HMV goes belly-up

Apart from sentimental fripperies, I am more worried about its buy-up, Fopp, at this stage.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9802090/Music-industry-still-wants-HMV-shops.html

There is talk of salvaging at least some parts of HMV via administration. But despite the fact that the big film and music industries would very much like to keep their last big disc seller & publicity window on the High St in the UK and Ireland, it doesn't look good, for the obvious reasons.


Maybe Fopp - overstock/deletion specialists - is the way they will go?

Well, if you charge nearing 20 quid for a CD, you can foc off. If you dick the high street shoppers, they dick you back.

Surprised it didn't happen earlier. What does a CD even look like?

they have become redundant. surprised they lasted so long

with mp3s people may still have wanted to buy loads of cds. but with flac the only reason you may want one is for cover-art, and its still easier and cheaper to get it from amazon

Brass Monkey wrote:Well, if you charge nearing 20 quid for a CD, you can foc off. If you dick the high street shoppers, they dick you back.

20 quid. That is a rip off.

Woolies, Jessops and now HMV - High Streets are changing and we had better get used to it. HMV will not be the last.

The three irresistible forces of Tesco, Amazon and iTunes (plus illegal downloading) have done for it. Managers there seemingly didn't see the threat coming a decade ago.

That said, there surely has to be room for a music/film chain on the high street while there remains a significant demand for physical disc-based purchases. I mean there were several of them 10 or 15 years ago. Downloading individual songs is fine but if you like a band, you want a proper copy of the album don't you? And most houses have shelves of CDs and/or DVDs on display. It needs someone who can sell the items at competitive prices though, rather than just attracting the browse-then-buy-online crowd.

taipan wrote:
20 quid. That is a rip off.

It was for an import, but all the same...

So if music and films are soon no longer available on the average high street, what will be next to follow the same path? Books perhaps? Waterstones was sold off by HMV and it remains to be seen if it's viable independently. WH Smiths has long been predicted to follow the Woolworths route of demise as a "jack of all trades" shop (a factor in HMV's eventual downfall as well as they tried to sell consoles, phones, tablets etc.) Amazon and e-readers are putting the boot into the bookshop market as well I suspect.

I saw one comment today saying that soon it would just be "pound shops, coffee bars and fast food outlets" in town centres. Clothing retailers are likely to survive though as people do like to try things on before they buy... not sure what else will in the long term though.

I think Waterstones will survive - they seem to have a lot of specialist stuff - I've looked about certain books on Amazon and other places and cannot find them ANYWHERE... there are always hardcore readers, whereas with films and music were one of the first thing to be widely distributed by t'interweb.

Waterstones have already started to consolidate. They had two shops in Worcester one of which closed this time last year.

Thomas Cook were reported to be in trouble not so long ago.

Jeez.. as beams says - pound shops, coffee shops, betting shops and fast food outlets.

It makes you wonder what city centres will look lke in about 20 years' time. Half the size they are now would be my guess.

Basil wrote:It makes you wonder what city centres will look lke in about 20 years' time. Half the size they are now would be my guess.

The shite thing with Northampton is that they're totally revamping our centre - I'd say there're around 20 shops that are shut down already - I don't see the point.

Actual musicians will follow soon.

They make nine tenths of f*ck all from downloads and streams. Physical sales are the only thing paying the bills.

But there you go.

People will still make music, whether they make money from it or not... for those who become popular, it will just be massive tours with vastly overpriced tickets to make the money for them.

Brass Monkey wrote:Jeez.. as beams says - pound shops, coffee shops, betting shops and fast food outlets.

Don't forget the loan sharks ........ they're proliferating like flies on a turd. Not only on the high street, but on telly too. If I was in financial trouble I'd beg on the streets with my dog before dealing with a payday loan company. Hell, I'd even seriously consider selling my arse first.

Of course more will follow. Most high street outlets have commercial rent to pay as the first bill - no premises, no trading.

Extortionate business rates on pain of a court writ for non-payment, on high streets where there's no parking for which you don't need a loan, and cowboy clampers hiding to fleece the driver another £150 for being a picosecond over time, or 5/1000 of an inch outside the parking bay.

They have councils willing to allow a new Tesco when there's already Asda Sainsburys and Lidl within a mile of one another with 10 acres of free parking.

Business banking fees as usurious as council rates to financial institutions who pay their chief executive alone more in annual bonus than most high street shops turn over in a year.

Electricity bills, burglar/security/fire alarm contract bills, waste disposal fees. Staff wages, tax on staff wages, pension contributions for staff on the way (whether the staff choose to contribute or not), corporation tax. The list goes on and on.

Now, I'm not for a minute suggesting that the expenses aren't justified (although I'd question some of the levels of them). The point I'm making is that a business has to take thousands of pounds at the till each day before it sees even a tuppeny bit in profit.

I don't know who'll be next, but I'm fairly sure there will be many more to follow. Maybe Argos ..... AFAIK they're not in financial trouble, but with the economy likely to be on its arse for the foreseeable future and Cameldung, Clogg & Co preferring to force gay marriage onto the agenda (when even gays don't see it as a pressing issue) rather than take action to fix the problems - then it's surely only a matter of time before the board decide that they can chop about 90% of staff costs, and 70-odd% of other costs by ditching the High street and going internet only from about three giant warehouses .....

hmmn...there goes some history to the wall of the net

booksellers and print media are disappearing too...

Aye, top post Growler - on the money. Argos are in trouble and they've already downsized their operation - they're closing 75 stores within the next year. A lot of jobs to be lost. They'll be lucky to make it out the other side. The way you've put it makes it seem it isn't worth it to continue on that way.

It's sad in a way when bookshops close but they can't expect to keep ripping people off and crying poor. I can get books so much cheaper online than if I ask them to import them for me. Their mark up is ridiculous. It's still enjoyable to browse in stores but their claims that this is a service that online facilities can't offer is wrong too. The minute I log on I'm offered lots of choices compatible with my last purchase. I've discovered new authors this way.

Newspapers would be the biggest loss for me: I enjoy reading the hard copy.

How do you cut and paste from the hard copy?

Scan like blazes.

PeterCS wrote:Scan like blazes.

What is "scan".

Red wrote:It's sad in a way when bookshops close but they can't expect to keep ripping people off and crying poor. I can get books so much cheaper online than if I ask them to import them for me. Their mark up is ridiculous. It's still enjoyable to browse in stores but their claims that this is a service that online facilities can't offer is wrong too. The minute I log on I'm offered lots of choices compatible with my last purchase. I've discovered new authors this way.

Newspapers would be the biggest loss for me: I enjoy reading the hard copy.

aye.......................bookshops. A friend of mine makes a living by writing books and speaking at business gigs, where he also flogs his books. I recall him fuming and ranting ten years ago about bookshop chains, their behaviour & practices & forecasting their demise. Yesterday I dropped into an Angus & Robertson looking for a particular title. When I couldn't find it I went to the service counter. The assistant did a search then said to me "we don't have it" before wandering off without another word.

I'll buy it through Amazon tonight.

Mick Sawyer wrote:

Red wrote:It's sad in a way when bookshops close but they can't expect to keep ripping people off and crying poor. I can get books so much cheaper online than if I ask them to import them for me. Their mark up is ridiculous. It's still enjoyable to browse in stores but their claims that this is a service that online facilities can't offer is wrong too. The minute I log on I'm offered lots of choices compatible with my last purchase. I've discovered new authors this way.

Newspapers would be the biggest loss for me: I enjoy reading the hard copy.

aye.......................bookshops. A friend of mine makes a living by writing books and speaking at business gigs, where he also flogs his books. I recall him fuming and ranting ten years ago about bookshop chains, their behaviour & practices & forecasting their demise. Yesterday I dropped into an Angus & Robertson looking for a particular title. When I couldn't find it I went to the service counter. The assistant did a search then said to me "we don't have it" before wandering off without another word.

I'll buy it through Amazon tonight.

As much as I love browsing bookshops I have gone the ebook route. You can get want you want within a minute at a far lower cost.