HMV to REOPEN London Oxford Street Store

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by englishbob, Apr 28, 2023.

  1. Bink

    Bink Forum Resident

    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!
     
    JohnJ likes this.
  2. steviebee

    steviebee Always playing Ese and The Vooduu People

    Location:
    London, England
    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...
     
  3. John B Good

    John B Good Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    NS, Canada
    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...
     
  4. Dave

    Dave Esoteric Audio Research Specialist™

    Location:
    B.C.
    :agree: The over price competitors to every other retail music stores from what I recall.
     
  5. John B Good

    John B Good Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    NS, Canada
    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.
     
  6. Dave

    Dave Esoteric Audio Research Specialist™

    Location:
    B.C.
    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.
     
    John B Good likes this.
  7. 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?
     
    zphage and Man at C&A like this.
  8. Martynthejazz

    Martynthejazz Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Midlands UK.
    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.
     
  9. londonflash

    londonflash Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kent
    Funny! I used to do those ones with a couple of mates when I was younger and these days, Maidstone is my local one.
     
    englishbob likes this.
  10. carrolls

    carrolls Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dublin
    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.
     
    Man at C&A and Fabrice Outside like this.
  11. Porkpie

    Porkpie Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
  12. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    £27.99 in HMV for the single disc in a card sleeve Neil Young Chrome Dreams CD:

    [​IMG]

    This is an already overpriced around £18 everywhere else. HMV are wankers.
     
    MC Rag and FJFP like this.
  13. Orthogonian Blues

    Orthogonian Blues A man with a fork in a world full of soup.

    Location:
    London, UK
    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.
     
    FJFP likes this.

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