HMV... General non-scientific straw poll as another retailer struggles..

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

So HMV is back on the skids again after a re-vamp a few years back...

Was just wondering how many on here still use physical media for music & film?

Over the past six months have you....

Been in an HMV Store?

Bought any CD, DVD, Blu-Ray etc.. From a physical HMV store?

Bought any CD, DVD, Blu-Ray etc.. From an  on-line retailer?

Downloaded Music / Film from online outlet?

Deke probably won't answer any of this as he is still buying Sheet-Music and looking into progressing up to getting a Gramophone... !  :innocent

Guinness

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Forgot to say...

We still have some of our fave films on DVD/Blue-Ray...

And have purchased a couple of Blu-Rays from HMV a while back that were on an offer..

And I do occasionally have a browse through HMV if up at our local shopping centre..

checking for any of those 2 for £10 CD's..

Especially some of the double or triple best of compilations...

Or those mini sets of 3, 5 or more classic albums by an artist...

But certainly getting less frequent over recent years..

:C  

 

[kerching]

Our music is either downloads or old CDs to play in the car

mind you I do have my BFO IPod Classic linked to mine and it's got enough music on it to see me out

 

[NozSpark]

I was in the Liverpool store, with my daughter, the other day and TBH it looked busy enough.... she bought a CD but I didn't buy anything,,,, there's far too much choice for my brain to take in. I usually just listen to the radio

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Our music is either downloads or old CDs to play in the car

Car CD players...

or lack of them is the other significant contributing factor IMHO...

Roll back 4 or 5 years +   and I would frequently buy a "best of" CD..

or a duplicate CD copy of an old album I still have on vinyl...

as it was the easiest least time consuming method to listen in the car..

But now our current car doesn't have a CD player....

Just a DAB radio and two USB ports that can play either my phone music or just some albums I have copied onto a flash drive...

Now if I have a CD, I need to rip it onto a PC, to then copy it to phone or USB stick to play in car...

So its quicker to just digitally download in the first place!!

However....

I do remember many happy hours in my younger years browsing racks and racks of albums in various record stores..

AND just stumbling across a record I may not have intended to buy,

but was lured in by some great sleeve graphics.....!

HMV still had a good selection of all music styles for a nice browsing session....

Which is always better browsing with physical items...

Rather than trying to browse digitally....

On-Line digital searches are great for locating a specific item....

But rubbish for browsing when you are not 100% sure what you are looking for..

Plus HMV's rates and overheads make most of their stock too expensive compared to the Amazons of this world.

Guinness  

 

[Zeespark]

Its much like the likes of Blockbuster Video, the platform that they had has been usurped by the net.

Andy  Guinness

 

[roys]

I still like a CD and usually put a couple on my Christmas pressie list, usually play CDs in the house but also copy them onto the computer so I can put them onto an old iPod to play in the car.

My wife on the other hand prefers to use Spotify, don't like the concept myself but each to their own.

 

[ProDave]

There is a huge generation gap.

I like to listen to music on a decent hifi system through a decent pair of speakers. Mostly from CD or if the radio I choose a station without adverts.

My daughter listens to "music" on her phone through some free streaming service that throws frequent adverts at her in  between the music.  I doubt she is aware that the audio spectrum extends lower than 500 Hz.

 

[NozSpark]

We also have a couple of Amazon Echo's in the house so there's absolutely no need for us to even have a stereo any more.... we just say "Alexa play........." and she does

 

[phil d]

We also have a couple of Amazon Echo's in the house so there's absolutely no need for us to even have a stereo any more.... we just say "Alexa play........." and she does

Bah, overpriced rubbish! I have a Shirley, and it's much better and I had it before the Alexa was even thought of, I just say "Shirley, put a dvd on", and it happens, "Shirley, I fancy a beer" and within minutes a cold Guinness appears in front of me, I can thoroughly recommend one, I've had mine for almost 20 years and it's never let me down, lol

 

[Blue Duck]

Not surprised in the least, tbh I thought they were gone for good anyhow.

Brutal fact is that this business model doesn't work anymore.

You can't expect some one to think of a CD they might like, then jump in the car & drive a couple of miles into town, find somewhere to park & then work out how to pay to park, then actually use your legs to walk to the shop find the album then pay 2x more than you would have done if you did it in a couple of clicks on a screen.

It's only specialists (record shops) that survive on this model, no point In opening a shop to sell any old lettuced that can be bought from Amazon cheaper. 

Expect more retailers to go bust in the next few months, it's sad but the way of the future.

 

[Geoff1946]

You can't expect some one to think of a CD they might like, then jump in the car & drive a couple of miles into town, find somewhere to park & then work out how to pay to park, then actually use your legs to walk to the shop find the album then pay 2x more than you would have done if you did it in a couple of clicks on a screen.

It's only specialists (record shops) that survive on this model, no point In opening a shop to sell any old lettuced that can be bought from Amazon cheaper. 

I think you have summed up the high street situation perfectly there. All the talk by councils of preserving the concept, (whilst at the same time raising business rents and car parking charges), is just so much hot air.

 

[ProDave]

Imho a lot of shops on the high street deserve to die.

Some will know we are building a new house.  Earlier in the year we went off to town to shop for kitchen appliances.  On our shopping list was a Fridge / Freezer, A built in oven and matching built in microwave. A built in dishwasher. An island cooker hood, and a gas hob.

We went to the one and only white goods shop left in town, Curry's / pc world.  Being the only shop in town, you would think they were in a fantastic position to have a good stock, helpful staff and be able to offer us a good package for all our stuff.

I have not seen such a tatty run down showroom for a long time.  They did not have all the applaices we wanted, let alone several makes to choose from, e.g no built in microwaves, no island cooker hoods, no gas hobs.  The FF we had seen previously that we liked we noted was now on "sale" for £50 MORE than it was marked as normal price 4 weeks ago.  A discussion with the manager and they would not budge.

So we left in disgust.  Bought the FF for £100 less from AO.COM including delivery.  All the other white goods came from Howdens with the rest of the kitchen.  It was just a shame we had to choose the appliances from a cataloge rather than seeing them in the flesh in a showroom.

If that is the best that Curry's can muster when they are the only white goods shop left in town, then they deserve to go to the wall, the sooner the better.

For things like that, I would far rather see the stuff I am buying in the flesh, but if a shop cannot even offer that function, then it has no purpose any more.

 

[Geoff1946]

Bah, overpriced rubbish! I have a Shirley, and it's much better and I had it before the Alexa was even thought of, I just say "Shirley, put a dvd on", and it happens, "Shirley, I fancy a beer" and within minutes a cold Guinness appears in front of me, I can thoroughly recommend one, I've had mine for almost 20 years and it's never let me down, lol

Running costs can be quite high with that type!

 

[NozSpark]

Running costs can be quite high with that type!

And upgrading to a newer/sleeker model costs an absolute fortune

 

[Evans Electric]

You won't get this stuff on Amazon  or HMV !    Morris has been called up yonder  but the legend lives on . 

 

[Evans Electric]

As others have said ,  although it can be sad , time & technology  marches on .

Reading Prodave's post .. I find the staff in our Dixons  unfriendly and certainly ageist .

 Blockbusters  was a prime example .  Suddenly popular to rent the latest films on VHS ...then the  purchase price dropped so people bought the film...then VHS was replaced by DVD , also affordable  ...so endeth the Film rentals on the High Street .   Now you can get every film ever made  on  a chip the size of a dust mote .  

And with greedy councils & landlords jacking up rents , those big stores  must cost mega money compared to online warehousing  manned at low labour costs  & delivered for 50p.     

 

[Evans Electric]

Just a DAB radio and two USB ports that can play either my phone music or just some albums I have copied onto a flash drive...

Now if I have a CD, I need to rip it onto a PC, to then copy it to phone or USB stick to play in car...

So its quicker to just digitally download in the first place!!

May I remind the Honourable Gentleman that only English is to be spoken on here . 

 

[kerching]

We wanted a small freezer for the utility room

went to PC World/comet/currys whatever it was called that week

saw the one we wanted.....priced at say £149

asked the sales monkey for one

not in stock

not kept in stock

has to be ordered

OK then order me one and I'll pick it up tomorrow

Sorry Sir, cannot do that . It has to be delivered and that costs another £24.99

Well, matey boy, get it delivered here and I'll collect it. Sorry, cannot do that! They can only be delivered

I then explained to him that in that case it was not £149 it was in fact £173.99.  As there was no way anyone got to own one for £149, and THEN it got a bit messy/nasty

 

[Blue Duck]

More ranting....

There are quite a few of these shops that deserve a grizzly end, with MD's jumping from the highest of ivory towers into a job in politics or  to be the manager of a Tesco express.

Useless councils again, with a lack of wisdom and foresight destroy the very foundations of British society - the shop keeper.

Most of these places are sunken into the ground by bad debt and over financing from dodgy hedge fund managers. Evans cycles was jus bought out by halfrauds as they couldn't turn a profit despite the world being cycling mad at the moment.

Terrible shop.

Lastly... "the company is in a terrible state, so much bad debt. but it's okay because they can get a top team of auditors in to give a clean bill of health, worked for carillion, right? "

Edit:

Wierdly HMV & Carillon have them same auditors.