Looks like HMV in the UK may survive after all...

I guess they promote stuff that sells well, and which probably they make more money from on each item.

It's worth remembering that HMV was never just a record/music shop - and they've been associated with visual media as well as audio for a very long time....

 

I went in there for the first time yesterday - it's bad, very, very bad. The first two thirds of the store are full of tat - toys, sweets, pop culture crap and a few selected (mostly superhero) DVDs and Blu-rays. Get to the back of the shop and you actually find some physical media, but not a lot of of it. My wife's comment on seeing the CD section was "we've got more CDs than that" and she was right. Very thin pickings and some wonky pricing - the new Hawklords album, a single CD for an eye-watering £24.99, double the price anywhere else. The previous Shrewsbury store was about the size of a broom cupboard but it had more CD, DVD and Blu ray than the new one. Can't comment about the vinyl because the little vinyl I buy these days tends to be direct from the artist and not the sort of stuff HMV would consider stocking anyway, so I didn't give it a lot of attention. Sadly this is the way HMV seem to be going, I saw similar in recent visits to another couple of newish stores in Bath and Oxford but this seemed to be even worse. I've tried to keep faith with them through some pretty difficult years but there's really not a lot in there for me anymore.

 

Shan’t rush to Shrewsbury then ! Was in the hmv Oxford recently which had a nice upstairs section for vinyl but like the two Birmingham ones the prices are shocking imo

 

I'd love to tell them that none of us are asking HMV to sell vinyl at bargain rock-bottom levels, or even to beat amazon, but if they could just get the vinyl prices in the region of vaguely reasonable that would be a big. big start...

If an album is £20 from amazon and £24 in HMV, then I'm not going to worry about that....I'd probably often just get it instore at HMV, with the benefit that I am getting it 'right now' and I can see that the sleeve is perfect, and I'd be supporting the High Street.....On the other hand, if it's £20 on amazon, and £38 in HMV then that's a different matter....

 

It’s the older stock at £38-£60 I can’t understand- they are sitting in the racks gathering dust

 

Probably not, if they are sale or return.

 

A very few odds and ends in their sale. It's HMV, so don't get too excited, obviously...

https://hmv.com/store/hmv-offers/th...,12"+Vinyl+EP,7"+Vinyl+Single,Vinyl+10"+Album

I've ordered Marianne Faithfull - Vagabond Ways LP - £9.99 for pick-up, in-store (I work nearby, so no hassle to collect; probably wouldn't be worth it, if I had to pay posttage)

 

Yes, their sale is...errr... unexciting!

 

Is it any more....exciting...in-store?

EG.

 

They used to ship to the USA, but they no longer provide shipping here -- I can usually find their "exclusives" online via Discogs...

 

I just ordered from their 3 for 55 and got a pretty good deal on black sabbaths heaven and hell and mob rules which are normally £27+ each and the Notorious BIG ready to die which is normally £25+ So I’m pretty happy with that.

 

I am glad in a way they have re-branded themselves as a vinyl emporium. I am not a vinyl buyer but it is better than seeing shelves full of books and t-shirts.

 

Fopp in Edinburgh (just behind Princes Street) has been known to be closing as the lease ended, however, they have announced that they will be moving to a new shop on Shandwick Place (just past the west end of Princes Street) in a few weeks.

Good news, not surprised as Fopp always seems busy and they will still be in a part of town that will get some tourist trade.

 

I have generally not expected much from HMVs Christmas sales the last few years. I find the sale that they have in the middle of the year is much better. That seems to be when they start realising that they still have a number of items that were released for the Christmas market that they haven't been able to shift!

I have a small independent record shop near me that does a half price sale on everything for a couple of days after Christmas. All the music buyers in the town seem to descend on this little shop and it's carnage, but you always end up coming away with something.

 

I've recently been to the new Staines store. It's in the "new" HMV format, where all the CDs are not separated into genres, only alphabetically. So the pop, metal, hip-hop, easy listening, etc. are all grouped together.

Other new HMV stores also use this grouped format, such as Bexleyheath, Watford, Crawley, etc. Maybe it's a way to make the CD section look bigger. Otherwise, each of the sections (except pop/rock) would be tiny.

The store is in Elmsleigh shopping centre. The DVDs and bobble heads are on the ground floor, while the CDs and vinyl are on the upper floor. Though I'm not sure if there's a small lift to the upper floor (like Fopp Covent Garden or Westfield) as I wasn't paying attention.

 

Someone here has just mentioned a Plainsong box set that's out now and I thought 'I wouldn’t mind that' so I went to check out the price

Cherry Red site - £35
Amazon - £34
Rough Trade - £38
HMV - £50

What is it with HMV being greedy arseholes?

 

Each time this thread gets bumped I expect to read the news that HMV has gone under (again). Price examples like the previous post are why.

 

It can't be long before it happens...

 

Since Doug Putman/Sunrise Records took it over prices have gone up, depth of stock (particularly of CDs) has gone down and you can't move in there for pop culture crap, toys and sweets. In the new Shrewsbury store you have to go to the very back to find any physical media at all. I've kept the faith with HMV through some pretty difficult years but with the way things have gone since the takeover I won't lose much sleep if they don't survive, other than for those who will lose their jobs as a result.

I usually drop in when I pass one but rarely find anything in there these days, the CD racks are half empty and prices are all over the place - some quite reasonable, some way too expensive, but it's the multi-disc box sets where the prices get eye-wateringly stupid. I can't imagine they sell hardly any at the prices they're charging.

 

It has reached the stage whether it would make much difference to me if it goes. It's a shame because the staff in the Middlesbrough branch are good people and some have worked for HMV for a very long time. I can imagine that if they close branches to stop them going totally bust, Middlesbrough would be one of the first to go. The town centre here is truly dismal, an unpleasant place to be. M&S have just announced they are closing their big store here in April after 122 years. If that can go, anything can.

 

I’ve been back in Scotland for a few weeks due to a family bereavement and have actually bought 8 CDs from HMV since I’ve been here, including 2 Cherry Red 3cd sets.

The HMV in Glasgow is actually pretty decent, and does have a fairly good cd section.

 

The recently reopened Edinburgh branch is abysmal. Fine if you want a minecraft mug or a ramones t-shirt mind.

 

Yes the HMV in Princes Street is truly awful, the shop in Ocean Terminal in Leith still has a very good selection of CD’s, though the mall itself seems to be in permanent decline sadly.

 

Like Curtis sang, where will it end?

Sick and tired of spending fuel costs and hour+ travel to visit any of the HMVs left, mostly in cities. I used 'em more for films as they were always dear for music and hardly had anything not current. But going in one during a sale, then not finding stuff to make up the offers, ie 2 blu-rays for 15, then going home and seeing it all in stock on their site is just a p!55-take. 8 years or so ago they were asking 30 quid for a Bob Marley repress LP, when you could get the same thing original good nick online for under a tenner
No wonder they're constantly on life support

 

Oh, I didn't realize that one was still open. I stopped going to Ocean Terminal as the last couple of times I was there most of the shops seemed to be empty.
Thanks for the info.