HMV Finally closing down for good?

gizmoy2k said:
Good on the people who still want the physical product, but there clearly aren't enough of you buying it from places like HMV anymore.
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Why would they though?

RAINFOREST
+ Cheaper
+ Delivered right to your door for free
- Takes 1-3days to arrive

HMV/HIGH STREET
+ Can get it straight away
- More expensive
- Parking costs
- Petrol costs
- If you don't have a car you have outrageous public transport costs

High street stores have been doomed for a while, they just cannot compete with an online etailer and with the economy in the gutter and inflation rising people will shop where it's cheapest.
 
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In the mid 90's growing up in the depths of the Welsh countryside, if you wanted something non-chart based, a 70 mile round trip would be needed to visit the nearest Our Price; but not always finding what you wanted

Further trips might be necessary to find that semi elusive album or VHS, so a 140 mile round trip to Birmingham HMV might have been in order

It was on these trips I would discover strange things such as laserdiscs or Neo Geo games - of course I couldn't afford it being in my teens, but was certainly interesting

Anyone remember MVC? I used to go there as well

When I went to Paris in 1996 I visited the Virgin Megastore on the Champs Elysees and they sold a massive range of products.

Similarly HMV on Oxford street in London always seemed like a Mecca

It was vaguely exciting travelling all that way to finally find the CD you wanted

But then in the late 90s, with likes of play (sure it was play247.com back then) amazon and the like I could have anything I wanted delivered - including region 1 DVDs. Being able to watch films still in the cinema in the UK, or not even released yet was fantastic, Blair Witch Project springs to mind

After this, I rarely used HMV, Virgin etc.. again

Why travel such a long distance to potentially not get what I want, when I know I had can have it next day

When I moved to Sheffield in 2002 I used to visit Fopp as they always had interesting bits at decent prices - whilst HMV still had high prices - £16 for a CD? Shame Fopp closed down really

Now with the advent of decent/fast Internet (if you're lucky to have it that is) you can download then listen or watch practically anything you want to within minutes. The thrill of the chase is gone; does this matter? not sure...

I buy a lot of music on vinyl, so I still visit "real" record shops hunting for that elusive 7" disc

This is fairly rambling and I'm not sure what I'm trying to say really, mostly just nostalgia!

I'll miss HMV in a way, but considering I've not spent any money in there since about 2006, it's not surprising it's probably going
 
mmj_uk said:
Why would they though?

RAINFOREST
+ Cheaper
+ Delivered right to your door for free
- Takes 1-3days to arrive

HMV/HIGH STREET
+ Can get it straight away
- More expensive
- Parking costs
- Petrol costs
- If you don't have a car you have outrageous public transport costs

High street stores have been doomed for a while, they just cannot compete with an online etailer and with the economy in the gutter and inflation rising people will shop where it's cheapest.
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More significantly, Amazon are starting to roll out same day delivery in the US. Or trialling it at least. Google I believe are trying something similar after they realised that now a days plenty of people don't even try and do price comparisons on Google, and just go straight to Amazon. Not sure if they're planning on rolling it out to the UK, but I can't see why they wouldn't in the long run. Same day delivery would be even more harmful.

kd
 
HMV seemed to think they're were somehow exclusive and every time I went in to a store their products were full RRP.

They were good for browsing and nothing more in their latter years.
 
Presumably once they have driven everyone else out of business, Part 2 of the Amazon business plan is to raise all the prices so they can actually have a go at making some money? :D
 
From a consumer point of view I hardly ever shopped at HMV but I would be very sad to see Fopp (owned by HMV) to go under. They have a great and in the majority of their shops very profitable business model that works for both consumer and business. I have spent lots of time and money in Fopp and hope I can in the future too!
 
[TW]Fox;23571483 said:
Presumably once they have driven everyone else out of business, Part 2 of the Amazon business plan is to raise all the prices so they can actually have a go at making some money? :D
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wouldnt surprise me as there chief exec claims in the long run amazon will make a huge profit.

if they do someone will just start opening on the high street again. as long as business rates and rents have been sorted out from there current insane level's.
 
GAC said:
wouldnt surprise me as there chief exec claims in the long run amazon will make a huge profit.

if they do someone will just start opening on the high street again. as long as business rates and rents have been sorted out from there current insane level's.
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Business rates will never come down in city centres, they will just push up the rates on out of town shopping centres / warehousing districts to match.
Or worse bring in some sort of postal tax.
 
LizardKing said:
Business rates will never come down in city centres, they will just push up the rates on out of town shopping centres / warehousing districts to match.
Or worse bring in some sort of postal tax.
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well for small towns they will have to go the other way or have no high street traders left. if they do ramp them up i can see a lot of mp's getting some very public dressing downs and abuse hurled at them for not listening to anyone.
 
BombayMix said:
- But you not in when it gets delivered, so you have to go to the depot and drive past all the shops you could have bought it in!
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I've found the vast vast majority of stuff from Amazon, if its too big to go through a letter box, will be left with a neighbour or somewhere safe.
 
Realistically commercial rents and business rates probably peaked in what 05-07? During the financial frenzy. (at least here in the north anyway) Most high streets are dead or dying, but have rents and rates fallen significantly? I doubt it. The mirror yesterday lambasted the tories - 'plan b or bust' it said but what can they do? Hire Mary Queen of shops? Maybe they could cut the national minimum wage in half along with rateable values, but I doubt that would go down well with many.
 
[TW]Fox;23571483 said:
Presumably once they have driven everyone else out of business, Part 2 of the Amazon business plan is to raise all the prices so they can actually have a go at making some money? :D
Click to expand...

They may not be making a profit but there setting the groundwork for the future in what their buying and investing R+D on.

which is probably more than HMV did in its entire lifetime.
 
player said:
Realistically commercial rents and business rates probably peaked in what 05-07? During the financial frenzy. (at least here in the north anyway) Most high streets are dead or dying, but have rents and rates fallen significantly? I doubt it. The mirror yesterday lambasted the tories - 'plan b or bust' it said but what can they do? Hire Mary Queen of shops? Maybe they could cut the national minimum wage in half along with rateable values, but I doubt that would go down well with many.
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rents and rates have gone up since then, at least around here anyways. the gov has gotten a freeze on them this year but a freeze on rates that are too high wont help anyone really.
 
Here is an idea

Ubuntu is open source and is free software. Now Ubuntu has a way that users can develop, add and take away and tweak to make it better for others. Not only this but you can donate to Ubuntu if you indeed choose to.

So how do they make money? They make money through a company that has the name Ubuntu on it, that company provides support for people with the Ubuntu environment.

So where does Ubuntu come into this?

Well the Ubuntu or Open Source model comes into it. Could we have an Open Source business? A business that is run by music fans, musicians, artists etc and bands (unknown or known). That could rely on donations.....

And at the same time get money from a company that provides support for new artists, bands, musicians etc?
 
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