HMV Gone, but not forgotten
Haven't read the posts on here, just wanted a moan really.
How could you forget HMV when they have been a pillar of maintaining an unacceptably high price on music and visual media. Even when other people saw which way the wind was blowing they still tried to squeeze the last farthing out of everything.
At this moment I don't know if it has been sold, but their reputation has been shot [if it still had a positive rep] by failing to honour gift vouchers. ALL those vouchers purchased in good faith around Xmas time gone down the crapper. It would have been a better bet to put a tenner in a Xmas card and run the gauntlet of the postal system.
Very sad for the staff, but good riddance to HMV.
Well said they have always been a rip-off and going out with a giant voucher rip off!
Haven't read the posts on here, just wanted a moan really.
How could you forget HMV when they have been a pillar of maintaining an unacceptably high price on music and visual media. Even when other people saw which way the wind was blowing they still tried to squeeze the last farthing out of everything.
At this moment I don't know if it has been sold, but their reputation has been shot [if it still had a positive rep] by failing to honour gift vouchers. ALL those vouchers purchased in good faith around Xmas time gone down the crapper. It would have been a better bet to put a tenner in a Xmas card and run the gauntlet of the postal system.
Very sad for the staff, but good riddance to HMV.
Well said they have always been a rip-off and going out with a giant voucher rip off!
When you purchase a gift voucher, you are effectively lending money to the voucher seller. If the seller becomes insolvent, you become an unsecured general creditor, along with all the other unsecured creditors to whom the seller owes money. The administrator has a number of statutory obligations, one of which is to secure the best outcome for creditors as a whole - which unfortnately means that you can't jump the queue in front of the landlords, utilities and whoever else the seller owes money to.
^^ Yes that is absolutely true. When HMV brought the administrators in, they wouldn't have been allowed to honour the vouchers. It's not a discredit to HMV or bad customer service, sadly it's just how the system works. Unsecured creditors like customers are way down the pecking order.
Haven't read the posts on here, just wanted a moan really.
How could you forget HMV when they have been a pillar of maintaining an unacceptably high price on music and visual media. Even when other people saw which way the wind was blowing they still tried to squeeze the last farthing out of everything.
At this moment I don't know if it has been sold, but their reputation has been shot [if it still had a positive rep] by failing to honour gift vouchers. ALL those vouchers purchased in good faith around Xmas time gone down the crapper. It would have been a better bet to put a tenner in a Xmas card and run the gauntlet of the postal system.
Very sad for the staff, but good riddance to HMV.
Oh I dunno, they are selling the Toy Story triple pack for £9 now!
Yes, NOW they do. Horse,[sorry Tesco], stable door and all that.
remembre queing up for hours back in the nineties at oxford str. HMV for Machine Head and Paradise Lost signing sessions following their respecive new albums....those were the days 
..... and Amazon paying no tax,
It pays a fortune in tax and National Insurance on all it's staff in Great Britain. It doesn't pay any Corporation Tax as it doesn't make a profit in Great Britain, as it makes money elsewhere in Europe where they have lower taxation. HMV pays a fortune in tax and NI in GB, but doesn't pay any Corporation Tax, as it doesn't make a profit in Britain, but does elsewhere in the World. That is not the reason HMV has gone into administration.
i had to pick up a parcel from the local Royal Mail sorting depot at Christmas. The whole place was full (to the ceiling) with Amazon boxes. How many postmen are actually kept in full-time employment by the success of Amazon? (And eBay).
Any postmen out there?
I have little or no sympathy for them if truth be told.
I used to wander around their store in The Fort Glasgow and wonder at their weird pricing.
Many a top made movie (costing plenty) was at a price of say £8.00 Whereas a duff movie costing little or next to nothing in comparison cost like £18.00 pounds or so.... this never ever made any sense to me and as such I'd shop and buy elsewhere that odd wee extremity that din't cost so much to make yet had good write-ups online ?
Other decent films cost a lot and to me it never ever made any sense as to WHY the shop 's pricing was so strange ?
It got around to me KNOWING that the likes of HMV prices would be rubbish so I'd not even bother checking.
In a way I'm glad then the more expensive shops go out of bussiness rather than the ones who try to keep pace.
Online shopping WILL become the norm and dinosaurs like HMV and others will have to bite the dust... such as life eh ?
Maybe we want to become a nation of people who do everything at the touch of a computer keyboard. I certainly don't.
Maybe we want to become a nation of people who do everything at the touch of a computer keyboard. I certainly don't.
There are some benefits. If you worked from home as well, you'd never need to spend money on outdoor clothes or a car. You would never need to 'go out' for anything. It could all come to you. (Virtually or in the post or on a supermarket delivery van.)
It's why I left the quote from 'The Machine Stops' (E.M. Forster 1909) back on page 3. It was published 104 years ago but was remarkably prescient.
Here it is again...
"Then she generated the light, and the sight of her room, flooded with radiance and studded with electric buttons, revived her. There were buttons and switches everywhere - buttons to call for food for music, for clothing. There was the hot-bath button, by pressure of which a basin of (imitation) marble rose out of the floor, filled to the brim with a warm deodorized liquid. There was the cold-bath button. There was the button that produced literature. and there were of course the buttons by which she communicated with her friends. The room, though it contained nothing, was in touch with all that she cared for in the world."
Its a frightening vision Chebby.
I think one has to be a little optamistic about the future of HMV, it is still a very strong brand and you never know a phoenix might rise of the ashes, in a different shape. Imagine if they had had a proper streaming service from the outset.
or maybe not.
I don't think HMV will disappear. It will inevitably be a much smaller company but that is what it needs for survival. There are reported to be 50 suitors showing interest, some of them in the HMV business and some, such as Game owner OpCapita, in a number of the shop units.
The HMV brand is still valuable and with the right business plan, management and customer offer, it could be successful again.
I don't think HMV will disappear. It will inevitably be a much smaller company but that is what it needs for survival. There are reported to be 50 suitors showing interest, some of them in the HMV business and some, such as Game owner OpCapita, in a number of the shop units.
The HMV brand is still valuable and with the right business plan, management and customer offer, it could be successful again.
I'm not convinced Matthew, well at least as far as music is concerned. Do I travel to a store to seek to find a certain piece of music knowing that they won't have the widest selection and that it won't be the cheapest or do I hop onto the internet and have the widest choice and a cheap price?
Chris
I take your point Chris, but I still enjoy physically browsing CDs and books and when I find something I like I support the shop that has provided me with the browsing experience whether that be HMV, Waterstones, That's Entertainment or any other smaller shop.
..... and Amazon paying no tax,
It pays a fortune in tax and National Insurance on all it's staff in Great Britain. It doesn't pay any Corporation Tax as it doesn't make a profit in Great Britain, as it makes money elsewhere in Europe where they have lower taxation. HMV pays a fortune in tax and NI in GB, but doesn't pay any Corporation Tax, as it doesn't make a profit in Britain, but does elsewhere in the World. That is not the reason HMV has gone into administration.