It's very sad, but HMV is just too expensive. I know they have no choice but to charge high prices but it's still unreasonable to pay £9.99 per album most of the time. And DVDs are even worse, pretty much all boxsets cost £40. Most people will recognise you can get stuff for cheaper than that.
I'd say the bigger problem for HMV is Amazon. Literally everything on Amazon is cheaper than HMV, and I use it far more often than HMV these days.
Our HMV has almost given up the pretence of being a music
Shop.
All the CD's are shunted into a corner and the rest if the store is DVD's and headphones.
As a result I have to buy my CDs online since anything that's not chart or a greatest hits isn't stocked.
As much as I love HMV, The prices are crazy at times. I saw several Disney Blu rays that had been out for a while and they were over £28! Wall.E was £18 roughly when I got it in HMV. How can they whack the price up £10?
For ages I wanted the Arrested Development complete box set and it was priced at £60. I eventually got it for half that price online
As someone else has said, chart CDs are generally fine but the pricing of all other music is appalling. Beatles CDs are £16 each which is absurd. And most stuff that's not mainstream is £10-£12.
Even their headphone prices are ridiculous. They charge £9.99 for a pair of Gummi earphones, which cost half that in Asda.
What would happen if HMV started lowering their prices? Could they survive?
How that thought hasn't crossed the boss's mind is beyond me.
It's a shame because I love nothing more than looking through lots of CDs and DVDs.
I am not sure but in this economy, HMV have done favours at all
I go in their to browse more than I buy. It is daylight robbery in there. I do like their 3 for £10 posters bargain though, although their variety is questionable.
It could work either way if they lowered their prices. They could lose more money or actually attract more customers.
It's not just pricing, stores like HMV can't stock anything like the range of titles that online sellers like Amazon can. The last few times I've been in to HMV to look for something they've not had what I was after so I've ended up buying it online anyway.
HMV should look closer to home before firing the gun at other sources. The pricing of their products is terrible and overpriced. Chart CDs are reasonable but everything else really isn't.
Also Amazon/iTunes have their part to play too as you seem to get more bargains there, particularly Amazon. I always use Amazon over HMV these days.
I am not sure but in this economy, HMV have done favours at all
I go in their to browse more than I buy. It is daylight robbery in there. I do like their 3 for £10 posters bargain though, although their variety is questionable.
It could work either way if they lowered their prices. They could lose more money or actually attract more customers.
I'd imagine that's how they're looking at it, but lowering their prices could work. It's worth a try, at least.
I think it's a shame though that we are losing our high street shops... Gone are the days of Our Price, Virgin, Zavvi etc. If you want a good selection of music/DVDs the only choice on the high street is HMV but as many have closed, I find myself online most of the time. i love to browse and find a bargain though in an actual shop
Shops like CEX are raking in the money. It's used stuff (a fair amount new) but it's fair prices and a good service.
I have been to one of those before but the nearest to me is Chatham (a complete hole) and the staff took 20 minutes to serve 5 people. it was insane. Did get a couple of DVDs though. Shame the store looked like it had just been looted
I have been to one of those before but the nearest to me is Chatham (a complete hole) and the staff took 20 minutes to serve 5 people. it was insane. Did get a couple of DVDs though. Shame the store looked like it had just been looted
that's my local too! at the risk of sounding like a stalker, where abouts are you from?
I'm no specialist, but if they lower their prices a lot, then maybe they won't be able to make ends meet.The advantage that online outlets have is that they can pull off massive orders for non-commercial albums as well because they find PLENTY of tricky ways to sell these products (for example the 80-95 suggestions of albums in every page the customer visits).However, stores like HMV cannot ask the retailer to ship only 2-3 copies, so they end up writing off non-charts music or overpricing it.They also have more employees to pay and they actually rent/buy a building, unlike Amazon who don't need to have a store for each area to have income.The whole HMV/Virgin format is pretty much over sadly because the advantages of online retail are overwhelming.
Btw, I LOVE checking out the shelves and I know it sounds cheesy, but I've kind of missed the sound that the jewelcases make when I browse the shelf (*sigh).And of course I miss carrying the cd's all the way home (*sigh *sigh *sigh).However, I've setlled for Amazon.com (it takes them 4 weeks to deliver, but it's still a better solution.Picture that!), because the stores in my country are just tragic.They never have the cd's I want and most of the times the jewelcases are broken, which doesn't happen with Amazon, because nobody technically browses those albums; they are just stored in big boxes until someone makes an order.
So far as music goes, they need to set up a service that allows people to come in off the street and download a single track, an album, or whatever they want straight onto their MP3, as if they were buying music at home. They could still sell CD's for those who want them, but I would use this service a lot more.
For films, they need to get real and charge less. It's that simple.
My local HMV isn't too bad in Stirling. It has a fair selection of 2 CDs for £10 old and new. Always enjoy a little search when I'm in town.
Other sections of the shop though are too overpriced. The DVD boxsets are ridiculous. First season of Scrubs was about £25 and you can get that online for £10! How are they going to compete with that?
Comments
They even sell old albums and dvd's for well over £10.
I'd say the bigger problem for HMV is Amazon. Literally everything on Amazon is cheaper than HMV, and I use it far more often than HMV these days.
Shop.
All the CD's are shunted into a corner and the rest if the store is DVD's and headphones.
As a result I have to buy my CDs online since anything that's not chart or a greatest hits isn't stocked.
For ages I wanted the Arrested Development complete box set and it was priced at £60. I eventually got it for half that price online
How that thought hasn't crossed the boss's mind is beyond me.
It's a shame because I love nothing more than looking through lots of CDs and DVDs.
Even their headphone prices are ridiculous. They charge £9.99 for a pair of Gummi earphones, which cost half that in Asda.
I am not sure but in this economy, HMV have done favours at all
I go in their to browse more than I buy. It is daylight robbery in there. I do like their 3 for £10 posters bargain though, although their variety is questionable.
It could work either way if they lowered their prices. They could lose more money or actually attract more customers.
Also Amazon/iTunes have their part to play too as you seem to get more bargains there, particularly Amazon. I always use Amazon over HMV these days.
I'd imagine that's how they're looking at it, but lowering their prices could work. It's worth a try, at least.
That's what I'll miss.
I have been to one of those before but the nearest to me is Chatham (a complete hole) and the staff took 20 minutes to serve 5 people. it was insane. Did get a couple of DVDs though. Shame the store looked like it had just been looted
that's my local too! at the risk of sounding like a stalker, where abouts are you from?
Haha. I live in Gillingham... the nicer part. lol.. Not far from The Strand in the Sovereign Quarter. Where are you?
Btw, I LOVE checking out the shelves and I know it sounds cheesy, but I've kind of missed the sound that the jewelcases make when I browse the shelf (*sigh).And of course I miss carrying the cd's all the way home (*sigh *sigh *sigh).However, I've setlled for Amazon.com (it takes them 4 weeks to deliver, but it's still a better solution.Picture that!), because the stores in my country are just tragic.They never have the cd's I want and most of the times the jewelcases are broken, which doesn't happen with Amazon, because nobody technically browses those albums; they are just stored in big boxes until someone makes an order.
I live just outside of Hoo.
It's weird having someone else on here who is from the area. Always feels like I'm the only one from the area on DS.
I must admit you are the first local I have met on here too.
OMG you haven't blamed Adele :rolleyes:
For films, they need to get real and charge less. It's that simple.
Other sections of the shop though are too overpriced. The DVD boxsets are ridiculous. First season of Scrubs was about £25 and you can get that online for £10! How are they going to compete with that?
The radio is playing the remix but all you can buy is the original
I mean I saw a Lost Boxset listed for £170 WTF You can buy it for half that price anywhere else.
Its just those sort of things which explain why its in the mess it is.