift-voucher?utm_source=eurogamer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=net-daily] from Eurogamer about HMV in Ireland.

I don't know how Blockbuster is in the UK, but here in the states they really pissed a lot of people off for years on end. I remember the days when you would check out a movie at, say 11PM and Blockbuster counted that as one day of your rental. They built an empire for well over a decade and didn't change their policies until it was too late. I hope people don't blame online retailers like Amazon for this.

 

[Frezzato]

Theres a worrying trend made horribly relevant with the Jessops and HMV collapse, gift vouchers will not be redeemed. This is particularly shitty straight after Christmas, the peak time for them being sold. A lot of people get those things for Christmas and now they are useless.

This is happening with HMV in Ireland and I have to ask how is this legal?They've received the money in advance but are now refusing to hand over the goods people are entitled to.Sounds a lot like theft in my book

Funny you should mention theft.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-01-16-angry-grandfather-walks-out-of-hmv-with-3-games-after-staff-refuse-to-accept-gift-voucher?utm_source=eurogamer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=net-daily

 

[UrinalDook]

This article on BBC news [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21023610] pretty much sums it up for me. The key thing is, I'm sad to say HMV go because I love going in there to browse. But of course, this is exactly the problem. I'd go there and browse, spend up to an hour doing it only to find they either didn't have anything I really wanted, or I'd look up what they did have and find it cheaper on Amazon.

I don't even feel they're prices weren't competitive, the amount of CDs they would have in the 'two for a fiver' deal was decent, and £5 is a very reasonable price for a CD that's been out for a couple of months, it's very difficult for even Amazon to beat. The problem was that new CDs were always a tenner, at least, and they just didn't have sufficient diversity in artists. These days, the stuff I want is very rarely stocked in HMV, and if it is there's a single, dusty copy going for something outrageous like £13.

A sad, but predictable end. As the article I linked pondered, where am I to go when my girlfriend/sister/mother drags me to the shops?

I can only hope this isn't another nail in the coffin for CDs. I will accept compression is a necessary evil for me to carry my entire collection round on an iPod in my pocket, but the death of CDs would be the end of affordable music quality for us audiophiles. The only download system I know of that does wav/flac quality is Beatport, and that's unbelievably expensive.

 

[Kinitawowi]

The general thinking is that the film and music industries need HMV too much to see it die, so they'll probably chip in to preserve it in a limited capacity.

They need to put down the stick and back away from the horse carcass. HMV specialises in a physical product in an increasingly digital world, and while the purists (e.g. me) still want discs, we want it for as cheap as we can get it and that means online. HMV's overheads are an order of magnitude greater than Amazon's and that money needs to come from somewhere. We're in a recession. Everybody's squeezing. And several of these giants are being squeezed out.

The most terrifying thing? I work for PC World. And I'm watching all these companies die around me and seriously wondering how long I've got left in a job.

 

[J Tyran]

The British high street is carnage atm, Jessops, HMV, Comet and now Blockbusters have all gone tits up on the last few weeks. Its pretty obvious noncompetitive pricing is a big part of it but there are other issues too like high VAT rates. Go and buy an Xbox or a PS3 and you will pay around £30 (minimum) on top in VAT.

Theres a worrying trend made horribly relevant with the Jessops and HMV collapse, gift vouchers will not be redeemed. This is particularly shitty straight after Christmas, the peak time for them being sold. A lot of people get those things for Christmas and now they are useless.

Yeah, I was just reading about Blockbuster in the UK as well.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-01-16-now-its-blockbuster-uk-to-enter-administration?utm_source=eurogamer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=net-daily

And then I got this blurb [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-01-16-angry-grandfather-walks-out-of-hmv-with-3-games-after-staff-refuse-to-accept-gift-voucher?utm_source=eurogamer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=net-daily] from Eurogamer about HMV in Ireland.

I don't know how Blockbuster is in the UK, but here in the states they really pissed a lot of people off for years on end. I remember the days when you would check out a movie at, say 11PM and Blockbuster counted that as one day of your rental. They built an empire for well over a decade and didn't change their policies until it was too late. I hope people don't blame online retailers like Amazon for this.

Best Grandfather ever? Have to love to the way he wasn't going to eat the shit sandwich they tried to serve him. Blockbuster has been on its last legs for a while, they where a subsidiary of the same company that owned Game/Gamestation at one point. In the age of Netflix and Lovefilm instant Blockuster are fairly irrelevant, in a way its no big surprise really.

 

[AnarchistFish]

They were expensive, their selection was pretty small and generally mainstream (Green Day in the metal section lol) and a lot, if not most, of their stores didn't sell vinyl.

It's sad to see, but more in the context on the whole shift from physical to digital. In practice, it won't affect me that much. As a person who loves physical music it didn't even cater to my own tastes.

 

[xplosive59]

Went in there the other day.
couldn't find a single album on my to buy list apart from the new Converge album.
Looked at price, £16.
Said "fuck it".
Left.
Bought list of 6 albums for £45 on Amazon.

No wonder they are broke.

 

[Fimbulvetr3822]

I predicted this 7 years ago, as soon as I-tunes started to get big and they started adding download sales to the charts. HMV has always been terribly run by people with no idea how to operate in a digital world. IMO the high street is better off without them, although it is a shame for the people who will lose their jobs

 

[Trivun]

UK HMV can be pretty pricy, but they constantly have sales on that have rotating stock as well, so I've always been able to walk in and pick up great CDs and DVDs that have been on the '2 for £10' deal that I've been after for ages. Plus, I have the HMV Points card, so I shopped there a lot anyway (though I only got the card after realising that it was worth it given how often I went anyway ).

On that note, does anybody know what the case is with the points cards now? Do I need to rush to spend what points I have quickly online, or what?

 

[MetalDooley]

Funny you should mention theft.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-01-16-angry-grandfather-walks-out-of-hmv-with-3-games-after-staff-refuse-to-accept-gift-voucher?utm_source=eurogamer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=net-daily

Good on him I say.Hopefully he gets away with it.I probably would have picked better games if I was him though

 

[Baneat]

But where will I get my:
Crappy overpriced headphones like beats or bose or marley or low-end sennheiser
£100+ box sets of DVDs of 10 year old series
Full-priced music on discs
Games more expensive than the shop next door

?????????????????????????????

 

[someonehairy-ish]

I find that all the stuff I want (like the Tool albums I'm still missing) all tends to be ridiculously expensive. 10,000 days was 25 quid. That's daylight robbery.

 

[mitchell271]

HMV is where I get all my CDs! We have other stores here in Canada but HMV is a good one.

 

[Frezzato]

Funny you should mention theft.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-01-16-angry-grandfather-walks-out-of-hmv-with-3-games-after-staff-refuse-to-accept-gift-voucher?utm_source=eurogamer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=net-daily

Good on him I say.Hopefully he gets away with it.I probably would have picked better games if I was him though

HAHA you know, I wasn't going to say anything but, yeah, his choices were...let's just say it was the principle that mattered.

For the curious, the guy wanted to buy but ended up stealing from HMV: Euro Truck Simulator, The Sims 3 Town Life, and Rail Simulator.

Yeah, "For my grandson" ;-)

 

[Baneat]

Funny you should mention theft.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-01-16-angry-grandfather-walks-out-of-hmv-with-3-games-after-staff-refuse-to-accept-gift-voucher?utm_source=eurogamer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=net-daily

Good on him I say.Hopefully he gets away with it.I probably would have picked better games if I was him though

HAHA you know, I wasn't going to say anything but, yeah, his choices were...let's just say it was the principle that mattered.

For the curious, the guy wanted to buy but ended up stealing from HMV: Euro Truck Simulator, The Sims 3 Town Life, and Rail Simulator.

Yeah, "For my grandson" ;-)

Weren't they slogging those simulators off in Steam for pennies all through the sale?

The shop were probably glad to be rid of them.

 

[Frezzato]

3 things everyone should understand about this situation.

1 there is a serious "unfair competition" problem due to Amazon "UK" in relation to this.

2 Amazon pays no UK corporation tax because its profits are punted through Luxembourg.

3 in terms of CD and DVD trade Amazon pays no UK VAT because it shifts them through the Channel Islands.

Not that I doubt you, but can you provide any sources for this? I genuinely want to know more about Amazon's practices.

I thought it was strange when I got the Alien Anthology on Blu-ray from Amazon UK. Including shipping to the United States, I paid $23 for it. It still costs $40 on Amazon US.