HMV to close 60 stores (Irish stores affected as well)

RobitTV · 05-01-2011 03:02PM #1

Shares in music and books retailer HMV Group have fallen 21% after revealing falling sales, weak profits and trouble meeting the terms of a bank loan.

The firm - which also owns Waterstone's bookshops - plans to close 60 stores in UK And some in Ireland the next 12 months in order to get costs under control.

HMV was not the only retailer to suffer in the cold weather. Clothes chain Next said on Tuesday it had lost £22m in store sales because shoppers stayed away when the snow fell in the run-up to Christmas.

HMV's share price has declined steadily throughout 2010, and the latest drop brings its cumulative fall to 78% over the last 13 months.
(BBC News)

Nodin · 05-01-2011 03:04PM

Evidently the policy of charging the absolute maximum for stuff is no longer sustainable. Other than sales, the only reason to go into their place would be in order to be apalled at the prices.

blackalicious · 05-01-2011 03:05PM

its easy to see why i used to shop there all the time now i just download everything

Duggy747 · 05-01-2011 03:05PM

Looks like the poor HMV dog will have to put down.

I'm sure listening to that old record player so closely wasn't good for it's ears, anyways.

The place was always crazy expensive.

05-01-2011 03:06PM

Never liked HMV but that's pretty shlt.

RichieC · 05-01-2011 03:06PM

Jesus that's a lot of hipsters out of work..

ThisRegard · 05-01-2011 03:06PM

To be fair it hasn't been as expensive as it used to be in a few years, it's actually fairly reasonable these days.

af_thefragile · 05-01-2011 03:07PM

God bless torrents!!

Dyr · 05-01-2011 03:08PM

boo hoo...charged rip off prices for years in the bad old days and by the time they changed their ways people had moved on

Duggy747 · 05-01-2011 03:09PM

ThisRegard wrote: »

To be fair it hasn't been as expensive as it used to be in a few years, it's actually fairly reasonable these days.

In regards to DVDs and boxsets they are better than what they used to be. I remember seeing a Robocop - Director's Cut DVD around 3 years ago for €35 :eek:

They were handy to walk into and get ideas on what movies to.....eh........aquire. :pac:

The Waltzing Consumer · 05-01-2011 03:10PM

RichieC wrote: »

Jesus that's a lot of hipsters out of work..

Ah they ain't as bad as Tower Records when it comes to hipsters, HMV is just full of students.

Back on topic. F**k them, they ripped us off for years, and I laughed when I saw it is the same company which owns Waterstones, another company which overcharges and has ripped us off for years. Yeah, yeah, pity about the jobs, but it is an awful company full of annoying security guards following you and unfriendly staff avoiding you. Not exactly a surprise people don't shop there.

Download everything!

Biggins · 05-01-2011 03:11PM

Any word yet which exact stores are to go?

ilovesleep · 05-01-2011 03:11PM

Horrific! HMV is my favourite shop ever. NO NO NO NO NO

diceyreilly · 05-01-2011 03:13PM

ThisRegard wrote: »

To be fair it hasn't been as expensive as it used to be in a few years, it's actually fairly reasonable these days.

Shameless Season 5 €56 hardly reasonable..

Phill Ewinn · 05-01-2011 03:15PM

probably trying to preserve profits than fight loses. poor people who worked for them. some of them were great TBH

Biggins · 05-01-2011 03:15PM

For those that don't know HMV stands for "His Masters Voice"
The logo that they use sometimes is a dog listening to his masters voice off a gramophone.

KnifeWRENCH · 05-01-2011 03:17PM

diceyreilly wrote: »

Shameless Season 5 €56 hardly reasonable..

Heh, I got a Shameless boxset there a couple of years ago. It was €40 but had all seasons 1-5 on it.
Paying €56 for one season is horrendous but €40 for five seasons ain't bad. Granted it was on sale but I was pretty happy with it.

On topic, this is dreadful news imo. I know people are downloading everything these days but I still love going into a music shop, browsing and buying actual physical CDs/DVDs. It works out a bit more expensive, but downloading just isn't the same.

homerun_homer · 05-01-2011 03:17PM

It's never good to see a chain get hit like this because if they can't survive then how can the little stores survive (well, they haven't been surviving. Just look at Road Records.).

Every music store needs to revolutionise their policies and prices. I still buy cds but barely buy DVDs anymore. I used to buy DVDs as soon as they were released and then be annoyed how cheap it got within 2 months. So I stopped buying new releases and bought cheap afterwards.

Then the powers that be bring out a superior quality product with Blu Ray and made my DVDs redundant to the possibility of perfect Widescreen video resolution and sound quality. I decided that if my collection needed upgrading then I wasn't buying DVDs until I had a Blu Ray player and I won't get one unless I have a big ass TV, which I don't and don't plan on for god knows when... when I settle down maybe.
It's the greedyness of corporations needing to resell us what we already have that's stopped me buying. No different than CDs. I'll download the CD somewhere or copy from a friend and wait until the band decides to repackage with new material when they need better Christmas sales. Being the first to buy an album matters not anymore. The completist will still be left annoyed at what they miss out down the line unless they let the record companies sucker punch them into repurchasing a title.

Everyone in the food chain is to blame, not just consumers for seemingly illegally pirating albums and films.

arybvtcw0eolkf · 05-01-2011 03:19PM

ThisRegard wrote: »

To be fair it hasn't been as expensive as it used to be in a few years, it's actually fairly reasonable these days.

I use it for buying DVD's, cheapest and best selection around IMO.

af_thefragile · 05-01-2011 03:20PM

^Get a playstation. Its a perfect bluray player!!

Its what I use for watching bluray movies and the quality is just sooooo much better than DVD!! You'ld never wanna buy a DVD again!

ThisRegard · 05-01-2011 03:22PM

The Waltzing Consumer wrote: »

Ah they ain't as bad as Tower Records when it comes to hipsters, HMV is just full of students.

Back on topic. F**k them, they ripped us off for years, and I laughed when I saw it is the same company which owns Waterstones, another company which overcharges and has ripped us off for years. Yeah, yeah, pity about the jobs, but it is an awful company full of annoying security guards following you and unfriendly staff avoiding you. Not exactly a surprise people don't shop there.

Download everything!

Your boards attitude obviously translates into your real life one ! I've never been followed by a security guard anywhere, never mind HMV, and have always founds the staff decent when looking for something or a quick chat about what you've just bought when at the till.

Dravokivich · 05-01-2011 03:23PM

Wouldn't happen to have a source by any chance RobitTv?

ilovesleep · 05-01-2011 03:24PM

Fcuk you FiannaFail. Protect your developer mates and save the banks and no one else. Fcuk you to hell.

I love hmv.

ThisRegard · 05-01-2011 03:25PM

Dravokivich wrote: »

Wouldn't happen to have a source by any chance RobitTv?

http://www.independent.ie/business/european/hmv-group-to-close-60-stores-2484497.html

speedboatchase · 05-01-2011 03:25PM

This whole 'download everything' philosophy from freetards is the greediest and most ignorant thing I've read in quite some time on this site - even if shops sold content producer's products at high prices for far too long (I remember The Strokes second album in Golden Discs for €25 on release), it doesn't mean the content producers aren't entitled to any reimbursement for their efforts anymore, but anyways I'm probably wasting my breath.

I like browsing HMV, especially on Grafton St, but personally I've moved onto Play and Amazon if I want to buy a game/Blu Ray/book these days. HMV and the rest are mostly relying on video game sales these days if I had to guess and digital distribution will eventually take over from there - surprised anyone would want to be a HMV shareholder to begin with

Minstrel27 · 05-01-2011 03:26PM

Nearest HMV to me is 60 miles away. This news means nothing to me.

05-01-2011 03:27PM

That's great speedboatchase but most people would never ever buy 99% of the stuff they download. I know I never had the money for a dvd so I'm not going to feel guilty for downloading.. It affects nothing.

Bill2673 · 05-01-2011 03:28PM

Was in a friends house the other day, she had a copy of SADE album released in 1999.....the price on the CD was £18.99.....about €24.....that is ten years ago. Allowing for 3% per annum inflation since then, that is about €32 in todays money. It was galling how much they charged and the only reason prices have come down is competition. I've no sympathy for them. (And as another happy corrollory, you don't get folks like Coldplay and Robbie Williams on £60mn record deals any more either).

The Waltzing Consumer · 05-01-2011 03:28PM

ThisRegard wrote: »

Your boards attitude obviously translates into your real life one ! I've never been followed by a security guard anywhere, never mind HMV, and have always founds the staff decent when looking for something or a quick chat about what you've just bought when at the till.

Well there you go. I have never been followed anywhere else by security guards and pretty much never been aware of security guards anywhere else. I have worked in shops very similar to HMV and the difference is huge. It may be a bit more relaxed these days, but a few years ago, it was annoying as hell being in their shops (Grafton Street & Blanch) because you could just feel the security staff watch or follow you.

FreudianSlippers · 05-01-2011 03:28PM

Nodin wrote: »

Evidently the policy of charging the absolute maximum for stuff is no longer sustainable. Other than sales, the only reason to go into their place would be in order to be apalled at the prices.

Agreed... can't say I didn't see this coming for ages.

There is no room for these types of businesses to be competitive these days.
If Ireland had Netflix (or even anything close) these types of places would have been gone ages ago.

Biggins · 05-01-2011 03:29PM

Dravokivich wrote: »

Wouldn't happen to have a source by any chance RobitTv?

They did mention it on Sky news in the last hour.

HMV to close 60 stores (Irish stores affected as well)

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