HMV Finally closing down for good?

[Nevakonaza]

HMV for me has always been a wierd one,they hardly have any console games,No pc games,Lots of overpriced DVD/Blurays,They had a decent variety of Vinly players which was good as they have sorta come back aint they but other than that never went in there because could get things way cheaper elsewhere.

 

[Malevolence]

Managed to get in and spend the gift card I got at Christmas today. Had a good look around and the prices are insane. Little wonder they're going down the pan.

 

[SixTwoSix]

HMV china about to go into liquidation as well.

 

[Scort]

I have some fond memories of HMV - picking up a copy of F1 '97 on the Playstation, after cycling into town with a mate. It being the only place in Swindon to have a copy of Metropolis Street Racer, when I purchased a Dreamcast (plus lots of other games and accessories), during my lunch break at Woolworths as a teenager. And countless trips to the 'top floor' in the Swindon branch, in the late 90s early 00s to purchase numerous trance/dance CDs.

Over the years though, they have just become another store to browse, rather than the target destination to get things. The prices have been outrageous at times - often you found games/blurays to be a tenner more than other high street shops! Crazy, as you could literally walk out of the store, and a hundred yards later, would have the same item with a bonus saving. The last bargain I recall getting there, was AC Unity when the price bombed hard (albeit temporarily) and I got it for £15, when other places still wanted £35+ for it.

As a previous patron of the stores, I can say that the prices killed it for me personally - I appreciate that a physical store can never match online prices, but there's were so far off the mark; they became a joke at times - it was a bit like walking into Game and almost immediately uttering "HOW MUCH?!?" to yourself.

Sad for the people who might lose their jobs with this closure, but you really can't go pricing yourself out of competitive markets, as it will just drive all, but the avid die hard fans away.

 

[Fry750]

I think it's a real shame.

Their pricing is a little hit and miss. I went in there looking for a couple of blu-rays, saw the Indiana Jones collection but it was £20, where as it was just £11 elsewhere. That being said, 5 for £30 isn't bad or £7.50 for fairly recent releases isn't bad either.

I much prefer to rip my own content, whether it's film or music so HMV is great for that - yet for some reason their business model seems to revolve around speakers and clothing.

Over Xmas, the two HMVs nearest me (Hastings and Brighton) were packed, though it's not the case now. I'm a firm believer that England and the rest of the UK needs highstreets: HMV, Millets, CeX, Office, Robert Dyas etc etc. Unfortunately the margins on products will be negligible (hence many offering aftercare/insurances) and rents/rates will need to be hugely reduced.

In Hastings and St Leonards, there are more coffee shops, convenience shops and closed down shops than ever which looks and feels horrific.

Anyway, I wish more people would use the highstreets but the costs and aggro of getting into a town centre far outweigh the benefits. I hope HMV survive, GAME on the other hand deserve to go - I saw multipacks of Red Bull for sale for £12, WTF is that!?

 

[StriderX]

Lol, no the UK does not need high streets, it needs places to live and places to work, regardless of what that may entail, the city centre needs to evolve into something new, it really is time to start planning for a more interesting function for these streets, subsidising the likes of Mike Ashley is going to leave a very sour taste in everyone's mouths.

The Free market will prevail as it should.

 

[dowie]

Well if people don't want to shop at sports direct in future then you'll see that shop vanish too, that isn't something that needs to be micromanaged by anyone - it isn't doing lots of harm in the way that say bookies and their betting terminals perhaps are, shoppers can vote with their feet.

 

[StriderX]

High streets should really be civic areas filled with niche stores and restaurants with some protection from the rain, a lot of trees and maybe some high-flying flower baskets. I don't see how hard this is to achieve.

Maybe not so easy for smaller towns, but who cares, cities are the majority of the economy.

 

[dowie]

It isn't hard to achieve, it happens quite naturally in areas where there is sufficient demand for that stuff.

It isn't like there is a shortage of people out there who'd perhaps have some desire to give up the 9-5 and open up their own little coffee shop, restaurant, boutique etc..

 

[Arthur Hucksake]

When weed gets legalized after Brexit (because we are skint and need to) the high street will consist of coffee shop, Greggs, weed coffee shop, a pound shop, a pub.

All the same in a straight line. I counted like five vape shops in my local small town centre, and expect they'll have no issue switching over.

 

[FoxEye]

It isn't hard to achieve, it happens quite naturally in areas where there is sufficient demand for that stuff.

It isn't like there is a shortage of people out there who'd perhaps have some desire to give up the 9-5 and open up their own little coffee shop, restaurant, boutique etc..

Plenty of people want to but the insane rates to rent shop space make it utterly non-viable.

 

[dowie]

Plenty of people want to but the insane rates to rent shop space make it utterly non-viable.

Not necessarily, these places do exist after all. But that not everyone who has that dream is necessarily going to be able to successfully pull it off is sort of the point...

Point is they can and do exist where there is sufficient demand for them. It isn't necessarily something that needs to be forced though.

 

[FoxEye]

Not necessarily, these places do exist after all. But that not everyone who has that dream is necessarily going to be able to successfully pull it off is sort of the point...

Point is they can and do exist where there is sufficient demand for them. It isn't necessarily something that needs to be forced though.

Well case in point is a local shop near me that has changed hands every few months...

People just can't make a profitable business selling artisan/niche stuff when the rates they must pay assume they're raking it in like Amazon.

If you want niche and artisan, you have to have cheaply available shop space.

 

[dowie]

Well case in point is a local shop near me that has changed hands every few months...

People just can't make a profitable business selling artisan/niche stuff when the rates they must pay assume they're raking it in like Amazon.

If you want niche and artisan, you have to have cheaply available shop space.

Not necessarily, if that were the case then these things wouldn't exist in central London yet they still do.... in fact I suspect that some of these businesses wouldn't be very sustainable if they set up shop in a dirt cheap area.

Pointing out that plenty of people fail at this business is just further reinforcing the point I was making in the first place - namely that there is no shortage of people who'd like to have a go at starting that sort of business.

Just to clarify, I'm not saying that running one of these businesses is necessarily an easy thing - I was referring to the poster's comment about wanting to see a high streets that contains them - that (the high street made up like that) isn't hard to achieve where there is sufficient demand, it is the case already in plenty of nice areas and often happens organically.

I'm not sure that the average council estate resident is going spend enough on artisan bread to make some of these businesses viable in other areas.

 

[StriderX]

Not necessarily, if that were the case then these things wouldn't exist in central London yet they still do.... in fact I suspect that some of these businesses wouldn't be very sustainable if they set up shop in a dirt cheap area.

Pointing out that plenty of people fail at this business is just further reinforcing the point I was making in the first place - namely that there is no shortage of people who'd like to have a go at starting that sort of business.

Just to clarify, I'm not saying that running one of these businesses is necessarily an easy thing - I was referring to the poster's comment about wanting to see a high streets that contains them - that (the high street made up like that) isn't hard to achieve where there is sufficient demand, it is the case already in plenty of nice areas and often happens organically.

I'm not sure that the average council estate resident is going spend enough on artisan bread to make some of these businesses viable in other areas.

Which is why i stipulated that large enough populations need to be present to afford the niche, they obviously can't survive in smaller less dense areas, which simply cannot be saved.

Quite frankly this is an area where federalisation would help in my opinion, ignoring London as it's basically it's own mini-state, other areas really need large commercial planning abilities to stop out-of-town drag from cities and a fundamental shift in how council's receive funding, as it's clearly going to collapse at some point.

 

[FoxEye]

Not necessarily, if that were the case then these things wouldn't exist in central London yet they still do.... in fact I suspect that some of these businesses wouldn't be very sustainable if they set up shop in a dirt cheap area.

Pointing out that plenty of people fail at this business is just further reinforcing the point I was making in the first place - namely that there is no shortage of people who'd like to have a go at starting that sort of business.

Just to clarify, I'm not saying that running one of these businesses is necessarily an easy thing - I was referring to the poster's comment about wanting to see a high streets that contains them - that (the high street made up like that) isn't hard to achieve where there is sufficient demand, it is the case already in plenty of nice areas and often happens organically.

I'm not sure that the average council estate resident is going spend enough on artisan bread to make some of these businesses viable in other areas.

Well look at it another way.

Years ago the local corner shop was the norm. Yes, there were no out of town supermarkets to compete with. But clearly being a small, local shop - even in small towns and even villages - was sustainable.

Now small shops - esp niche/artisan - are struggling like never before. Haven't small business rates gone up somelike like 15% in the last year alone? There was some kind of "rebalancing" in the govt's algorithm which screwed a lot of people.

And lastly - I'd rather have any number of niche shops selling chocolate teapots then a highstreet made of Bet365, Estate Agents/Solicitors 'R' Us and British CEO Foundation charity shops. Which is all many places down here have been left with.

Sadly the solicitors,gambling shops and charity shops are like cockroaches. Hell if there's a nuclear war just head to one of these places. They will always survive and are impossible to get rid of

 

[dowie]

I'm not really sure what your point is tbh... I'd rather have a highstreet like that too, fortunately my local hight street(s) do have some nice cafes, independent places etc.. - it doesn't mean it is sustainable everywhere. Like I said there is no shortage of people who would be willing to set up businesses like that, you need to have sufficient demand for them to be sustainable.

 

[chrcoluk]

When was the last time anyone seen a HMV advert? especially tv.

Why didnt they look at the gaps in the online market because there is gaps, then specialise in those gaps and advertise the hell out of it so people knew.

 

[FoxEye]

I'm not really sure what your point is tbh... I'd rather have a highstreet like that too, fortunately my local hight street(s) do have some nice cafes, independent places etc.. - it doesn't mean it is sustainable everywhere. Like I said there is no shortage of people who would be willing to set up businesses like that, you need to have sufficient demand for them to be sustainable.

It's fairly simple.

The demand you need has to outweigh your costs.

The higher the costs, the more demand you need.

I can choose any figure for costs which will exceed any figure you choose for demand.

Again, the staggering churn in shop ownership down here suggests that yes, desire to set up a business is here. Also demand exists at some level for these shops. Yet the costs of operating prove too much for most.

You suspect that most people attempting it have some idea about the figures, but sadly the vast majority can't make it work.

That's the point you're not seeing.

 

[413x]

High streets should really be civic areas filled with niche stores and restaurants with some protection from the rain, a lot of trees and maybe some high-flying flower baskets. I don't see how hard this is to achieve.

Maybe not so easy for smaller towns, but who cares, cities are the majority of the economy.

Agreed.
Apart from jobs I think it would be great for high Street shops to die and in their place be activities and social hubs etc.

I don't really understand the love of retail shops. I guess its just nostalgia?

Only bad bit about death of brick and mortar retail is job losses