I don't disagree, but it raises an interesting point about how people use this site. Personally I don't go into the individual forums - I just click on 'new posts' and see all the recent posts on the whole site. I am never aware of which forum it sits in until someone mentions it!
I work in Oxford St. Loathe it. It's just the most boring street in London, full of sheep shoppers, tourists, sports-casuals looking for mega bucks trainers, and some of the most tedious entertainment venues (Swingers?! Give me a break.)...oh, and the ever-watchful muggers on bikes and power scooters. Nights are drunk-tank territory. Luckily, we still have the 100 Club! It's one of the few gems left on the actual Street. BUT, thank heaven, as you said, you indeed don't have to go too far off either side to find interesting stuff, good to excellent pubs, smaller shops, whether in parts of Fitzrovia, Marylebone or Mayfair (though that's a bit rich for a shop worker, lol). Add Reckless Records to the list, just across from Sister Ray...
Not that I'll ever being London, but glad I saw this thanks to catching the annotation NA on the thread title in the music section. Canada used to have HMV outlets...
I used to frequent them in Ottawa. High rent locations like shopping centres and the Sparks Street Mall. We still have Sunrise in Halifax and sometimes their prices are significantly better than Amazon.
This seems to coincide with my experience as well. Their competitors were in the 50% less cost back in the day when independents like A&B Sound were still in the game.
Happy memories of the original shop and the second one that appeared too. I bought a lot of vinyl there in the late 70's / early 80's. I especially remember my excitement at finding and snapping up Japanese pressings of John and Yoko's "Wedding Album" and "Life With The Lions". I worked in an HMV shop in Sutton, Surrey in 1990 as the "CD buyer" and tried to get transferred to one of the Oxford Street branches but for some reason it never happened. The staff were terrific but the management were horrible. An awful company to work for then. Very pressured. I think we were the worst performing store in the UK at that time and the area manager gave us a lecture about how we were somehow supposed to turn that around over the Xmas period. Like right! What, drag customers in from the street? We were forced to play Madonna's "Immaculate Collection" all day which drove us mad. Whenever the manager left for lunch we'd put on Tom Waits and Van Morrison and someone would always come up to ask what it was and we'd make a sale. When we got caught we explained this to the boss but it didn't wash. They were only interested in shifting units - quantity not quality. Not focused on music. Pity. One day the manager said we should stop making individual orders for items because it was too much hassle so when a customer came in to ask for something obscure for her grandson as a present I told her we couldn't get it in time for Xmas. The boss heard me and told me off. I said "But we're not actually going to try to get it so it's not fair to give the impression that we can". He said that we still had to take the order even though we weren't going to get it because it was "company policy" and I shouldn't have told her otherwise. That's just plain mean in my book. Maybe things have changed?
Just spotted this thread. Well looking at a few posts above I can see I'm not alone . I do pop into my local hmv store occasionally. As the town centre is pretty poor and it's just another store to pop into before heading cafe . Lol And it's always same old thing. Same old stuff. Everything overpriced apart from the odd cd offer. And it's somewhere I'm always trying to get a phone signal to compare to Amazon lol And yep.....hmv costs more on everything I like . Back in the good old days Tower records , Hmv. Had some good deals , along with selectadisc. We can still dream.
Funny! I used to do those ones with a couple of mates when I was younger and these days, Maidstone is my local one.
HMV to re-open their flagship Dublin store in Henry Street Dublin previously closed down seven years ago. HMV to reopen its doors in Dublin for the first time in seven years (msn.com) I remember when it closed down in 2016 they were practically giving the shelf stock away. I picked up about 30 Blu-Ray Audio discs for €2.50 each and a lot of other stuff at giveaway prices. Great news that it's re-opening. I am amazed Tower records in Dublin has remained open all this time too.
Sadly, one of the two Bristol stores has shutdown. 'Sad day' as well-loved Bristol HMV store closes for good
£27.99 in HMV for the single disc in a card sleeve Neil Young Chrome Dreams CD: This is an already overpriced around £18 everywhere else. HMV are wankers.
Went to the 'new' HMV in Oxford St today and it was... better than expected. As expected, the main floor is all about merch (Funko Pop dolls and Stranger Things BS galore). But there is a reasonably wide selection of CDs and Vinyl in the basement. And also, Blu-Ray and DVD on the top floor (but I didn't go there). The good ol' days of gigantic shops dedicated to music are not coming back to London. So this might be the best we can hope for from a chain shop.