Author Topic: HMV going bust (Read 7974 times)

Adrock · **Reply #15 on:** January 15, 2013, 22:15:27 PM

Re: HMV going bust

Reply #15 on: January 15, 2013, 22:15:27 PM

There are probably a good amount of HMV stores that are making good profits. The problem with the chain business model is that keeping a presence in a large swathe of the country costs money. It means subsidising stores that are not as busy so they can have a wide coverage throughout and then have the air of a big brand.

The value of a big recognisable brand used to be very important when shopping, especially on the high street, but nowadays its all changing with the internet. Smaller retailers could be the people who benefit from the change in the high street.

A small store can easily adapt and change to make sure it stays profitable and doesn't have colossal infrastructure to upkeep. There are gonna be some very lucrative spaces open within local shopping centres by the big chains that have been dropping in recent years.

Theres still life in bricks and mortar shopping, John Lewis have been recently celebrating increased sales over the Christmas period.

zpyder · **Reply #16 on:** January 15, 2013, 23:05:38 PM

Re: HMV going bust

Reply #16 on: January 15, 2013, 23:05:38 PM

Quote from: Eggtastico on January 15, 2013, 18:16:51 PM

have you tried love film? its f**king sh*t.

Ok, maybe I should have been a little more broad. When I wrote that I was thinking streaming services in general. On the xbox we have access to lovefilm, skyplayer, iplayer, 4OD etc.Way better than having to go out and get a DVD, and much more convenient than being stuck with a TV schedule, Sky+ is great, but not quite the same.

Eggtastico · **Reply #17 on:** January 16, 2013, 07:26:04 AM

Re: HMV going bust

Reply #17 on: January 16, 2013, 07:26:04 AM

Quote from: zpyder on January 15, 2013, 23:05:38 PM

Quote from: Eggtastico on January 15, 2013, 18:16:51 PM
have you tried love film? its f**king sh*t.

Ok, maybe I should have been a little more broad. When I wrote that I was thinking streaming services in general. On the xbox we have access to lovefilm, skyplayer, iplayer, 4OD etc.Way better than having to go out and get a DVD, and much more convenient than being stuck with a TV schedule, Sky+ is great, but not quite the same.

get a proxy & try netflix america

neXus · **Reply #18 on:** January 16, 2013, 07:54:41 AM

Re: HMV going bust

Reply #18 on: January 16, 2013, 07:54:41 AM

Quote from: Clock'd 0Ne on January 15, 2013, 16:41:03 PM

I'm one of the rare few that seems to love both, I like having lossless FLAC copies of everything stored on my HDD for quick and easy access and I like being able to manage my games via Steam, but at the same time I love having a boxed version with artwork and booklets and a physical disc so there is always a backup that won't fail.

Forgetting about digital though, the three things that eventually put me off ever stepping foot in a bricks and mortar shop like HMV, Virgin, etc were laughable prices, poor attention paid to upcoming/preorders (its quicker to get stuff online on preorder, wtf?) and finally the fact that nothing was ever kept in good condition because as soon as it hits the shelf the general public gets their scrubby mitts on the stuff and it ends up on the floor, covered in scratches, marks, stickers and crud.

You can't compete with a pre-order arriving on your doorstep from Amazon cheaper, on the day of the release, well packaged and without even a fingerprint or crumpled corner on the box. You don't even have to leave your house.

I'm surprised any of the others can compete and I do wonder how long they have left. It makes you wonder what the high street will look like in another 10 years time. It seems like its going to be endless clothes shops, bookies, charity shops and coffee houses with the odd department store thrown in.

I can understand that but I think everything online, steam, itunes, netflix, the online stores to by dvd's etc at cheaper price then in the stores most with free shipping and next day....
To nice and convenient to be real bothered the stores close.

Clothing is a thing you think you need to be there and yes, you need to but..

My fiancee is a BIG clothes shopper, big, I done 7.5 hours in one day more then once, so she shops!
BUT she does a lot online now, sites like boohoo.com work well, work on ipads, have good images, info and even videos of girls walking down the catwalk wearing the outfit.
Good info, very easy, see what you want, know your size. Often not handled as much as they are in stores so do not have snags and damage as they do in the store... Pretty good.
Lots of things have not handled returns very well but its getting better.
Places will ship replacements to you with return packaging for the damaged item so you do not have to pay for it. And people Like Dell have an awesome service...

So in lots of areas online really is killing physical stores in most areas.

Clock'd 0Ne · **Reply #19 on:** January 16, 2013, 11:54:14 AM

Re: HMV going bust

Reply #19 on: January 16, 2013, 11:54:14 AM

I agree with you its good for some, but I've bought jeans and tees online and its been hit and miss though. Glossy product photos on some web model vs what you see in the store or when you try on the clothes can give a completely different appearance, the other problem is that the size you buy isn't always as a good a fit from store to store so you can't always tell how something will be without trying it on (especially footwear, I get stung every time on footwear). I'll still buy the odd thing online as I'm not a big clothes shopper anyway, but I do prefer browsing and trying things on in the flesh as it's something you have to live with and not just a disc in a box.

Rivkid · **Reply #20 on:** January 16, 2013, 15:13:23 PM

Re: HMV going bust

Reply #20 on: January 16, 2013, 15:13:23 PM

I don't think this whole 'death of the high street' is the disaster the press make it out to be. I never used the high street - because it was expensive, staff were generally low paid and under trained (hence useless - not their fault though) and stock was never as good as online for obvious reasons. I also hated that every high street looked the same....

The future however won't be dominated by Comet, Woolies, HMV etc.. because those services will be ruled by the net. This could potentially be a new golden age for the local business - niche quirky firms offering local goods, bespoke services, and things that the internet doesn't work for. You can already see it in my town - Woolies gone, HMV going, Virgin gone, loads of others - but suddenly we've got some great little independent places and they're doing really well. Its also led the town to have more quality food establishments and we've had new cafe's and restaurants opening that are awesome. They know they can't open crappy greasy spoons anymore because there isn't the volume of high street shoppers to pull in, so they have to work at doing something different and high quality and we've got some amazing places now as a result. I probably go into town more now than I have since I was at sixth form.

zpyder · **Reply #21 on:** January 16, 2013, 15:57:18 PM

Re: HMV going bust

Reply #21 on: January 16, 2013, 15:57:18 PM

I don't know whether some of the following is going off topic a little, but hey ho...

I'm curious what people think the high street will look like in the future. I kind of agree with Rivkid, that in the short term things are going to get more independant. Certainly my local town is seeing some nice little shops cropping up, as well as a number of charity shops. I kind of see the future of commerce short term being dominated by local services that the internet just can't cater for, or easily, so eating out, charity shops etc. I also see a lot of industry migrating to the digital world, so where currently retail employs a lot of people, in the future there will be less retail potentially, and those who would have been in retail might be creating digital media for consumption by the masses, or making products to sell locally, or through the internet (IE, etsy, folksy etc). I certainly think we've gone a little past mass produced things and now people are starting to look for hand crafted, more unique things to buy.

But that's short term. The internet may have made it easy to reach an international audience, and courier services may make it easier to serve that audience, but long term, I wonder whether even this will die back to just local businesses for local people, as the cost of transporting goods nationally and internationally makes it prohibitively expensive to do so?

I think I just read too many doom and gloom reports sometimes, but then they do seem to make a bit of sense...

Blade · **Reply #22 on:** January 16, 2013, 17:49:45 PM

Re: HMV going bust

Reply #22 on: January 16, 2013, 17:49:45 PM

Looks like Blockbuster has gone.....

Dave.

Clock'd 0Ne · **Reply #23 on:** January 16, 2013, 17:56:18 PM

Re: HMV going bust

Reply #23 on: January 16, 2013, 17:56:18 PM

Personally I'd like to see the future Rivkid has described, but we're not quite there yet. There are some things you will always need to or want to go out for, like a nice restaurant or the "niche quirky firms offering local goods, bespoke services". I'm quite happy to not see the death of clothes/shoe stores or dept stores though as I believe they still serve a good purpose. I used to always go to my local independant music shop because they would order stuff in specially for me, even stuff that would normally be very tricky to get hold of direct from the label, I've managed to blag some very limited pressings that way. The future for anyone on the high street is definitely to offer something that needs to be seen and is tangible or that is very custom or with a an attitude of service and customer experience first.

Rivkid · **Reply #24 on:** January 16, 2013, 19:59:25 PM

Re: HMV going bust

Reply #24 on: January 16, 2013, 19:59:25 PM

Quote from: Clock'd 0Ne on January 16, 2013, 17:56:18 PM

Personally I'd like to see the future Rivkid has described, but we're not quite there yet. There are some things you will always need to or want to go out for, like a nice restaurant or the "niche quirky firms offering local goods, bespoke services". I'm quite happy to not see the death of clothes/shoe stores or dept stores though as I believe they still serve a good purpose. I used to always go to my local independant music shop because they would order stuff in specially for me, even stuff that would normally be very tricky to get hold of direct from the label, I've managed to blag some very limited pressings that way. The future for anyone on the high street is definitely to offer something that needs to be seen and is tangible or that is very custom or with a an attitude of service and customer experience first.

TBF though it was stores like HMV that put those little indie's out of business. I'm hoping we might see the start to crop back up. I'm sure with some added value and maybe a little diversity they could work again.

Beanissocoollike · **Reply #25 on:** January 16, 2013, 20:45:42 PM

Re: HMV going bust

Reply #25 on: January 16, 2013, 20:45:42 PM

Although the fall of HMV and Jessops were inevitable with so many people going online, I have to say I'm a bit saddened by it. I'm probably one of the only 90's kids that can say they're nostalgic about the good old days of going into a shop to buy a book or a CD, I'm starting to detest online shopping. For starters buying clothes is so awkward, especially if you're female - every shop has a different size range, so whilst you could be a size 10 in one, you're a size 14 in others. If what you buy doesn't fit you can't even take it to a store, you have to pay to post it back, so you're losing out money-wise.

I also can't stand things like the Kindle. Don't get me wrong, I love my Nexus 7 but I will never, ever buy a book on there. I love books, and I love being able to have a whole bookcase full of them, it's like an accomplishment for me to have so many. I'd also go and pay a bit extra at Waterstones to on Amazon any day. The staff at Waterstones are always really helpful and friendly, and if they don't have a book they order in for me. Last time I tried to order a book from Amazon they tried to tell me my address doesn't exist or the courier was unable to access (I live with Clock'd, yet he never seems to have any trouble)

I also think it's because I'm so impatient. Honestly, I'm like Scott Pilgrim sitting by the door waiting for it to arrive as soon as I've ordered.

I hate what the high street has become now too. Any new shop in our town is either another charity store (they're closing down because of lack of donations!) or coffee shop. We have 3 costas within 5 minutes walking distance of each other; I estimate there to be at least 15 different coffee shops just on the main high street. And when Woolworths closed down it turned into a 99p store, with a Poundland round the corner.

zpyder · **Reply #26 on:** January 17, 2013, 08:49:30 AM

Re: HMV going bust

Reply #26 on: January 17, 2013, 08:49:30 AM

Quote from: Blade on January 16, 2013, 17:49:45 PM

Looks like Blockbuster has gone.....

Dave.

Wow, called it!

What's the deal with all these companies going bankrupt/into adminstration all around the same time? Is there some kind of financial year coming to a close which is a deadline for them that they can't meet? Or are they all doing it thinking safety in numbers, so as there's so many going bust there'll be less media attention on them specifically?

Adrock · **Reply #27 on:** January 17, 2013, 12:38:21 PM

Re: HMV going bust

Reply #27 on: January 17, 2013, 12:38:21 PM

Its just cumulative losses and the changing landscape of the retail market. Creditors and owners are not willing to plough money into something that clearly has some very long hard struggles ahead if it is to carry on trading.

I think for most of the recent companies their markets have changed dramatically over recent years and they haven't adapted.

Russell · **Reply #28 on:** January 17, 2013, 13:51:59 PM

Re: HMV going bust

Reply #28 on: January 17, 2013, 13:51:59 PM

Quote from: zpyder on January 17, 2013, 08:49:30 AM

Quote from: Blade on January 16, 2013, 17:49:45 PM
Looks like Blockbuster has gone.....

Dave.

Wow, called it!

What's the deal with all these companies going bankrupt/into adminstration all around the same time? Is there some kind of financial year coming to a close which is a deadline for them that they can't meet? Or are they all doing it thinking safety in numbers, so as there's so many going bust there'll be less media attention on them specifically?

It was said on a local radio station this morning that rents are due at the begining of the year so they've probably not had enough money to pay the rent on the stores so bye bye

knighty · **Reply #29 on:** January 17, 2013, 14:55:42 PM

Re: HMV going bust

Reply #29 on: January 17, 2013, 14:55:42 PM

I suspect places like HMV will have held on for the Christmas rush - now that's over there won;t be much to look forward to for a while

not sure about the rent thing...even really big places normally pay monthly... and there rents must be crazy big - some of the shops will be more than a half million a year on rent alone.. that's almost 100k a week out of your profit... at 30% profit (total ballpark guess) they'd need more than 300k a week in the till just to pay the rent... without heat/power/wages/maintenance etc...

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Author Topic: HMV going bust (Read 7974 times)