Is it the beginning of the end for HMV?

[WillPS]

Virgin Megastores was, throughout its life, cool I think. I managed to get a visit in to the Norwich one before it shut down a couple of years ago now - and it still had all its mid-90s Megastore fittings - fake industrial piping etc. - brilliant little relic.

I much preferred mooching around Megastores/Zavvi to HMV, any day!

Not seen these 'Big' stores, have they bought the remainder of the Entertainment UK stock that Head failed to sell?

DVDs in shops and DVDs in the post are generally on borrowed time anyway. Even downloads are apparently on the way out, as the future is said to be streaming.

Well, according to Apple anyway.

I think that's certainly what Apple and their ilk would like you to think. They've gotten people used to buying DRM-locked digital copies of things which only last for finite amounts of time and/or cannot be easily transferred to another device/person. Of course that's a much more profitable model for them than nasty old CDs and DVDs (and tapes and videos before them) which can be played without extra charge for as long as the media lasts

I think in the 90s and 00s it was in fashion to have a massive collection of DVDs to watch, but how often do you watch those discs? Realistically I might watch my favourite DVD twice a year at most?

It's so much more cost effective to stream movies and programmes, and the technology will be up to it very soon. A box like Apple TV gives you instant access to an enormous back catalogue of films, more than you could ever own on DVD, and you can rent them for about £4 a go. If there is a particular film you really love, you can also buy it and download it for about £5. That makes it £9 to permenantly own a film you love, with one 'trial viewing' first - still cheaper than a new release DVD from somewhere like Play.com

The DVD and Bluray market will crash, and it will happen soon. Even 'Youview' is likely to have a streaming movie service from Netflix or Lovefilm - that will change the market dramatically.

Agreed. HMV effectively have a good slice of a shrinking pie.

[steddenm]

Don't HMV own/supply Fopp? There is one in Manchester (near the Arndale) and one in Bristol (near Collage Green).

Also, Nottingham has opened a What Entertainment in the Victoria Centre, brilliantly classic CDs for 99p and DVDs for just £1.99, such as Harry Hill's TV Burp Gold 2, Britannia High (Complete Series, 4-DVD), Goodnight Mr Tom (99p) and CDs such as In The Mix... 90s Hits!, Now That's What I Call Music! 30, Abbamania plus Billie's album, Steps, S Club etc all for a brilliant 99p (or 3 for £5 oddly).

[WillPS]

Don't HMV own/supply Fopp? There is one in Manchester (near the Arndale) and one in Bristol (near Collage Green).

Also, Nottingham has opened a What Entertainment in the Victoria Centre, brilliantly classic CDs for 99p and DVDs for just £1.99, such as Harry Hill's TV Burp Gold 2, Britannia High (Complete Series, 4-DVD), Goodnight Mr Tom (99p) and CDs such as In The Mix... 90s Hits!, Now That's What I Call Music! 30, Abbamania plus Billie's album, Steps, S Club etc all for a brilliant 99p (or 3 for £5 oddly).

HMV own what's left of Fopp, yes. Fopp's prices are generally just rounded off HMV prices now. I give that entertainment shop in the old Victoria Centre Adams about a year before doing a Silverscreen.

[Sput]

Slightly OT, if anyone has a 'Big' store in their town or city, have a look inside, there's one in the Manchester Arndale (Next to the old Manchester City shop) and there's loads of cheap DVDs, CDs and Blu-rays, plenty of BBC and ITV material available too, they don't have much chart stuff, but it seems they've picked up alot of stuff cheap and it's not bad, hope it does well.

Wait, do you mean the one IN the arndale or the one a 3 minute walk away next to the arndale?

[nwtv2003]

Slightly OT, if anyone has a 'Big' store in their town or city, have a look inside, there's one in the Manchester Arndale (Next to the old Manchester City shop) and there's loads of cheap DVDs, CDs and Blu-rays, plenty of BBC and ITV material available too, they don't have much chart stuff, but it seems they've picked up alot of stuff cheap and it's not bad, hope it does well.

Wait, do you mean the one IN the arndale or the one a 3 minute walk away next to the arndale?

The MCFC store in the Arndale has closed, Big is next to that in the Arndale.

http://www.manchesterarndale.com/stores ... Unit%20101

[WillPS]

Hence prefixing the reference to it with the word 'old'?

[Sput]

I mean the HMV. There are two massive ones, one next to the arndale and one inside the arndale, and they both seem to sell the same stuff. This is a silly thing.

[nwtv2003]

I mean the HMV. There are two massive ones, one next to the arndale and one inside the arndale, and they both seem to sell the same stuff. This is a silly thing.

Indeed you are correct Sput, I'm talking about a new store called Big, basically it's just a shop selling DVDs, CDs etc, although it's not all new stuff, basically thats in the Arndale next to the old MCFC store. As for HMV, I can see the one in the Arndale going, I never saw the point of them buying it from Zavvi, especially when you have the bigger and in my opinion superior store round the corner on Market St.

[DVB Cornwall]

today ....

Alexander Mamut in £43m bid for Waterstone's

HMV has received a reported £43m cash bid for its Waterstone's book chain from Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut.

The troubled entertainment retail group which put Waterstone's up for sale earlier this year confirmed it was in "advanced discussions regarding a potential sale".


see here ……..

WWW.GUARDIAN.CO.UK/MEDIA
13-May-2011 @ 20:39

[Cache]

I went into a hmv for the first time in a long time this week, and I was shocked to see how little they actually sell. There were about four racks of CDs and the same of DVDs, and the rest of the store was given over to crap t-shirts and a 'technology' section full of budget headphones, and a stack of Beats by Dre that were all out of stock. Almot eveything was reduced in some way, but still more expensive than Amazon. This was a city centre branch on a busy shopping day, and the store was empty.

I'm surprised they haven't closed half of their stores already.

[WillPS]

I went into a hmv for the first time in a long time this week, and I was shocked to see how little they actually sell. There were about four racks of CDs and the same of DVDs, and the rest of the store was given over to crap t-shirts and a 'technology' section full of budget headphones, and a stack of Beats by Dre that were all out of stock. Almot eveything was reduced in some way, but still more expensive than Amazon. This was a city centre branch on a busy shopping day, and the store was empty.

I'm surprised they haven't closed half of their stores already.

I'm sure you're exaggerating in terms of actual numbers of shelves, but yeah the tech, merch and gaming sections have all crept up in terms of floor space over the last 2 or 3 years. It's all a bit futile though tbh. Nobody instinctively thinks of HMV as 'the place' (or even 'a place') to buy a netbook.

Their gaming effort is less comprehensive and more expensive than any of the actual video game chains, and the same could also be said of merch - chains like Pulp and Blue Banana do this much better.