Popped into HMV today...

I goy my first cd player back in October 85'.
Even by the spring of 86' you still had to wait upto 6 weeks for the CD to come out after the vinyl.
I can remember buying Judas Priest's Turbo on vinyl because I couldn't wait the few weeks for the CD to be released.
I must admit, I picked up a few albums I long gave away and felt pangs of regret for not keeping them.
We live and learn ehh???

 

Just goes to show how the industry took us for a ride with cd prices, and now they are doing it all over again with vinyl.

 

We have an HMV in Shrewsbury (UK) but it's been relocated to a tiny site and 60%+ of its space is devoted to DVD/BR... Rather frustrating they can offer me crap like The Two Ronnies and every episode of The Big Bang Theory but have never had a single copy of the 2016 remaster of Bowie's 'Young Americans' CD in stock since its release sometime last February (as I recall)...

 

Fopp seems to (still) be better pricewise. I go to Covent Garden every few months, same company but they have more vinyl stock (of course, it is Central London,) and better prices. The whole HMV/Fopp relationship has always been a very curious mix. I just wish there were more Fopps around.

Even better, rebrand HMV as Fopp and use the same pricing.

 

It's my experience of the HMV store in the centre of Derby. DVDs/Blurays on the ground floor; CDs and vinyl upstairs and only accessible inside the store.

 

The closest one to me is in Derby. Nice enough store but all the music is on the second floor like they're ashamed of it. Downstairs is DVD/Blu Ray plus all the non-music crap they seem to sell nowadays.

 

Talk about thinking the same thing at the same time.

 

Fopp has gotten more expensive. At least, that's my experience of the Glasgow, although I haven't been for a couple of years. Interesting that they have a Fopp store in central London. How do they afford the rent?

 

Yes, I was there a couple of weeks ago. It's the closest store to me now, as the Burton branch closed several years ago and is now a Next. There's a touch of beige about Next. At least HMV had bright colours.

 

Fopp is everything the wider HMV chain should be. The Fopp in Manchester city centre is excellent, often has deals on independent labels such as KScope, and is focused on music retail, yet retains a sizeable range of DVDs, films, books.

Shrewsbury is one of my local stores too - it is a depressing experience every time I visit. They have few back catalogue titles, and even new releases tend to be limited to chart/pop music. Its little surprise that Shrewsbury now has three independent music retailers, as it hardly offers any competition!

 

That is true. But its still better than HMV.

Its good to hunt for bargains in there, you will find them. Also the 2 music biogs on paperback for a fiver. Usually recent books.

So yes its not perfect but is better. A much more enjoyable environment I find.

 

Go back a couple of years to 1983/4 and CDs were virtually non existent. I never saw any in record stores. Maybe you had to order them in the store and hope for the best. Worse than vinyl in the 90s or early 00s.

The first I noticed a big push on new vinyl was in an independent record store in Northampton, MA in 2003/4. They had a load of reissues including Bob Dylan. Like many major chains, HMV are several years behind trend.

 

They do a lot of specials, lot of the Japanese reissue cd's for a fiver. Healthy selection of vinyl, yes, some hellishly expensive but can usually find some bargains.

 

I forgot about the books. Picked up some bargains there.

 

Are the Japanese reissue CDs mini-LP versions? HMV did cheap ones for £5 several years ago. They look good but sadly the mastering often isn't upto the mark. However, they sometimes reissue albums that aren't available elsewhere.

 

We had one HMV gone now, like Toys R Us..also vanished from the High Street.. won't be long before Argos does one.. we got more Charity Shops than ever before..which can be good for some 2nd hand CDs, but still wish we had a HMV..

 

You will of course remember Reveal Records in Derby. I used to go there every weekend. Still have my copy of Pan Sonic's Kesto that I bought for a tenner (wished I bought a second copy when they reduce it to £5; prices on discogs are ten times that amount). Anyhow, they introduced some new vinyl in early 2006 or so. Their price: £5 per record, including double LPs. I was gobsmacked. As cheap as the offers HMV ran on back catalog CDs every month or so. Imagine HMV selling LPs at even £10. There would be queues outside the store.

 

Argos is now owned by Sainsbury's so it would likely disappear inside their store. Strange, the internet should have killed Argos like it killed the Littlewoods Index stores.

 

Tamworth also lost their HMV. I haven't been to Tamwoth town centre in a while. I dread to think what it's like.

 

Yeah Burton used to be OK,well for Burton..but is looking a bit Swad/Newhall now.. I like looking for 50p/£1 CDs but other than that it's Food Shopping and out..

 

HMV Canada's pricing for vinyl records was quite terrible in comparison to the smaller, independent shops that I've seen. Now that HMV Canada has effectively replaced by Sunrise Records entirely, their records still cost the exact same as before.

 

HMV in Cardiff, Wales want one hundred and one pounds for all things must past.

 

It's £101.99 on Amazon as well, how can anyone justify asking over a hundred quid for a three disc set?

 

I recently started visiting my local HMV every few weeks and I've got some real bargains. It's a bit depressing to see novelty albums from TV celebrities and the like taking pride of place as you walk in, but if you dig around you find some real gems for next to nothing. I agree it's great to see the vinyl resurgence and I'm also seriously considering buying a turntable.

 

That's one of my local HMVs as well. Used to be okay but it's not worth going in now they've moved into that tiny unit, I think I've got more CDs in my collection than they've got now. A strange move as they'd previously announced that all the stores were now profitable and then they start downsizing, hopefully not a policy they'll continue. At least they have opened new shops in towns where the administrators had previously closed them. Although I have a few issues with them I reckon Hilco have done a fairly decent job since taking it over in 2013, prices are better and they've got rid of a lot of the tat the previous owners used to fill the shops with that had no business being in a music/entertainment store. It was sad to see some of the stores close but the chain had got too big and was clearly not sustainable - the big Manchester shop on Market Street had such a phenomenally high rent they couldn't even make it profitable in the boom years. HMV is far from perfect but I'm glad it's still there, you can only imagine what would happen to Amazon's prices if their last competitor on the high street went to the wall.