Been on the cards for a while. T'internet is king. Didn't spend my Christmas vouchers quickly enough but my inconvenience pales in comparison to those whose jobs will go. Whose next I wonder? (a prize to the first wag who says "they're a clothes shop" - prize is an H M V voucher btw).
Sad to see but it was always going to happen. I've not shopped in there myself for years, mainly due to most of the rock/metal CDs being over £15, and only £7 online. Was always nice to browse in though. Once the next gen of games consoles come out with mostly downloadable games I expect Game and Cex to disappear as well
Overpriced goods, premium site stores, bored, disengaged, shoe-gazing staff - same business model that brought Clinton Cards down and numerous others. Adapt or die... Amazon isn't a success just because it's internet based and just because it's huge, HMV has an internet presence too - it's because it works hard on its marketing, exploiting its customers buying trends to the full, but equally hard on its customer service, which is astounding - a lot of high street retailers unfortunately have lost the knack of both.
I've always found HMV to be an excellent high street store. Those tax dodging bastards Amazon should be pissed on by every worker in these isles. A pox on them and costa coffee, Paul Merton etc
Yeah him, Jimmy Carr and that fat boggled eyed one out of take that all are tax evaders. Scumbags. There is a list of celebs and stores that are raping this country, very soon your gonna be left with Tescos, Amazon, Costa Coffee and Barclays all staffed by non nationals with call centers in india.
OOOpps I meant Angus Deyton not Paul Merton. Apologies to Paul Merton who incidentally did not take apart Jimmy Saville as rumoured.
Ahh T, I had assumed that you weren't posting for a while because you had become an angry young man I see from the above that you have obviously calmed down a bit
I am just back from three weeks in Thailand visiting the international branch of the kids and wives. Went to a Buddhist Temple and tried yoga with the monks went ok until one of the clumsy buggers spilt my green tea all over my orange robes, I gave him what for I can tell you, and it is true some of them can do kung fu particularly the one that kicked my arse all over Koh Samui.
Really? My experience is the opposite actually. I think Amazon's customer service as a distributor leaves a lot to be desired. They had my money for 6 weeks (during which time I had moved all my stuff twice) before they bothered actually finding the book I'd ordered and sending it to me. All done through robotic emails. I think it's a lot easier to give 'good' customer service when you don't do any pre-sales and you do it all by email. I've done both face-to-face and online/phone sales and for what Amazon do, leaving aside the automatic emails, email and over the phone customer service is much much easier. That's even allowing for the fact that you only hear from people when they're unhappy. As a marketplace, though, Amazon is very good. Maybe I've misunderstood their business model and the distributors are actually just sections of Amazon. Anyway, I went into HMV on the way home today, and it's filled with all sorts of strange things. I couldn't work out who their market was. Who would buy a tablet from HMV?? A lot of books and clothing there too. With the rise of internet, I think they could have traded on their reputation, scaled back from the big shops and expensive locations and chart music, and offered a sort of old style record store with a brand name, bringing new music to the customer and allowed the customers travel to them. Plus a greater online presence. I think there will need to be a lot of thought on how to rework the high street. Is it where people of the future will live, or can retail still exist there? If shops can set up on the high street, it probably can't be at the current rents. I think there's something to be said for a rent that is mostly based on sales figures. It means that landlords need to do a lot more work to attract people into towns, and they would also need to think about how profitable their potential 'tenant' could actually be. Who next? I'm not sure how Game have survived so long, to be honest.
Amazon rules....................probably because it does not pay tax. Its hardly fair. (not that I'm a fan of hmv)
HMV is a bit like Steve Irwin really. I can't work out how this hasn't happened before. They'll exist online for the immediate future; cutting their estate and staff will go a long way.
Blockbuster on the way too. Considering I was surprised they still existed, I'm amazed they had almost as many employees as HMV
Next to go on the high street? My guess would be Thorntons. Sales down 9% in their shopfronts (although not in their in-store concessions) and half-price choccies everywhere. Disappear off the high street, reappear in Debenham's.
