High Street chain collapse sweepstake

[Martin Phillp]

HMV has been bought by Sunrise Records, who already owned HMV Canada.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47127520

The list of HMV store closures has been released...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47132310

Interesting to note that four of the stores closing are the Fopp brand, which is quite considerable as glancing at wikipedia there is/was only about 9 Fopp stores. I wonder whether any of the remaining Fopp stores might get rebranded as HMV in the near future. Also worth noting the flagship Oxford Street store is also set to close.

I can still see Fopp continuing in London at least as it still has an arthouse, niche brand which works in that market.

Oxford Street, along with some of the larger shopping centre stores aren't really a surprise. Running HMV in the smaller shops which have a better chance of making a profit with lower landlord rates is their best bet to continue for now. However, physical media will continue to decline and HMV will still need to tackle how to compete with streaming media.

[g67bbx]

Brighthouse to close 30 stores.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47135309

[Alexia]

Good. Shysters.

[thegeek]

HMV has been bought by Sunrise Records, who already owned HMV Canada.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47127520

The list of HMV store closures has been released...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47132310

Interesting to note that four of the stores closing are the Fopp brand, which is quite considerable as glancing at wikipedia there is/was only about 9 Fopp stores. I wonder whether any of the remaining Fopp stores might get rebranded as HMV in the near future. Also worth noting the flagship Oxford Street store is also set to close.

Sad to see Glasgow's Byres Road branch on the list - as I mentioned somewhere (possibly this thread) it's the brand's spiritual home, having been founded round the corner. Glasgow does keep a branch in the city centre, but about five minutes' walk from the remaining HMV, so it seems like an odd choice.

[james2001]

I presume "Manchester, Trafford" means the one in the Trafford centre, unless there's one elsewhere in Trafford.

Shame the one on Oxford street's going, not that long ago there were two on Oxford Street, both of them a lot bigger than the one that's there now. But I guess if it's not viable.

[Martin Phillp]

Some of those Brighthouse closures are in affluent towns, where the demand for high interest rates on a tatty sofa or a 55" tv aren't great. Either that or the clientele have twigged that it's simply not worth the hassle.

[james2001]

TVs are so cheap these days I wonder how many people even need to have one on credit, especially BrightHouse credit where the interest is probably significantly more than the cost of the TV, unless you're literally next to penniless. It's not like the old Radio Rentals days when they were expensive and often needed repairing, you can pick up a decent sized TV for less than a couple of hundred quid these days, unless you're really desperate for a room filling TV you don't really need and can't really afford.

[WillPS]

It's an odd world where Trafford Centre and Meadowhall won't have an HMV but Mansfield Four Seasons will.

[cwathen]

It's an odd world where Trafford Centre and Meadowhall won't have an HMV but Mansfield Four Seasons will.

Personally, I think there was no strategy as to which branches will stay and go in terms of coverage, but the actual strategy was entirely around disposing of stores with the longest leases. I can't think how else they would end up shutting their Plymouth and Exeter stores (which after the last administration were the only two left in Devon and both were in major city centres) yet they retained stores in Truro and Taunton.

They've now got a store in Cornwall, a store in Somerset, but nothing at all in the somewhat large county in between the two! As already documented, the reverse has occured elsewhere where a Fopp and an HMV continue to co-exist around the corner from each other.

I think the decision to close 363 Oxford Street is all we need to know as regards to how long HMV will last this time. Granted, despite media reports to the contrary HMV hasn't been there for almost a hundred years; they buggered off from that site in 2000 and only moved back there in 2013 as part of the Hilco buyout. However, for most of it's existence that has been the flagship HMV store, the original HMV store, and they've shut it with no plans to open any replacement on Oxford Street (which is different to it's original closure when it was replaced with a larger store). Whether it was the correct business decision or not, surely from a point of view of image it was essential that particular store be saved if there is to be any confidence that HMV has truly been saved.

I think this is just more re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic and we'll be back here again sooner rather than later.

[james2001]

It's an odd world where Trafford Centre and Meadowhall won't have an HMV but Mansfield Four Seasons will.

One of the few things we have left after the town centre's been run down the last 15 or so years.

[Charlie Wells]

It's an odd world where Trafford Centre and Meadowhall won't have an HMV but Mansfield Four Seasons will.

Personally, I think there was no strategy as to which branches will stay and go in terms of coverage, but the actual strategy was entirely around disposing of stores with the longest leases. I can't think how else they would end up shutting their Plymouth and Exeter stores (which after the last administration were the only two left in Devon and both were in major city centres) yet they retained stores in Truro and Taunton.

They've now got a store in Cornwall, a store in Somerset, but nothing at all in the somewhat large county in between the two! As already documented, the reverse has occured elsewhere where a Fopp and an HMV continue to co-exist around the corner from each other.

I think the decision to close 363 Oxford Street is all we need to know as regards to how long HMV will last this time. Granted, despite media reports to the contrary HMV hasn't been there for almost a hundred years; they buggered off from that site in 2000 and only moved back there in 2013 as part of the Hilco buyout. However, for most of it's existence that has been the flagship HMV store, the original HMV store, and they've shut it with no plans to open any replacement on Oxford Street (which is different to it's original closure when it was replaced with a larger store). Whether it was the correct business decision or not, surely from a point of view of image it was essential that particular store be saved if there is to be any confidence that HMV has truly been saved.

I think this is just more re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic and we'll be back here again sooner rather than later.

If I recall correctly from visiting Exeter last year that branch of HMV had two floors and each floor was quite large. I imagine the rates and rent on such a premises was rather sizeable, not to mention the cost of needing additional staff. I imagine not buying that store (and others) from the administrators allows them to get out of the existing lease/contract without paying a substantial penalty. It's not beyond possibility that in a couple of years a couple HMV stores might re-open in a nearby location but in significantly smaller premises.