HMV Canada to close all 102 stores April 30 (Sunrise to take over approx 70 HMV stores)*

Interestingly the Rideau store us 40% off cd's/ DVD/ BR but it's only 30% at St Laurent.

Overheard one of the workers saying the Gatineau stores closed yesterday, anyone confirm? The Hull store is scheduled to be one of the first Sunrises.

 

Yes, I dropped by the Sherway store today on the last day.

All remaining stock was selling for 70% off

Items with a sticker of 2 for$ 15 and 2 for $ 20 were selling for 2 for $2
Items with a sticker of 2 for $30 and 2 for $40 were selling for 2 for $4

I didn't buy anything because there was mostly scraps and the line-up at the cashier was too long.

If this is going to be the final sales on the last day at the superstore, there is going to be crazy line-ups

 

Thanks for the update...

 

Ha. I remember going to A & B Sound -Downtown Edmonton- on Boxing Day of 1993. They were only letting about a dozen people in the store at a time, it seemed, and the queue to get in was stretching around the block. F--king cold it was that day, too, about -25 Celsius as I recall. I said to hell with it and headed to Sam The Record Man at West Edmonton Mall instead. West Edmonton Mall on Boxing Day is NOT recommended!

 

From the St. Catharines Standard: Sunrise returning to Pen Centre.

 

In Kelowna people used to sleep on the street overnight (Christmas night!!) to be at the head of the line the next morning. In other news, the Kelowna store closed yesterday. I spent way too much money Friday night and as I was paying I noticed ( it was 50% off everything) a stack of signs saying "60" behind the cash. Should have waited one more day.

 

HMV payroll costs were huge with too much staff and too many at head office.
Bringing that down a bit will make a big difference.

 

A major problem that HMV had: it felt like they had stuffed so much product into their stores (very little of it of interest to anybody), that it was just not an appealing place to shop. Sunrise will need to find a way to make the store easier to navigate and more pleasant to spend time in compared with HMV. I come back to my favorite indie stores...loads of records in bins that are easy to dig through (not the tiered design that HMV uses which makes the store clausterphobic and holds no more records). Keep the "merch" along the back walls and the trinkets near the cash. Newbury Comics has been very successful at keeping the toys separate from the good stuff, and even keeping some music in all areas of their stores...look at their store designs and figure out how they get it to work. With 70 stores, you have enough volume to get exclusive coloured vinyl pressings of new releases to keep things fun (If Newbury can do it with far less stores, so too can Sunrise). You should have enough volume to have an incredible selection of used LP's that change regularly

I want a store that's fun to shop in! Not one that has the same stuff every time I go!

 

Yes and they were definitely top heavy. Sunrise sounds much leaner in that respect.

 

Another Yonge/Dundas music related icon going bye bye, to be replaced by a friggin Shoppers Drug Mart.

 

When's that happening?

 

No specific date yet, however their lease runs out at the end of June, apparently the landlord wants to double their annual rent to $2 million!!!

As Hard Rock Cafe closes, Downtown Yonge BIA calls on Toronto to preserve other live music hubs

 

Ahhh, will be visiting in 2 weeks, so had better have dinner there on the Friday!

 

Had a meeting Downtown just after lunch so popped into Rideau on my way back to the office, store was half empty and the staff were boxing things up, so suspect its not going to be open for much longer, still only 40% off though.

 

The Yonge Street store is now 40% off.

 

On a related note, DEP Distribution, the second most important music distributor in Québec, filed for bankruptcy yesterday.

Apparently the closing of HMV was a hard blow on them.

This is not good for many french canadian artists for whom market is small and sales are modest.

 

Is it worth a visit product wise?

 

I'm not even sure. If you live downtown or close by, maybe. But if you're out of town, I don't know. Maybe to pay respects for one last visit. But there's not a lot of music left. Still lots of DVDs and Blu-rays. I think they re-stocked some stuff, but not a lot.
There are still some box sets left of The River at $167. I saw the Kris Kristofferson albums set for $149. A few copies of the reissued Trio set by Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt.

 

the Blu-Ray version is available at amazon.ca for $109....no wonder they still have it in stock

 

That is the problem.
Some of the boxes you would want are way over priced.
They would have to be 70/80 off to make them worth while buying.
King Crimson box is 329.00.
170.00 at Amazon.

 

Win was told the flagship store is at 50% now.
Also told that is the most discount they will go to.

 

Any further discounts or closures this weekend?

 

My local HMVs went to 60%, but the one at Sherway Gardens just closed. Going to the Square One location today.

 

The Rideau Centre branch is 60-70% off but has very little in it. It had signs up today saying it us closing in 9 days.

 

Sunrise have just posted this on their Facebook page.

Sorry, guys. The list of the rest of the locations is held up. It should be published soon. I will get a link up on facebook as soon as I can. Thank you all for your patience!