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

Apparently if they are empty they can get tax rebates ...

 

Department store closes, what was two grand a week rent or whatever dries up, building sits empty for years, people camping in doorway, or squatting inside. Someone eventually takes it on, lower rent. As business becomes successful, popular in local community, rent goes up. Eventually go back to step one.
There's a term I can think of for some of these landlords but I won't use it on here.
Maybe they had the right idea in China, back in the 40s/50s...

 

If anyone is interested, from what I've noticed, the only HMV which stocks everything on the HMV online shop is the Birmingham store - the biggest UK store. Other shops may not have everything from the HMV website physically available. But compared to Amazon, HMV definitely has a narrower selection.

HMV seem to be doing well. They've silently opened a store in Woking in the last month. I didn't see anything in their routine newsletters. I only found out when I was trying to get the opening times for the Basingstoke and Reading stores. The Woking store is relatively small, comparable to the recently opened Bexleyheath store.

 

Pity that Woking is a hell-hole of a building site these days. It didn't used to be so bad.

Please re-open the Kingston Upon Thames branch!

EG.

 

If there's a genuine vinyl boom taking place, they should be making money hand over fist. Why don't they start stocking something like the new Technics 100c (where you can actually chop and change different carts easily), instead of all these 60 quid things? It's not like they have any competition - from what I can see most towns nowadays don't have any kind of hi-fi shop, beyond Currys or Hughes, and good luck finding pre-amps in those...

 

I'm pretty sure they are making money from vinyl! Yesterday at one of the HMVs, I saw the (major label) debut Lana Dey Rey vinyl at £50!! It's only the plain standard edition, not even a deluxe edition.
Lana Del Ray Born to Die LP Record | Buy Lana Del Ray Vinyl Albums for Sale Online | HMV Store

They sure know how to price based on demand...

 

I got that from a deceased HMV for 11.99 brand new (as part of a 50% off promotion they had).

EG.

 

50 pounds, for a brand new pop record... seems a bit steep doesn't it You could get a 'vintage' Gang of Four LP for that in Oxfam

 

Or half an hour at a concert by …( fill in artist of choice)

 

That's a bit extreme, isn't it? How about buying the building, any building?

 

Because there are specialised shops dealing with that kind of thing (Richer Sounds etc). And why do you think people going into HMV stores have £1000 to pay for a turntable? Clearly they shift a significant number of the under £300 turntables, and they're making money from them. They're not a specialised hi-fi shop.

Meanwhile the vinyl boom isn't what it's made out to be. Yes, the revenue from each sale is greater, but 11.6m CDs were sold last year in the UK, compared to 5.5m records.

 

HMV are opening a store in a shopping mall in Belgium, looks like they are hoping to expand further into Europe. Obviously part music/part t-shirts/part all the other stuff, but they must figure out it can turn a profit. Fair play to them.

[In the picture] This is the store concept HMV will roll out throughout Europe - RetailDetail EU

 

If true, that’s tragic.

 

I gather the Oxford Street store is reopening for the 3rd time soon! Might pop in next time I’m in central London, just for old times’ sake, though I can’t see me buying much. I don’t even enjoy going to Fopp any more, honestly…

 

Yeah, the email I got from them say it opens next Friday, 24th.

 

I'm excited, but not that excited.... It's not like the new store will stock rare CDs.
The entire catalog at HMV can be found on their website, so we already can guess what would be available at the new store. Amazon still has a bigger catalog.

 

Badges Posters Stickers T-Shirts? Or the modern equivalent. Turntables Books Wireless Headphones Blu Ray Box Sets.

Just don’t hope to see a wide range of music on cd.

 

I paid a visit to the the re-opened HMV at Oxford Street this weekend. Here's a quick review:

The floor space seems relatively similar to when it closed down in 2019. The music and movie sections has swapped places. In 2019, the music section was on the first floor (the smaller floor), while the movie section was in the basement (the larger floor).

Now, surprisingly, the music section is in the basement (the larger floor). Guess why... it's because the vinyl section has significantly enlarged, taking probably 75% of the floor space in the basement.

A good thing is that the CD section (I'm a CD guy) is still split into various genres - rock/pop, metal, hip-hop, etc., unlike many of the new/refurbished HMV stores, which lump all the genres together.

The music section in the basement was very busy when I visited. The next bit is going to sound a bit "snobbish"... I think there were a lot of hipsters who were visiting because of the hype of the newly opened store. Even after the Oxford Street store closed in 2019, HMV has always maintained a presence in Central London... in the form of Fopp. It has the same catalogue and is priced the same** as HMV. So the "true" music fans always had an opportunity to access the same HMV catalogue in Central London. HMV has never disappeared from Central London.

Anyway, after visiting HMV Oxford Street, I went to Fopp, where the music floor was devoid of people. Even though I was in the CD section, I could hear a conversation in the vinyl section on the other side of the floor, where a foreign customer was arguing about the "3 for £55" vinyl promotion. She was saying something like "I would only like to buy two vinyl, can I also get a discount?" Fopp staff replies "No". Customer goes "Can you speak with your manager to ask for a discount?" and so on....

**Well, almost the same price. HMV prices its product ending with .99, while Fopp generally prices as whole numbers. So a CD at HMV might cost £6.99, while the same CD at Fopp would be £7.

 

HMV's "Crazy Deals" weekend had offers on everything....except CDs.

EG.

 

The vinyl mostly consists of 25% off albums that were 25% too expensive in the first place.

 

There is usually at a particular point during the year (in the spring I think) when HMV do pretty good deals on cds.

Certain boxsets are often sold at significantly reduced prices and cds that are often mid price range can be reduced further (eg £2.99).

So it's always good to keep an eye out for that sale. I can't remember seeing any significant reductions on stock in the run up to Christmas.

 

An example I spotted was 25% off the Blur 1997 album, priced at £59.99 for a double LP, but it's always been under £40 on Amazon and is currently £38, so even in the sale it's still £7 more.

 

They must think we were born yesterday

 

The wider problem is that Amazon used to be a price leader, but now seems to price match HMV (for vinyl anyway). So high HMV prices has meant high Amazon prices. They are both £39.99, for example, for the upcoming Peter Gabriel I/o album.

 

Thanks for the tour. This all sounds a bit crazy. I had hoped they might reinvent themselves as they traditionally were, primarily as a music store. But from what you say, only one third of the store (downstairs) is used for music. I'm surprised they are still using another third of the store (upstairs) for movies. Does anyone actually buy movies in todays streaming world? I used to but gave that up long ago. But what's on the main floor? Just mugs and T-shirts? Hopefully there's some music there! Oh well, I'll be there in a couple of weeks and will check it out myself. Again, thanks for the preview.