HMV to close 60 stores

[FatTrucker]

Not to mention HMV haven't really looked at their floorplan or shop design in years. All the one's I've visited are badly laid out, the shelf space outside current chart stuff is pretty haphazardly chucked together, looking for anything thats not a current top 20 CD, or DVD is a PITA, and they're usually stuffed into aisles so small that more than a dozen customers makes browsing cramped and uncomfortable with barely enough room 3 people at a time in each aisle.
Twice I visited our local shopping centre over Christmas, twice I went to have a look in HMV for some music and DVD's for prezzies and twice I got as far as the door, looked at the heaving masses squeezed inside and f**ked it off.

They're making all the same mistakes Woolworths made, unless someone gives the whole business a kick up the a*se from the ground up, it would be no surprise to see them disappear completely within the next year or two.

[Liamh1982]

Never got their pricing - you can find bargains but never in the games section.

[Joey]

As said already, not so good for new releases but brilliant for bargains.

One of the only shops in Leicester i regularly go in. Also they put new game releases on their pods days before release.

[Fred83]

Have to agree with rest,the internet has let it get hit hard in competition stakes.

[felgekarp]

When i last went into HMV the prices were ridiculous, way overpriced for brand new items. They do have some bargains for older dvds or music but i'm still happy getting most of my stuff from Amazon or Play.

Their new releases can be very expensive. Almost to the point of . I do buy from there a fair bit, but only offers because they do have some beauties.

I've often found that they have a lot of stuff cheaper on their own website than they do in store, I used to check the new dvd releases at the start of the week and if there was anything I fancied I'd nip into one on the way home from work, most of the stuff I wanted was 2 or 3 quid dearer in the shop.

[Sir Hilary Bray]

Saw Quantum of Solace for £25 on Blu Ray last time I went in, and the Rocky collection for £80, while it can be purchased for £35 online.


Good ridance if they do go bust.

[dste]

At the end of the day they haven't adapted to the way things are with buying online so only have themselves to blame.

As people have already mentioned, they are cramped, have limited stock, are over-priced and pretty much everything they sell can be purchased online for a lot cheaper. Even when they moved into the second hand market for games they whacked ridiculously high prices on all of the stuff. A couple of weeks ago I popped into the one in Newcastle for the first time in seven months and the majority of the second hand games I could pick up a lot cheaper new online.

I do feel sorry for the staff who are going to get binned but that's all, the higher-ups who set the pricing can sod off.

Also just to clarify it's going to be 40 HMV stores closing and 20 Waterstones stores.

[Megamixer]

Never got their pricing - you can find bargains but never in the games section.

I find it strange when I often find identical games with wildly different prices on them. It's not one-off incidents but a common thing. I picked up AVP on PS3 for example and one was £50 while the other copy was £15. Seen this a lot on CD's as well.

Not to mention HMV haven't really looked at their floorplan or shop design in years. All the one's I've visited are badly laid out, the shelf space outside current chart stuff is pretty haphazardly chucked together, looking for anything thats not a current top 20 CD, or DVD is a PITA, and they're usually stuffed into aisles so small that more than a dozen customers makes browsing cramped and uncomfortable with barely enough room 3 people at a time in each aisle.
Twice I visited our local shopping centre over Christmas, twice I went to have a look in HMV for some music and DVD's for prezzies and twice I got as far as the door, looked at the heaving masses squeezed inside and f**ked it off.

They're making all the same mistakes Woolworths made, unless someone gives the whole business a kick up the a*se from the ground up, it would be no surprise to see them disappear completely within the next year or two.

Yeah. The eardrum-shattering volume of music can be irritating too sometimes. The location of some items is also bizarre. The horror films in my local branch for example, are kept separate at the back of the store near the kids/Disney stuff.

[Fred83]

this closure disease is spreading to other factors,instance many video stores are closing,many blaming illegal downloading on the internet,i think that is debatable,considering many online rental stores available now.

[JetSetWilly]

As others have said, it's their own fault. Since Zavvi closed their high street stores, HMV have had a monopoly on entertainment (supermarkets not withstanding) ever since. I went in there at least few five months ago, and they had Ghostbusters II for £3. Bargain. Went in a few weeks later, they'd put the price up to £20. What made it funny, was that the same copy is still there as I had a look a week ago! And they wonder why people are looking online for bargains. Plus, our HMV is about as well stocked as Kate Moss' bra. The only KISS cd they have is KISS Gold, and that's at £25 for a reissue with a smaller case. They had a Level 42 boxset in there before Christmas for £25 (quite cheap actually), plus about 9 copies of the best of. Now? Bugger all Level 42 at all. If they did get the set back in, it'll probably go up to about £35.

Saying that, some online prices are quite expensive. The Eddie Murphy boxset (9 discs, I think) is £9.99 brand new on Play.com. HMV have it for £35.99

[FatTrucker]

this closure disease is spreading to other factors,instance many video stores are closing,many blaming illegal downloading on the internet,i think that is debatable,considering many online rental stores available now.

Again they're failing to adapt to the market. With the massive number of available TV channels now offering an abundance of films of every genre and type daily, added to 'Box office' style services on Satellite and cable services allowing you to rent newer films at video store prices at the touch of a button, along with various online portals, people just don't have a need to go to rent DVD's from a shop anymore. When most of their older titles can be bought on DVD for the same cost as renting a DVD, and most of their newer titles are available to rent from more immediate and convenient platforms, you would think they might look at new ways of offering content, subscription based streaming, mail order, 'club' benefits, tie in deals with local cinemas etc. But either they haven't got the will or the money to put the necessary infrastructure in place or they're just not interested in making their business relevant in todays market.

[ZeroCipher]

To be fair to HMV (I worked for them until last year) the pricing generally isnt up to them unless they strike deals to drop things into sales or the cost price is low.

One example: We had the star wars films in the 2 for £10 deal but as they sold through we got the back catalogue copy come in at £20 retail with a cost price of about £14 as apposed to the £2.50 for the sale ones and no difference in the copies.

Not many stores carry the vast back catalogue stock and if you have time to look through the stock you will find some bargins, you go into tescos you'll get your chart stuff and cheap compilation packages and thats about it.

Also HMV have expanded alot stock wise over the past year or so with technology & clothing so making a loss was almost inevitable I think and I said it at the time.

The supermarkets generally run at a loss on the big titles and rely on other products being bought on an impulse where as HMV thats what they sell.

On the gaming front the HMV reward card is pretty good too some good gaming stuff can be gotten (Inc a subscription to our very own RG), also their repair and replace warrenty has been a good thing too. For £1 you can put a years warrenty on any game purchased (apart from DS and PSP) so if you scratch the disc or your console rims it you can either have it repaired in store or if that didnt work you have it replaced.

As for comparisons online you cant beat online especially if the company is based in the tax free areas of the world including HMV.com

I know this comes across very kissy kissy towards HMV but its just to balance the arguement, I was the Stock Room supervisor of the store so I processed everything that was on the shelves of my store.

[delbert_trout]

They don't half take the p*ss in our main shopping centre, where for a while now they've had a total monopoly since Virgin and then Zavvi in the premises opposite fell by the wayside and so they clearly just think they can charge what they want. I've also lost count of the number of times I've seen two of the same item with totally different prices in there.

[sscott]

High Street stores have underestimated the way many people now shop, inevitable really, what about WHSmiths....

[jdanddiet]

My dad buys stuff on line now, i think that's part of the problem, the older generation have embraced internet shopping. Also the supermarkets are a major factor.