HMV closes 63 UK stores, all Irish stores

[madeinbeats]

It's all well and good saying lower prices, but surely it isn't always feasible? There's larger overheads with running a retail store I'm sure, hence why the internet can manage to be cheaper. They're effectively undercut by the internet, the only tangible benefit I see of a retail store is having something then and there(slightly offset by a need to travel in some cases), which mostly for games doesn't bother me because I'd rather save the money, or I've got it preordered and might recieve it before street date, or in the case I find most applicable to shopto - I'll both get it cheaper AND have it within a day or two. I've ordered and had something from there in less than 24 hours. I just don't see what the high street can do to compete, except match the prices, but I imagine that isn't feasible.

 

No, you're right, all shops are effected. They have to pay, I don't know, business rates, commercial tax and rent on the shop? The high street would disappear altogether if it wasn't for pound shops and Iceland selling bags of bread coated turkey knuckles from Thailand for a quid. They need government tax breaks, or online retailers with no highstreet presence need taxing more.

[Guy]

Saved by the Bell is all on Netflix for anyone desperate to reunite with their childhood and not get fleeced like a chump in the process.

 

----

 

HMV will be fine... for now. I'm sure within the next few days they'll be granted some kind of lifeline to keep trading for another precarious year or two before plunging straight back into financial jeopardy.

 

GAME are probably in the same boat. We'll see this continue for as long as these chains continue to have a highstreet presence without a serious revision of their business strategies.

Edited January 15, 2013 by Guy

[Rummy]

No, you're right, all shops are effected. They have to pay, I don't know, business rates, commercial tax and rent on the shop? The high street would disappear altogether if it wasn't for pound shops and Iceland selling bags of bread coated turkey knuckles from Thailand for a quid. They need government tax breaks, or online retailers with no highstreet presence need taxing more.

 

Well, I'm not neccessarily saying I AGREE with the high streets, just wondering what would fix them. You're quite right, but I'd certainly much rather, as a consumer, that my cheaper internet sources aren't given more overheads that'll affect my prices :p Having said that though didn't someone mention in the thread about Play.com that the channel island tax break thingy that let them avoid paying some has now been stopped or something?

 

I think really all of this is a sign of the times and how the recession's having knock on effects everywhere.

[Cube]

What you do is to have incredible customer service. Very friendly staff who are very helpful - properly trained so that they can give advice.

[Magnus]

What you do is to have incredible customer service. Very friendly staff who are very helpful - properly trained so that they can give advice.

Man, imagine a staff trained by Serebii.

 

"Hahaha, I thought you said 'an Xbox 360, please' there for a second. But seriously, how many Wii Us do you want?"

[Lens of Truth]

It's a combo of the large overheads with (still) inflated pricing. For a start, the difference between running and paying rates on 230 sites vis Amazon's, what, 4 warehouses in the UK? It's huge.

 

Almost every time I'm in HMV though I see stock that's been lying there for years with crazy higher than RRP tags and random stuff like both series of Sherlock for £17 and then right next to it series 2 alone for £30. The same (already popular) items always languish in the perma-sales. It's like they wanted stock to rot.

 

What you do is to have incredible customer service. Very friendly staff who are very helpful - properly trained so that they can give advice.

To be fair to the staff at the main Liverpool branch they certainly are friendly. And they gave me my £20 Wii U deposit back without a fuss. Didn't know at the time they were in such schtuck!

[Agent Gibbs]

 

Almost every time I'm in HMV though I see stock that's been lying there for years with crazy higher than RRP tags and random stuff like both series of Sherlock for £17 and then right next to it series 2 alone for £30. The same (already popular) items always languish in the perma-sales. It's like they wanted stock to rot.

 

I got the Sons of Anarchy Season 1 + 2 box set from them for £20.....Season 1 on its own was £20, season 2 was £30........

[bryanee]

Hang the fuck on here, saved by the bell is available to buy on DVD? Well damn *googles*

[Guy]

Man, imagine a staff trained by Serebii.

 

"Hahaha, I thought you said 'an Xbox 360, please' there for a second. But seriously, how many Wii Us do you want?"

 

Serebii? More like Sere... wii!

 

I'll see myself out.

[dan-likes-trees]

Interesting stats from the Guardian: HMV makes up 27% of DVD and blu ray sales and 37% of CD sales. That's fucking loads! Just because internet-savvy people like ourselves aren't buying from there doesn't mean other people aren't. It was busy as hell every day this christmas but net sales were still down by about a third from last year, from what I saw on the store computers. I think the issue isn't just about Amazon etc taking away customers but also forcing high street stores to drop profit margins on everything they sell, which they can't really afford to do given store hire, deliveries, floor staff etc.

 

Also there's the entire issue of the Amazon tax avoidance - Amazon being a multinational corporation pay hardly any tax in the UK, which again contributes to high street / HMV being totally unable to challenge them on pricing.

 

Even if that isn't as big an issue now that the loophole is closed (as of only last year), the channel island thing loophole (avoids VAT charges) was part of what allowed Amazon to dominate the online market in the way it has.

 

Companies will learn that having a near monopoly on the high street doesn't mean you should resort to price gauging, that's what will happen.

 

People argue that it's the fault of the super markets and the internet, but people don't usually go to the high street to turn up their nose at everything and then go home and order it on the internet instead. If they're going to a high street, they're intending to buy stuff for the convenience of not having to wait on multiple factors such as dispatch, postage, missing postage, the hassle of handling returns etc.

 

But HMV got far too greedy with its margins. Although lowering them would mean less income on each product sold, as most successful businesses have shown, you actually earn more because people will see the money they have left over and go for multiple products.

 

Feel bad for the workers, yet more victims of terrible fucking business tactics.

 

It's all well and good saying lower prices, but surely it isn't always feasible? There's larger overheads with running a retail store I'm sure, hence why the internet can manage to be cheaper. They're effectively undercut by the internet, the only tangible benefit I see of a retail store is having something then and there(slightly offset by a need to travel in some cases), which mostly for games doesn't bother me because I'd rather save the money, or I've got it preordered and might recieve it before street date, or in the case I find most applicable to shopto - I'll both get it cheaper AND have it within a day or two. I've ordered and had something from there in less than 24 hours. I just don't see what the high street can do to compete, except match the prices, but I imagine that isn't feasible.

 

Very much with Rummy on this one. For one thing, prices have been lowered significantly in the past few years, and people do buy multiple things - the offers are really popular, genuinely good deals. (5 blu rays for £30 is a winner (20 with staff discount!)). It's not 'fucking terrible business tactics' it's that it's impossible to keep a high street store going when you're operating on minute profit margins, given the cost of staff / store hire etc. We're talking like 20p made on a DVD a lot of the time. HMV's been on the way out for ages, but there's not really any way they could realistically hope to rival online on pricing. Really if HMV failed it was a decade ago when they were way too slow to react to online and took years to get a decent website setup whilst amazon and play were building a great reputation.

 

Agree with what people are saying on here about the pricing inconsistencies though (Which is half due to not having the staff to update the pricing on items). Like Flink said a page back there are some great deals in the shop but then there are some utter shocking prices - DVD boxsets can be particularly guilty, bargin entire shows for like a tenner and then one series of something for about 50 quid.

 

Feel sorry for anyone who got a HMV voucher for christmas, which they're now not accepting. Pretty shitty, I temped at HMV at christmas and we sold tonnes of them.

[Jimbob]

I could use all my thanks in this thread right now. Seriously, a Serebii-trained HMV would be "different" thats for sure. Pokemon soundtracks, Pokemon movies and Pokemon games all on special offers.

 

Sorry dude, had to do it.

[Guy]

I could use all my thanks in this thread right now. Seriously, a Serebii-trained HMV would be "different" thats for sure. Pokemon soundtracks, Pokemon movies and Pokemon games all on special offers.

 

Sorry dude, had to do it.

 

This is a beautiful concept.

 

The Pokemon Center music would be blaring out on repeat. Not the funky new DS versions, but the tintastic GameBoy Red/Blue original ear haunts.

 

Everywhere you look, wild first gen Pokemon like Pidgey and Rattata would be lazing about, shitting all over the place.

 

Maybe instead of HMV it could be called HM01 and the slogan could be "WE'RE CUTTIN' PRICES ALL OVER THE REGION!"

Edited January 15, 2013 by Guy

[Jonnas]

Serebii? More like Sere... wii!

 

I'll see myself out.

 

Well, now he knows what to name his store!

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

If you ever decide to open one and need someone to work in the store, feel free to contact me. =P

 

I can see it now: The N-Europe Shop! :p

[Ashley]

As expected I couldn't use my Fopp vouchers. Hoping they manage to survive.

[Jimbob]

This is a beautiful concept.

 

The Pokemon Center music would be blaring out on repeat. Not the funky new DS versions, but the tintastic GameBoy Red/Blue original ear haunts.

 

Everywhere you look, wild first gen Pokemon like Pidgey and Rattata would be lazing about, shitting all over the place.

 

Maybe instead of HMV it could be called HM01 and the slogan could be "WE'RE CUTTIN' PRICES ALL OVER THE REGION!"

 

I've ran out of thanks, seriously. Everytime you make a purchase, the tune that plays when you heal your pokemon plays as well. Charizard running security with a few Charmanders as recruits, random Digletts appearing from the floor with items you asked for from the back.

[Ashley]

Aaaaaaaand the site is gone.

[Ike]

Hope the site comes back, use it a lot for ordering DVD/Blurays.

[Agent Gibbs]

This is a beautiful concept.

 

The Pokemon Center music would be blaring out on repeat. Not the funky new DS versions, but the tintastic GameBoy Red/Blue original ear haunts.

 

Everywhere you look, wild first gen Pokemon like Pidgey and Rattata would be lazing about, shitting all over the place.

 

Maybe instead of HMV it could be called HM01 and the slogan could be "WE'RE CUTTIN' PRICES ALL OVER THE REGION!"

 

Don't japan already have something like that? well its Japan they have everything

[Ramar]

Aaaaaaaand the site is gone.

 

I feel sorry for anyone who made an order today. The website was advertising the same blue cross sale as in store. Except loads of products had their prices increased..

[Jimbob]

Who knows, maybe HMV may be another saved brand like Clintons and GAME. Or maybe it will go a Woolworths and Comet and vanish. Wouldn't mind it staying for a few more years, even the directors and administrators are confident of a successive sale.

[Rummy]

Serebii needs to get on the indie shop business, with Guy as his PR/Marketing man! I'd shop there, if it were here! It would be cool if a place like that existed and offered something more for gamers too(which in the case of serebii I imagine could be a good pokemon hub or so?).

 

Generally speaking, independent stores may be something though. It's easier to have good customer service there too, and run more to what you're capable of for where you are, I guess. Retail employs people who don't know their shit, push all the corporate crap onto them and essentially it isn't efficient either; too many employees being paid without enough work to do, sometimes. An indie store can be small, have just the right amount of staff/adjust accordingly, have staff that are vested in the store/care about what they're doing etc and work quite well for the customer(assuming the market/demand is actually there too, though). Still...in the current climate I think the major first and foremost factor to consumers is cost, a good service might not matter enough to enough folks to make it viable.

[Hero-of-Time]

This is quality. Apologies if it's already been posted.

 

An angry grandfather walked out of a HMV store yesterday with three games after staff refused to accept his gift voucher.

 

Despite slipping into administration this week HMV stores continue to trade, but gift vouchers have been deemed worthless - angering many who received them at Christmas.

 

Eric Nolan, from Dublin, bought his grandson Cian a €40 HMV gift voucher for Christmas, but was told by staff in the Henry Street store it was worthless. Nolan had brought to the counter Euro Truck Simulator 2 (€22.40), The Sims 3 Town Life (€11.99) and Rail Simulator (€28).

 

At the till a 25 per cent discount was applied, reducing the total from €62.39 to €46.80. He then presented the voucher but was told it wasn't valid. So Eric simply took the games and walked out.

Security staff followed him down the street, according to the Irish Independent, but failed to prevent him making off with the goods. "Somebody has made a conscious decision not to pay out on vouchers and it's despicable," Mr. Nolan told the paper.

 

He intends to post the voucher and €6.80 to the store. "We are a nation of sheep - but I was determined to win this," he said. "HMV have taken hundreds of thousands of euro from the Irish people this Christmas and we shouldn't put up with it."

 

HMV is facing growing anger over its decision to refuse gift vouchers, and many customers believe the company should have stopped selling them in early December after warning investors of the coming crisis. Yesterday police were called to a HMV store in Oxford to sort out a dispute sparked when staff refused to accept vouchers from two customers.

 

Finance director Ian Kenyonn said the company was confident of its legal position, having checked with lawyers back in December. "We had a reasonable expectation [in the runup to Christmas] of addressing our issues with the banks," he said.

 

Administrator Deloitte insisted HMV would not accept gift cards and vouchers as long as it was in administration, but said any new buyer may honour them.

 

POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

[Cube]

Yay for breaking the law and openly admitting it!

[Hero-of-Time]

Yay for breaking the law and openly admitting it!

 

Too right.

 

Apparently HMV knew that there was a very strong possibility this was going to happen last November time, yet they continued to sell gift vouchers over the Christmas period, knowing full well that they may not be able to accept said vouchers after Christmas.