Soldato
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It’s a similar process to how video rental shops went from being a gold mine to being a relic of the past.
HMV Finally closing down for good?
- Thread starter Scania
- Start date
It’s a similar process to how video rental shops went from being a gold mine to being a relic of the past.
Caporegime
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Agree entirely. People who accuse the bosses of not adapting or evolving are idiots. It couldn’t possibly evolve to the point of being able to survive in a capacity that kept everyone’s jobs. The worlds changing and people will suffer and others will prosper.
I’m sure they did everything they could, but it’s like King **** trying to hold back the tide. It’s impossible.
There was no way to stop it.
Sure, hmv could have become amazon, but the net result will always be retail shops dying.
Everything is stacked against them
Peoples laziness
Expensive rent
Harder return process
Higher staff cost
Parking charges
Amazon and the like well swallow them all up.
I was surprised to see a pallet of gifts get delivered to my office which were employee Christmas deliveries.
19 of 20 were amazon
Sure, hmv could have become amazon, but the net result will always be retail shops dying.
Everything is stacked against them
Peoples laziness
Expensive rent
Harder return process
Higher staff cost
Parking charges
Amazon and the like well swallow them all up.
I was surprised to see a pallet of gifts get delivered to my office which were employee Christmas deliveries.
19 of 20 were amazon
The high street is doomed. It's sad and I'm part of the cause because I no longer shop there. I order pretty much everything online. But it's not my behaviour that's important. It's a struggle to get my kids to go into town now too. They are the future and they would rather order 5 things to be delivered, keep one and send the other four back, than come with me to a shop.
Back in 1999 I had an epiphany moment swimming in a pool in Thailand. Half of the hotel guests around me were on their (dumb) phones. I realised at that point that we were on the verge of a major shift in phone habits. This is similar. The younger generation are abandoning the high street and many of our generation are too. It's too late to save it.
Back in 1999 I had an epiphany moment swimming in a pool in Thailand. Half of the hotel guests around me were on their (dumb) phones. I realised at that point that we were on the verge of a major shift in phone habits. This is similar. The younger generation are abandoning the high street and many of our generation are too. It's too late to save it.
Is a no brainer.
Online is better in almost every way.
I live in a small town, just getting to the nearest city is a 30 minute each way trip from door to parking.
Then it's 5quid just to park. You probably won't find the stuff you want, if you need to take it back another round trip. It can't compete.
Online is better in almost every way.
I live in a small town, just getting to the nearest city is a 30 minute each way trip from door to parking.
Then it's 5quid just to park. You probably won't find the stuff you want, if you need to take it back another round trip. It can't compete.
Oh dear. I quite like HMV, I used to spend many an hour in their shops looking for purchases. It's been a while since i bought something from there though I did like their blu-ray offers. The disc purchases this year have been from a supermarket & a charity shop mainly because I've had nectar points to spend and the charity shop blu-ray purchase was a quid! New releases I don't buy anymore unless I really want them, infinity war & BR2049 were the last 2. Films I want to watch but I'm not in any rush to see I wait until they've been out a while, for example I watched antman & the wasp for 99p rental from google play last night, Im not bothered to see it again. Amazon prime is another source of streaming & those sources are more than enough for me as I'm not that bothered about 4k & Atmos. Modern music = meh & I'll buy a track off GP or Amazon if I like an older song. If everyone has my attitude to media these days. no wonder HMV is about to go the way of the dodo (again).
I liked their 5 for £30 bluray offer and every time I've needed something they have had it on the shelf.
Wonder when Mike Ashley is going to swoop in and buy the business for a quid?
The high street is kind of dead and so are shopping centres. I can see them turning into crime ridden wastelands in the future. There are so many cafes and restaurants now, but there's going to be a tipping point where they are not a big enough draw in themselves to attract people to city centres.
Wonder when Mike Ashley is going to swoop in and buy the business for a quid?
The high street is kind of dead and so are shopping centres. I can see them turning into crime ridden wastelands in the future. There are so many cafes and restaurants now, but there's going to be a tipping point where they are not a big enough draw in themselves to attract people to city centres.
Associate
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Community/City/Town centres are going to have to end up being social hubs or simply become ghost towns in the future, I cannot have a meal with friends online, I wouldn't do "virtual" bowling / pool etc online, yes I can stream a movie at home but I still love the experience of a cinema (pricing has to work though)
Clothes, electronics, media, jewellery etc are all things I don't want or need to buy in the high street.
Clothes, electronics, media, jewellery etc are all things I don't want or need to buy in the high street.
Our local town (Bromley) is already doing this. They have already poushed through two pretty large redevelopments of parts of the town centre including hundreds of homes (targeted at the young commuter demographic) along with restaurants and new cinema etc. There are several more phases of redevelopment planned with many hundreds more homes over the next few years. You can clearly see that they are paving the way for most of the current capacity of physical retail space to become restaurants, bars, cafes and other entertainment space right next to all these new homes when the physical shops all die.
Soldato
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Councils keep Jacking up the costs of said parking also, they just have no idea at all. Most of the time I simply refuse to go to town because of the parking costs. Waste of money.
It's managing directors/CEOs like that who should be blacklisted, clearly unfit/clueless at running a company.
I'd imagine companies going bust is a big career destroyer for anyone in the top position. Let's face it, if you were on the board of a company, you're certainly not going to consider someone who's just bankrupted a company.
Soldato
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Maybe a question for another thread but do people think this is a bad idea? Now I think of it San Diego was a little like this. Bars and food joints mixed with residential areas all in the cbd. I wondered where all the shops were and they were in out of town shopping complexes ....
That was 2 years ago and I still don’t know how I feel about it
Caporegime
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Home cinema and hifi still need to be bought in person. I will not blow several grand on a TV without seeing it. Same with sound. I think that's why Currys still have a chance. Furniture needs to be seen as well in most cases. Although I guess VR could do a lot of that.
Soldato
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HMV is an outdated model even against its competitors.
1) CDs / Music
For CDs, buy in HMV as is or from Amazon with the free digital audio rip version.
Price is almost irrelevant as on current music there is little in it but having the digital version is well worth it.
Plus Amazon's DRM is pretty relaxed so it's a no brainer.
There was no reason HMV couldn't offer digital downloads with hard copies as per Amazon.
Also tie in to a music streaming service.
Heck my last car didn't even have a CD player in it so streamed / usb only.
2) Films
Bar new releases, HMV is usually more expensive than other options including the supermarkets.
Often on legacy films esp kids animations and films HMV is 50%-100% more.
Same market scenario as Toys R Us blaming on line where they didn't even complete on price or service with the high street (TRU vs Smyths, Entertainer, Argos, Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys etc)
1) CDs / Music
For CDs, buy in HMV as is or from Amazon with the free digital audio rip version.
Price is almost irrelevant as on current music there is little in it but having the digital version is well worth it.
Plus Amazon's DRM is pretty relaxed so it's a no brainer.
There was no reason HMV couldn't offer digital downloads with hard copies as per Amazon.
Also tie in to a music streaming service.
Heck my last car didn't even have a CD player in it so streamed / usb only.
2) Films
Bar new releases, HMV is usually more expensive than other options including the supermarkets.
Often on legacy films esp kids animations and films HMV is 50%-100% more.
Same market scenario as Toys R Us blaming on line where they didn't even complete on price or service with the high street (TRU vs Smyths, Entertainer, Argos, Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys etc)
Home Cinema/HiFi stores are just where HMV was 10 years ago. Soon online will catch up to the retailers, they'll increasingly suffer from window shoppers who use them purely as a try before buy service, who then jump online to save 20%. They'll get sucked into a downward spiral eventually where they simply can't afford to pay for a physical retail presence and remain competitive. The small hardcore of people who really care about the products versus people just looking for MEGA HD 1000" for peanuts won't be enough to keep them afloat.
I've been essentially been doing that for the past 10-15 years.
hardly a surprise, went to hmv to buy a bluetooth speaker as a gift for someone, marked as 70 down from 99 afaik. could be had online from various etailers for 50 to 60 quid.....
seems most the dvds in hmv are cheaper versions and not standard since a lot i looked at werent multi language with audio tracks only in english in rubbish looking boxes
did see a few with weird language combinations though, english, russian, hindi etc.... was looking for english and german language found about 3 dvds out of about 30 kids dvds I looked at.
woukd have expected standard eu format dvds to have english and german, in switzerland they all seem to have english , german and french
seems most the dvds in hmv are cheaper versions and not standard since a lot i looked at werent multi language with audio tracks only in english in rubbish looking boxes
did see a few with weird language combinations though, english, russian, hindi etc.... was looking for english and german language found about 3 dvds out of about 30 kids dvds I looked at.
woukd have expected standard eu format dvds to have english and german, in switzerland they all seem to have english , german and french