HMV bites the dust

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Caught me off guard, since it was the last game in town, at least in this town, for an extensive browse of CDs and DVDs on a shop shelf.

Have to take my full share of the responsibility, having shifted my business to Amazon and Sainsbury's for the sake of convenience in recent years. (Similarly the decline of small food shops, since I choose to use supermarkets.) Though I don't trust mail order for box sets (but may have to in future), preferring to choose my own undamaged items from an HMV shelf and making sure no discs are rattling around loose. (Returns of damaged items are easier with real shops too.)

On the downside, things weren't always easy to find in HMV, with half the stock being in random bargain sections and only half in the alphabetically organised bits, meaning you had to ask staff to see if they really didn't have something.

But such is the tide of the market. I shall continue to demand physical products and spurn downloads, but I don't think that was the main issue here.

It is sobering how a whole chain can go under at once, rather than individual outlets remaining open or closed depending on their own profitability. Hopefully parts of the business will find buyers and remain viable.

Staff must be in a bad way today - my thoughts are with them.

Must spend some time and money in Waterstone's this week to give them my support. Would miss the last big bookshop more than the last big DVD shop if it closed...

Martin

[Philip Ayres]

HMV have been a dead shop walking for a long long time.

They didn't respond well to the challenge of the Internet Marketplace and then the shift in their core business from physical media to downloads. Look on any DVD/CD forum and you'll find it's been expected for a while.

This thread on Roobarb's (which I think is public view) thought they were in trouble a year ago for example.

Interesting speculation that abolition of channel island vat relief may have harmed the internet side of their business bringing the whole thing down. Ironically HMV were believed to be one of the leading campaigners for this to be abolished thinking it would help their retail business by taking out their online rivals, as we saw last week with Play's departure from the retail sector. Surely a more apropriate response would have been to improve their own business?

[blueshift]

It's sad, but I'm really not surprised. HMV used to be great, but their prices started to skyrocket while everyone elses stayed low. Given that all their high street competition closed down, you would expect them to have made some real gains in a market they had the monopoly on, but instead they got greedy and priced themselves out of the market.

[legios]

The thing was that market was ceasing to exist. Effectively the market for buying music and CD's had migrated online - leaving HMV as a chain without a clear market to support it. Hence their movement into trying to become an consumer electronics chain - which doesn't seem to have helped much.

I did figure they weren't doing so well when I saw that just after Christmas my local HMV had started devoting a fair amount of shelf-space to second-hand CDs and DVDs.

Karl

[blueshift]

Jan 15, 2013 13:02:43 GMT legios said:

The thing was that market was ceasing to exist. Effectively the market for buying music and CD's had migrated online - leaving HMV as a chain without a clear market to support it. Hence their movement into trying to become an consumer electronics chain - which doesn't seem to have helped much.

I did figure they weren't doing so well when I saw that just after Christmas my local HMV had started devoting a fair amount of shelf-space to second-hand CDs and DVDs.

Karl

They had an online presence too! An exceedingly expensive one!

I'm not sure that the market doesn't exist anymore. There's plenty of people in city centres and HMV was always full when I was there. It's more that people never bought much because their prices were so high!

[Philip Ayres]

VERY interesting reading: www.philipbeeching.com/2012/08/why-companies-fail-rise-and-fall-of-hmv.html

[kayevcee]

It is. Thanks for linking that, Phil. A potent lesson on the dangers of hubris and complacency.

-Nick

[The Doctor]

Saw some HMV staff huddled together round their tills this morning looking utterly shell-shocked. Costumers were in but not buying anything. So sad on multiple levels. I do hope many of their jobs are saved what with the Government seemingly hell-bent on insisting unemployed people are scum. It's not the shop floor staff's fault.

-Ralph

[legios]

Indeed. My heart goes out to HMV's staff much as it did to those of Jessops. It is not pleasant to have the rug pulled out from under ones feet like that.

Karl

[Stomski]

edit: never discuss religion or politics.

I bought several things from HMV online - often they had competitive prices and exclusive add-ins for what I was shopping for.

[The Doctor]

Unfortunate placement of photo and caption:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21023610

-Ralph

[blueshift]

Which one? All looks fine to me!

[Philip Ayres]

The "HMV is having a miserable time" one. Look at the picture. I'd have just left the caption off

[blueshift]

Jan 16, 2013 18:47:55 GMT Philip Ayres said:

The "HMV is having a miserable time" one. Look at the picture. I'd have just left the caption off

I assume that is the joke, ie why they chose the caption!

[Andy Turnbull]

Rather in poor taste, given people's livelihoods are affected.

Andy

[Jim]

I went in the Oxford street branch yesterday evening after work to get a couple of CDs; it was kind of depressing, lots of people in but no queues at the counters, like people at a crash site. Really felt for the staff.

[Nigel]

I haven't bought anything in HMV for years, except perhaps for the odd sale item. I always found them more expensive than any other shop on the high street, let alone the internet. I'm not just talking about the last few years, either, I'm going back as far as when I was a teenager. Back then, the Cardiff branch, which I visited most often, was competing with Woolworths, WH Smith, Virgin, MVC, Game and Our Price; now, as Martin said, it's the last one, apart from WH Smith which has a decreasing selection.

[Andy Turnbull]

Well, HIlco, a restructuring firm look to have bought HMV's debt, so giving them control of it, so perhaps not entirely dead.

Andy

[legios]

Indeed - given that they are the lot who bought the Canadian arm of HMV a while back when it looked like it was going to crash and burn, and have kept it operating since there might be some hope for the chain.

Karl

[The Doctor]

I hope as many jobs are saved as possible.

-Ralph

[Shockprowl]

Indeed.

[Philip Ayres]

Some twitter airing of views: www.bleedingcool.com/2013/01/31/insurrection-in-the-hmv-twitter-feed/

[Andy Turnbull]

Well done to that person.

Andy

[The Doctor]

Indeed.

-Ralph

[Andy Turnbull]

Here are the stores that are being shut.

www.itv.com/news/story/2013-02-07/66-hmv-stores-set-to-close/

Funny, how the north and Scotland seem to be bearing the brunt of the store closures. Does Edinburgh, now actually even have an HMV anymore?

Andy

[legios]

I think that list accounts for all of the Edinburgh stores.

Not surprised to see the Falkirk store on there - last time I was in there they had consolidated the stock and were trying to make an entire row of display units look used by filling them with laminated posters turned onto their long sides. That'll be it for anywhere to by most DVDs in a bricks and mortar shop in Falkirk then. Wonder how the Waterstones at the Fort in Edinburgh will cope - although no longer the same chain they had been sharing a large unit out their with HMV, and I doubt they'll be able to sustain that by themselves.

Karl

[Benn]

And there goes the Burton-Upon-Trent store as well... That's not been open all that long either.

[The Doctor]

Yeah, that's all the Edinburger stores gone. Sad to see so many job losses. My heart does not weep, however, to see the Chief Exec get the chop.

-Ralph

[Deleted]

the HMV in Burton has been open for quite a number of years now. But I was not surprised to hear it's going to close, the whole town is going to pot.

I was surprised that HMV lasted as long as they did, a few years ago, all the rest died off, Our Price, Virgin, MVC, Music Zone, Zavvi. The only reason HMV kept going was it was pretty much the only one left.

[Benn]

And the fact they were helped out slighty by the big entertainment companies wanting to maintain a highstreet presence.

The whole buisness model was outdated, and I'm surprised that it's lasted as long as it has, even with a near monopoly.