NEWS: HMV bought by Canadian Music Entrepreneur

Very happy with this development, but sad for the staff losing their jobs.

I am concerned we will loose the online store. This is the second culling of HMV stores we have had in six years. The option of ordering online was very welcome for people who couldn't make it to a physical store any more.
 
Well at least Mike Ashley didn't get the stores, that in itself is a god send.
 
It will be interesting now to see what direction they go in.
My local store is remaining, my only reason for visiting my local town centre. Will buy some more music later in the methinks
 
Good news for us up north, the Metro Centre is stopping open although since it reopened a while ago it has moved into a much smaller store. I felt it was a lot better in the old premises at the Red Mall, a huge choice of everything, but maybe that was its downfall, too big a store with huge rates.
 
Rather sadly the original store in Oxford Street central London, which was opened by Sir Edward Elgar, is going or possibly is already closed down. I'll soon see when I drive through there on my travels, more job losses. :( But at least its been saved and let's hope this time it will be for a very long time.
 
Disappointed to hear the stores down in Devon closing. I shop (shopped rather as the shutters were already down today) often in the Plymouth branch and it was always busy.
Hopefully they will have a last minute change of heart and keep some of the panned closures, it really was the only store that i ever ventured in to the City Centre to shop in
 
Luckily my local is staying. Not that I buy a lot, but usually get something every month.

But it just shows that while Mike Ashley has his haters, he is right about one thing. Rental/lease prices play a huge part in this. If Oxford is closing then we all know why. HoF London was costing them millions and millions, I think I remember reading it was over £10m a year. Thats crazy. Hell my local coal merchants who hd been on their site for 40+ years were paying £60k for a not very big piece of square concrete on some manky industrial estate. It's not just the shoppers or lack there of to blame here.

It nice to hear the new owners think physical media is a nice thing, but while of course that is true, being nice doesn't mean popular.
 
While I’m glad my local is staying open I can’t help but think that hmv will surely be done now and this is delaying the inevitable.
On another note for the stores like Plymouth that will lose their store they have nowhere to buy blu rays / 4Ks from now and back catalogues of music. Very sad indeed
 
Good news for us up north, the Metro Centre is stopping open although since it reopened a while ago it has moved into a much smaller store. I felt it was a lot better in the old premises at the Red Mall, a huge choice of everything, but maybe that was its downfall, too big a store with huge rates.

We suffered up here quite badly six years ago. We lost stores in Stockton, Durham and Teesside Park. I'm pleased we aren't losing any more. What remains are all pretty good stores. As you say, the MetroCentre one is tiny now. But packed to the gills.

But we need a Fopp. Well, I'd really like one :)
 
Rather sadly the original store in Oxford Street central London, which was opened by Sir Edward Elgar, is going or possibly is already closed down. I'll soon see when I drive through there on my travels, more job losses. :( But at least its been saved and let's hope this time it will be for a very long time.

£3.2m in rent and £1.4m in rates, before you even open the doors...
 
In a statement I read they were going to increase vinyl...that can only be a good thing for us vinyl lovers, my local has made it through.i do hope the online store makes it..guess someone will crunch the numbers, and see if it is worthwhile, I hope pure hmv points continues though
 
Super news. And even better because it wasn't the despotic Mike Ashley who bought it.
Hmv market share is increasing all the time.
Amazon won't be happy about this
Better and better
All we need now is for Amazon to be forced to pay the correct amount of tax etc.
That's a forlorn hope with the present government
 
My local Bluewater is closing..... that place was a haven for me whilst SWMBO was clothes shopping.... :(
 
In a statement I read they were going to increase vinyl...that can only be a good thing for us vinyl lovers, my local has made it through.i do hope the online store makes it..guess someone will crunch the numbers, and see if it is worthwhile, I hope pure hmv points continues though

This makes sense and reading articles about Putnam’s Canadian strategy he clearly believes in being successful requires you to have more than just Rumors or ‘the greatest hits’ in Fleetwood Mac’s case. Vinyl buyers are not generally interested in going into a large shopping centre. They are generally down the sawdust end of town popping in for an APA /IPA at the pub afterwards.

I went to T wells store yesterday and it had shut, another couple approach the store and she says to him “oh well, no more places to buy vinyl in T Wells”. I quietly whispered “Sainsbury’s” though the selection is mainstream presses...
 
We suffered up here quite badly six years ago. We lost stores in Stockton, Durham and Teesside Park. I'm pleased we aren't losing any more. What remains are all pretty good stores. As you say, the MetroCentre one is tiny now. But packed to the gills.

But we need a Fopp. Well, I'd really like one :)

And South Shields. I haven't been to the Metro Centre in years. I had no idea they'd downsized. The London store wasn't exactly huge the last time I was down there. I remember being it pretty damn big at one point and there was a huge Virgin store not too far away. Not forgetting Tower as well. We'll never see those days again.

Bri
 
And South Shields. I haven't been to the Metro Centre in years. I had no idea they'd downsized. The London store wasn't exactly huge the last time I was down there. I remember being it pretty damn big at one point and there was a huge Virgin store not too far away. Not forgetting Tower as well. We'll never see those days again.

Bri

Good point, I forgot about the South Shields one. I got one of the League of Gentlemen BD sets in there.

MetroCentre one is still pretty good. A lot smaller than the old, huge, store. They have managed to cram everything in there. It is a lot smaller though.

I really don't like the Newcastle one. The staff are good, but the layout makes little sense and everything on the shelves is nearly always beat up.

The old HMV on Oxford Street was huge, it was amazing to go in and have a look around. Likewise the old Virgin, and Tower (ouch, those prices). The one that just closed (the 'original' HMV) I never liked, far too cramped and it felt like a junk shop. Crap piled up everywhere.

How they couldn't turn a profit and the Boots next door (which is considerably bigger) can is beyond me.
 
Good point, I forgot about the South Shields one. I got one of the League of Gentlemen BD sets in there.

MetroCentre one is still pretty good. A lot smaller than the old, huge, store. They have managed to cram everything in there. It is a lot smaller though.

I really don't like the Newcastle one. The staff are good, but the layout makes little sense and everything on the shelves is nearly always beat up.

The old HMV on Oxford Street was huge, it was amazing to go in and have a look around. Likewise the old Virgin, and Tower (ouch, those prices). The one that just closed (the 'original' HMV) I never liked, far too cramped and it felt like a junk shop. Crap piled up everywhere.

How they couldn't turn a profit and the Boots next door (which is considerably bigger) can is beyond me.

I was in the Newcastle store yesterday. There was no sign of party hats or any form of celebration. I came away with nothing. Not really that surprising given they haven't had any new stock for a while but the one thing I was interested in had a large section of it's slip cover ripped off.

As you say how can other shops in the same areas seemingly make a profit when HMV can't? The Trafford Centre Poundland in Manchester is just a few hundred yards away from where HMV was. If Poundland can survive what was it with that branch of HMV that meant it couldn't?

Bri
 
The one in Oxford Street (was in Oxford Street :thumbsdow) moved to the opposite side of the road some years ago from their original site. Then they moved back again and the layout was changed to make it seem smaller. But an extra floor was used so it might be that the cubic footage could have been the same but just looked smaller. Either way it isn't there anymore so it's all academic. :(
 
The one in Oxford Street (was in Oxford Street :thumbsdow) moved to the opposite side of the road some years ago from their original site. Then they moved back again and the layout was changed to make it seem smaller. But an extra floor was used so it might be that the cubic footage could have been the same but just looked smaller. Either way it isn't there anymore so it's all academic. :(

You may well be right but I agree with @Se7en. It seemed very cramped. Didn't they have a really big store on the same side of the road but nearer to Marble Arch at one point?

Bri
 
You may well be right but I agree with @Se7en. It seemed very cramped. Didn't they have a really big store on the same side of the road but nearer to Marble Arch at one point?

Bri

Not on the same side from what I can remember. If you stand outside the original store site facing the other side of the road the second move was to one's left not that much further along. Now that would be (slightly) nearer to Marble Arch and it's possible that's what you meant by being "nearer to Marble Arch". That may well have been a bigger store until they moved back again and I remember going in there on occasions.
 
Not on the same side from what I can remember. If you stand outside the original store site facing the other side of the road the second move was to one's left not that much further along. Now that would be (slightly) nearer to Marble Arch and it's possible that's what you meant by being "nearer to Marble Arch". That may well have been a bigger store until they moved back again and I remember going in there on occasions.

I'm going back quite a long time. I can definitely remember being in there in 1986.

Bri
 
I'm going back quite a long time. I can definitely remember being in there in 1986. Bri

Hmm, well i've been a licensed London taxi driver for over forty years and I can't remember that one. Having said that i'm not right all of the time.... just most of.... :D ;)
 
Glad it has been saved, but such a shame for all those that are losing their jobs.

I was in London over New Year and visited the Oxford one for the first time, wasn't as big as I expected. My local store is staying (Doncaster) but Meadowhall is closing, probably more expensive rents, I'll have to find a new retreat during shopping trips now.

I remember going into a large HMV years ago, sure it was near Piccadilly Circus, maybe in the Trocadero? That was much more impressive than the Oxford Street one.
 
I'm going back quite a long time. I can definitely remember being in there in 1986.

Bri

I think you're right, Brian.

My (admittedly hazy) recollection was that there were three record shops on Oxford Street in the 80's: a Virgin Megastore near Tottenham Court Road Tube station, a HMV nearer Oxford Circus Tube and a HMV (or maybe it was another Virgin?) right at the other end near Marble Arch.

It was a very long trek on foot if you were comparing prices between them!
 

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