Metropol

Dr Lobster* wrote:i know a few commentators have suggested that there is value left in the 'hmv' brand and a lot of people have gone all nostalgic over it (like they did with woolworths) but i wonder if there is truly any value left in 'hmv'?

when most people think of 'hmv' they think "expensive" and "poor shopping/browsing experience". i haven't bought anything from them in years for the aforementioned reasons.

hmv has been a sack of shite for a long time.. despite racks full of stuff they never really seemed to have anything - that was the irony and some of the box sets were obscenely priced.

it is sad for the people who work for the chain and it is sad for high streets that are now fast becoming wastelands... our local town is shocking now. it always seems busy, i wonder what on earth people are buying i really do because there is sod all there.

I think it's because HMV has become "the record shop" - loads of people on the radio talking about how they'll miss going to record shops. I miss that - but HMV was nothing of the sort.

Selectadisc was a proper record shop. Compare and contrast this with your local HMV.

HMV was sanitised to the point where you pretty much may as well just go online - it wasn't a pleasurable experience at all.

Sput wrote:I remember their online store undercut their in-store prices quite significantly. Naturally they weren't willing to match their own price because it was technically a separate company and Channel Islands tax and all that, but still, it was really quite annoying finding such a disparity.

T'was daft; the distinction was never made clear. Also annoyed me that there was no way of converting an HMV gift voucher in to an HMV e-voucher.

The correct thing to do would have been to set up a separate brand for their Jersey operation.

I do wonder whether the Jersey stuff has essentially came back to bite them all in the long run

Pete wrote:I do wonder whether the Jersey stuff has essentially came back to bite them all in the long run

I don't think it really registers when you compare it to their absolute inability to embrace or even acknowledge the changes in the marketplace throughout the 00s, and the arrogance/stupidity which lead them to expand their already weighty store portfolio out of the failures of Fopp and Zavvi.

On the latter point in mid 2010 there were 3 branches of HMV (including one *massive* store they took on from Zavvi) and a branch of Fopp just in Nottingham City Centre. It's just ridiculous that they thought that was sustainable. Sure enough the Zavvi shut up shop less than 2 years after they'd purchased it, along with one of the legacy HMV stores. For ages there was 2 branches of Waterstones too, 2 mins walk from one another; one being the huge one that exists and the other being the not-small former Dillons.

Don't forget Ottakars either.

Pete wrote:Don't forget Ottakars either.

We didn't have one of them in Nottingham, but yeah their strategy of dominance through takeovers and generally having too many stores was mental.

WillPS wrote:

Pete wrote:Don't forget Ottakars either.

We didn't have one of them in Nottingham, but yeah their strategy of dominance through takeovers and generally having too many stores was mental.

You can always spot an ex one because it still has the ugly green carpet. We had both stores in Dundee for a while but they saw sense and flogged ottakars off to H&M.

One thing I've noticed about Waterstones though, is when they have two shops nearby and need to ditch one, they'll often ditch the "newer but plainer" one and keep the crazy quirky building. I like this.

Oddly though, with a limited store portfolio, Fopp is exactly the kind of shop which could/should exist. HMV was too middling and didn't know who to aim at over the last decade, whereas Fopp mostly pulled off some indy credibility while being accessible, despite being taken under the wing of a mainstream monster. However, the high street market was already far too weak and diffuse to ever pull off any sort of grand Zavvi < HMV < Fopp strategy.

I'm a weirdo who still buys CDs, but despite HMV being the last chain to sell some, their crushed selection meant I stopped even looking there. I'd love to keep browsing and buying these things in the real world. I spend a lot of time in an indy record store in Dundee which lets me do that, although despite its (relative) popularity, the inevitability of its demise really just marks the end of my deviant shiny-disc-buying lifestyle deserving the propping up by bricks and mortar.

lukey wrote:I spend a lot of time in an indy record store in Dundee which lets me do that

is it *that* one? I hate the owner.

*that* one. Sometimes I go in just to see if someone's brought in more Seinfeld VHSs.

Add Blockbuster to the list...

Yeah... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21047652