HMV going into administration

Lollipops23

It's funny, I actually bought a rake of stuff in Golden Discs over Xmas (dvds, cds etc) because I couldn't get over how cheap everything was in the sales.

Genuinely couldn't tell you the last thing I got in HMV- possibly a voucher for my little bro.

Everything is horrendously overpriced in there, not just cds and games, but books, posters and t-shirts.

seamus

Rabidlamb wrote: »

Sad to see jobs go, difficult to survive when your main product can be got so easily for free.
I'm as much to blame as any consumer can be for opting for the free model.

The effect of the free model is minimal though. It's still really a fringe thing. iTunes has revenues of about $6bn per year and is close to having sold its 20 billionth song.

If the problem with HMV was free music, iTunes would never have got off the ground. It's a supply chain issue. People want products as soon as possible and for the best price. Free music is free, but not available without some degree of technical expertise. Legit downloaded music by comparison is cheap compared to buying a CD, only requires you to click a button and downloads in a few seconds.

GhostInTheRuins

Bad for the staff alright.

HMV itself I'm not too bothered about, their cd prices were ridiculous. €25 or €30 for an album? **** that! Decent dvd selection though.

giant_midget

kickasstorrents ftw!

hellboy99

seamus wrote: »

If the problem with HMV was free music

Nothing to do with people downloading music for free, they just couldn't compete with their competition, mainly other online stores.

Reamer Fanny

Administration

TwoShedsJackson

Sparks43 wrote: »

When i bought the WiiU from them before xmas i was asked if i wanted to take out a three year hmv warranty.

I said "No point you will be bust next year "

You must have felt really clever after that zinger.

mathie

monkeysnapper wrote: »

A couple of years ago I had a 50 euro voucher for a children's clothing store chain which was going belly up, I went in and they told me I could only use half voucher half cash on items.
I was so angry with myself for complying , I wish now I had just gone in and got my hands on 50 quids worth of items and handed it in and walked out the door. What were they gona do, call guards .

So if I was a Hmv customer with a voucher I'd grow the pair of balls I wish I had 2 years ago and go shopping

+1 on this.

"Oh thats theft!"
So its ok for HMV to steal from people who have vouchers?

Basq

mathie wrote: »

"Oh thats theft!"
So its ok for HMV to steal from people who have vouchers?

While I agree, it's still theft since you're stealing from the administrator who is acting on the behalf of creditors.

H3llR4iser

seamus wrote: »

The effect of the free model is minimal though. It's still really a fringe thing. iTunes has revenues of about $6bn per year and is close to having sold its 20 billionth song.

If the problem with HMV was free music, iTunes would never have got off the ground. It's a supply chain issue. People want products as soon as possible and for the best price. Free music is free, but not available without some degree of technical expertise. Legit downloaded music by comparison is cheap compared to buying a CD, only requires you to click a button and downloads in a few seconds.

Exactly, the problem must lie elsewhere; The success of the various online retails and digital delivery platforms (from iTunes to Steam) has really exposed the "piracy decreases sales" idea as a pathetic excuse to keep prices high - of the people that get a pirate game, movie or an album almost none would buy it anyway, not even for 1 €.

I still got all my Xbox360 games in HMV - I kinda liked browsing and sometimes picking up a game I didn't even know existed. The shops were still quite busy, you hardly ever bought something without queuing - and over Christmas the queues were simply unreal, about 30 minutes to get to the till. Sure enough we don't see the full picture from here, British HMVs might be desolate wastelands with hay balls blown by the wind, but the doubt that the management might have more responsibilities than implied, remains.

C14N

squod wrote: »

Quick someone blame illegal downloads and not the rip-off merchants for selling over priced tat.

HMV weren't rip off merchants. I frequently got stuff (games, Blu-rays and CDs) from HMV at the same price or cheaper than on Amazon which I can honestly say about almost no other shops that sell anything. Invariably I got stuff cheaper than on iTunes too (I can't even remember the last time I paid a tenner for an album).

I'm not very happy about the fact that I will now have to buy everything from Amazon, I quite liked having a bricks and mortar shop to go to or just to browse around in when I was in town or a shopping centre.

ronan45

How are Xtra Vision still hanging in there? 4.00 For a dvd :cool:
Does anyone actually buy PHones or electrical equipment in their???:rolleyes:

Mushy

GhostInTheRuins wrote: »

Bad for the staff alright.

HMV itself I'm not too bothered about, their cd prices were ridiculous. €25 or €30 for an album? **** that! Decent dvd selection though.

When was the last time you paid that much for a cd? Each new release album Ive bought in there for at least 4 years has been under 15. And non-new release cds have been under a tenner.

Om gonna head down to one now, hopefully some clearance stuff may be on.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

languagenerd

Sad day for people like me who love buying CDs... Tbh, it genuinely scares me how much we're coming to rely on technology, at the expense of practically everything else.

HMV are/were overpriced for some things, but I think that was mostly a myth - people heard that someone paid 25 euro for an album and from then on said "I wouldn't buy there, they charge 25 an album!". I bought 4 new releases there in the last few months, and they were all under 15 euro, as well as two albums that had only been out a few weeks for under 10.

Feel really sorry for the staff - not only are they looking at losing their jobs, but their last days are going to be horrible, as people will blame them for the voucher thing. Really glad I spent my last voucher for there last week!

ThisRegard

GhostInTheRuins wrote: »

Bad for the staff alright.

HMV itself I'm not too bothered about, their cd prices were ridiculous. €25 or €30 for an album? **** that! Decent dvd selection though.

That's the thing, I haven't paid much more than a tenner for a CD in there in years. If you want some rubbish on the day of release you're going to pay €15 for it, maybe €20.

Wait a while and you'll get it as part of the 2 for €20 or 3 for €25 or whatever type of deal.

HMV weren't expensive.


I don't download music, legal or illegal, apart from bootlegs from bands official sites. I only filled up last month in HMV during one of the deals I outlined above. But I do think I'll be listening to most of my music from the likes of Spotify from now on. The business model suits me perfectly, I have so many albums purchased that I've only listened to once so that problem would be solved by Spotify.

SEPT 23 1989

What happens when the high street stores are gone

what will Amazon etc do with their prices then?

Baneblade

they will still have other online retailers to compete against

Agueroooo

I think its a bit unfair for people to be saying that others should have known better because HMV have been in financial trouble for months and buying vouchers was always dodgy.

Its not as if they advertised their troubles and not everyone would have had access to the rumors.

Penn

Agueroooo wrote: »

I think its a bit unfair for people to be saying that others should have known better because HMV have been in financial trouble for months and buying vouchers was always dodgy.

Its not as if they advertised their troubles and not everyone would have had access to the rumors.

Plus, people rarely buy vouchers for themselves, which means aunties etc probably bought the vouchers for them. Or, they traded in a few games and got store credit on a voucher and were waiting for something they wanted to come out.

bogmanfan

Bought 4 cds in the Grafton St branch yesterday and shop was busy. They sowed the seeds of this problem 10 years ago, when they were hugely expensive. I remember Fight Club on dvd costing €35 :eek: when it was €20 on amazon/play. They drove a lot of customers away and on to the net at that time. The irony is that they are now very competitive on pricing, but once customers are gone it's hard to get them back.

RikkFlair

Is it likely that there would be clearance sales already?

Agueroooo

Penn wrote: »

Plus, people rarely buy vouchers for themselves, which means aunties etc probably bought the vouchers for them. Or, they traded in a few games and got store credit on a voucher and were waiting for something they wanted to come out.

Exactly.

You an just imagine Auntie Maureen at Christmas " Ahh sure Franky likes his music and movies lets get him a voucher"

daRobot

WindSock wrote: »

Hooray \0/ Starbucks is coming to Grafton Street.

I'd say you're bang on the money there.

flazio

RikkFlair wrote: »

Is it likely that there would be clearance sales already?

The vultures start to gather.

hooradiation

squod wrote: »

Quick someone blame illegal downloads and not the rip-off merchants for selling over priced tat.

Yes, peoples proclivity towards stealing the same products HMV are selling could surely not have any bearing on this what so fucking ever.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

buck65

bogmanfan wrote: »

Bought 4 cds in the Grafton St branch yesterday and shop was busy. They sowed the seeds of this problem 10 years ago, when they were hugely expensive. I remember Fight Club on dvd costing €35 :eek: when it was €20 on amazon/play. They drove a lot of customers away and on to the net at that time. The irony is that they are now very competitive on pricing, but once customers are gone it's hard to get them back.

Exactly, HMV and Virgin screwed people for years (as did the music industry as a whole) pissed alot of people off, I buy most CDs from Amazon and have for years. HMV have only become competitive because they were losing the war on price against the online retailers and itunes, too little,too late.
The music industry ,including the retailers, shot themselves in the foot and acted far too late to combat the online threat. Instead of fighting it they should have met them halfway and embraced it.
Why didn't the likes of HMV have their own version of itunes and Amazon?
Sorry for the staff but this was coming a long time.

ilovesleep

This is such sad news. Galway was late getting a hmv store - maybe it was about 2005 or 2006 when HMV came to Galway. Before HMV we had Zigvagos and I instantly took to HMV and I love the place. It's one of my favourite shops.

I was very late getting into ditigal music (2010) and I used to buy cds before that. Sometimes if there's something I really love like Buble, I go for the hard copy and buy in HMV. Otherwise it's mostly itunes for music.

For a very long time, I always perfered buying dvds than renting them because renting them you could spend 6/7 euro a night and if you a late returning a dvd you could pay that again whereas a dvd could cost 15/18/20 quid maybe a bit more. I always thought it was good value because I usually tend to go to sleep easily in the middle of a movie especially when I'm just wrecked. And then I have the dvd to watch again. You could also getolder movies on dvds for 5/6 or 7 euro. Very reasonable in my opinion.

Games in hmv are good too.

Love HMV and will be sadly missed.

TheDoc

Pity alright,

While I download or stream most of my music and films and TV, it was always a shop that got money from me for boxsets, new game releases and the odd spur of the moment purchase.

Was always a life saver around christmas and birthdays. But its not like it wasn't coming, mentioned this years ago when I was working on the retail side of things that digital media and larger international online organisations would have a stronger buying power and be able to distribute cheaper prices for the consumer.

Weird about the voucher thing. If you buy a voucher with cash, and have the receipt outlining it was bought with by cash, the retailer is legally bound to honour the voucher. One of the old retailing myths, that vouchers have expiry dates and terms of conditions. If you have a voucher that was bought with cash, they are obliged to accept it, and if they dont you can go to the consumer affairs agency who will take it up on your behalf.

**** they are going down the swanny, but they technically have outstanding credit with tens of thousands of customers holding vouchers.