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

Flash sale online as of today. 50% off.

About 600 CD titles....mainly obscure/indie things, but any fans of 80s acts who are now on smaller labels will find some interesting stuff:

Tom Bailey
Howard Jones
Swing Out Sister
Marillion - latest album on Blu-Ray
Lloyd Cole
The The - Comeback Special
The Fizz

An inexpensive way to fill in some gaps....and pick up the more recent entries in the discography.

EG.

 

If you're into modern jazz, this is great for £11.50 on vinyl in the sale. Nubya Garcia on sax and flute.
There Is a Place | Vinyl 12" Album | Free shipping over £20 | HMV Store

 

Nice, got two King Gizz double albums this morning. One at £12.50 and one at £14.00, free delivery.

 

Got the last Marillion on orange Vinyl for £15 and the last Lloyd Cole for £6 for nice free delivery..not a lot else spotted

 

I did think of buying the Lloyd Cole, but can't be sure I already have it so left it for now. Quite appropriate for an album called Guesswork!

EG.

 

Picked up the Lloyd Cole (blue vinyl!) for £5.99 this week.

 

I was pleasantly surprised by it being on blue vinyl as wasn’t advertised as such - not bad for £5.99

 

HMV's flagship Oxford Street store to reopen

 

That should keep the price of vinyl down, nothing like those bargain rents in london to help shave a few quid of prices...

 

Don't they own that site? Or, did they sell it to realise some assets to pay people or summat?

 

Apparently it's reclaiming the site from an American Candy Store, so seems like HMV rented out the site.

 

They will probably still be selling candy, bizarre drinks & breakfast cereals!

 

Thank god for that. American Candy FFS.

 

Oxford Street is notorious for them.
Oxford Street US-themed candy stores raided for fake goods - BBC News

 

I’ve not been down the street for a few years and when I did it was in a Christmas haze. I’d heard it’s gone downhill but it’s always had a shady side to it (closed door auctions, etc).

 

Yeah, the one left inside a US style mall in Norwich is largely reduced to posters, toys, tat-a-geddon, while the films sit there on the wall often priced higher than their own website

Don't see many of the Styles or XCX LPs being taken to the till either...

 

It's easy to be cynical. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that HMV might actually get it right his time, i.e. recreate a genuine music store which builds on its fabled past and looks to a successful future selling and promoting popular music in all its changing forms and formats. I can already bet they're going to get Paul MCartney to pop over from St. John's Wood to reopen the store.

 

Really? I find the blu ray collector's section often lower than Amazon - it's just a shame that some labels won't trade with them. But it should be no surprise if some prices are higher than their website (although I've seen little evidence of this). They are paying for a city centre store, not a warehouse in the middle of nowhere. They have overheads to pay.

While I know it irks people that the store isn't completely given over to music and film on disc, the fact is that IT'S STILL OPEN. The article linked to a few posts back about says they have returned to profit. That should be celebrated. And it's clear, if the merchandise wasn't selling well, HMV would be gone. But HMV have always sold more than just discs. For many decades they sold TVs, for example - and that was at a time when there was no VHS, DVD or blu-ray to go with them, so really no link to the record/disc shop we think of them as.

 

Excellent news! I hope the new store won't reduce in size! If I remember correctly, it was 3 floors when it closed in 2019, with CDs on the upper floor, DVDs & blu-rays in the basement, and new release items (plus all the candy, soft toys) on the ground floor.

 

That's the funny thing - so do I

 

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I doubt your rent and rates are the same price.

 

No, but it costs me train tickets or diesel + parking to get into the city. Same with the hi-fi shops left up there. Wasted time spent travelling, haven't got the right film or part in stock to make the deal, want you to come back again next time. Go home, order online elsewhere that do have it. Vicious circle, and when everything's gone up in the UK now, after one of the most expensive, topsy turvy winters I can remember, sorry, but every penny counts. Nice to support the high street, British jobs, manufacturing etc., but they don't make it easy, feels like you often need deeper pockets and a lot of patience...

I suspect they'll end up like Debenhams, and we both know what that looks like now in the city, with the tents in the doorway. I speak with HMV staff, there's no help or expertise on anything like cartridge alignment or brands, and seem like staff couldn't give a stuff on many artists or directors back catalogue, just what you see pal. I've had them literally turn their back on me mid conversation, lol If they can survive another year with the big head toys, fair play to them

 

I’m amazed they are back at Oxford street , when they left that site they said the rent for that flagship store was more than all the others combined ! Hopefully they’ve negotiated a big discount from the landlord which might show you just how desperate the British high street is becoming

 

That's odd, because every time I go in the Norwich store, the staff are helpful, and offer to order anything in that they haven't got. Why you have a bizarre notion that a smallish shop is going to have everything that is available online, I have no idea. It's a shop, not a warehouse. Meanwhile, if they are now turning a profit, and new shops are being opened (and the Norwich shop is being refurbished in June) they are clearly doing just fine.

The department stores that have closed ended up catering to no-one. Would you go there to buy bedding? Nope, because you'd have too small a choice. Would you go there to buy clothes? Probably not, because there were bigger choices in actual clothes shops. Who were Debenhams and BHS aiming at? The lower paid? No, Primark takes care of that. The middle class? Probably not, because the goods weren't good enough. If any dept store in Norwich knows its core customers well and caters to them, it's Jarrolds.

HMV do the same when it comes to blu ray, that's for sure, generally getting everything new in from the likes of Arrow, BFI, etc - although not so much right now, probably due to wanting to get stock down for the refit. But HMV in Norwich are perfectly happy to tell you if they have a particular item in stock if you talk to them on Twitter - and I'm sure you can call a hi-fi shop to see if they have a part in that you want, thus saving you all of that train fare if they haven't...

 

The bizarre thing with the British high street is that the landlords would rather have a shop stand empty than get a smaller amount of rent. It's not like there's a queue of shops waiting to go into the empty spaces.