HMV Finally closing down for good?
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Soldato
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They announced that they're making a lot of changes. They're going to stop printing the physical catalogue, I think they are cutting back their branch numbers as well. The other thing to think about with Argos is that the also own Homebase.
Only time will tell if this is panic or sensible adjustments for a changing marketplace.
Who cares, obviously nobody goes to them any more anyway. The last time I went to a high-street to do shopping was when I was a fat fatty and wanted a Big Mac, some 4 years ago.
Pretty sure 20 years ago people were all moaning about the independently owned shops being sold to big brands like HMV and Jessops.
Capitalism is self-correcting, what goes around comes around, no business that requires constant growth will last forever.
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![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
Thats fairly short-sighted.
Except they do - as any visit to the high street will tell you. They are busy and people do visit. The problems are far more complex than just 'well obviously nobody goes there'.
I think Argos will remain.
They sell a huge range of products and are easy for when you might need something and can instantly check whether they have it online. People have also loved their returns policy for donkeys years.
You also have to remember that while many will say you can get everything from Supermarkets, that only really applies to Superstore Supermarkets, which are usually out of town.
Where I live for example, there is Waitrose, Morissons, Sainsburys and Tesco, but none of them really carry the same kind of range that Argos do.
HMV's website is bombing hard now, cant even get into see the order I made for my iPod nano. £125 in vouchers looks gone now
I wouldn't be waiting to spend ANY vouchers these days.
Soldato
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Went into HMV on saturday, bought £10 on one CD but that was it.
I notice that Martin Lewis, the MoneySavingExpert guy is tweeting about how stores are still taking vouchers tonight. So if you have vouchers to spend and can get to a store which has very late opening, might be best to do so tonight.
[TW]Fox;23559234 said:
No actually it's not. I think it's rather more short-sighted to assume big chain stores closing is the death of the high-street. I know for a fact the busiest day in my local high-street is when the market stalls are open, I wonder why that is? People use their high-streets and will continue to, however stores that are redundant or suicidal can get to **** tbh!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21021073
Deloitte expected to be announced later as the administrator. Bad times, hope they work something sustainable out.
Deloitte expected to be announced later as the administrator. Bad times, hope they work something sustainable out.
The stores are not 'redundant' they just find it very difficult to be profitable in a market full of excessive lease costs, high fixed costs and increasing competition from online retailers who themselves make zero profit because they sell at levels whereby they cannot hope to cover costs let alone make decent money and are unsustainable.
It's a race to the bottom.
Sounds pretty official to me:
Deloitte was being lined up to run the 239-store chain following a meeting of the HMV board on Monday evening, the BBC understands.
A formal announcement is expected later.
They have obviously been informed by plenty of sources from staff, to insiders and likely Deloitte themselves. They just haven't made an official statement to the press yet.
Shame really, I went in there today and picked up a DVD and CD cheaper than online. But I'm still amazed they've survived this long as they've always be typically a lot more expensive than anywhere else for anything I've wanted.
Although they are usually busy but then that could just be people trying to kill time or compare prices.
Although they are usually busy but then that could just be people trying to kill time or compare prices.
Probably true. Eventually supermarkets will control the entertainment industry on the streets, then they can pretty much dictate prices all they like as they will only have each other to compete with.
[TW]Fox;23559337 said:
If you can't make a profit then as a profit-making business you are redundant, that's a pretty simple idea to grasp. There's a small rock music store in Canterbury which makes no profit, however it's clearly not the intention of the owner to make a profit but rather give him something to do and get a satisfaction from providing a niche market to those who desire his goods so he's not redundant. As soon as a business becomes all about the money it becomes redundant if it doesn't make that money. HMV could easily have 10 profitable stores country wide but they grew too big, demanded too much and lost out to the internet.
But they can't over-inflate. Super-markets may be big, but they aren't in control of the country, if they do all resort to illegal price fixing it would be easy enough for the local butchers and greengrocers to start massively under-cutting them.
I honestly think the idea of a complete monopolisation of an area is a complete myth. Even when you look at the oligopoly of Guillette/Wilkinson Sword there are still clearly better and cheaper alternatives, it's just that the media and advertising would like you to think otherwise.