HMV to close 60 shops across the UK this year...

[vinteuil]

" Originally Posted by mathias broucek
"... where's a bloke supposed to hide while his prettier half is clothes shopping..."

Be gay - it negates the dilemma!

visualnickmos - why are you assuming that Broucek is not gay, with a prettier partner?

[mikerotheatrenestr0y]

Three words: one in favour of HMV online, which often has excellent pre-release bargains - but buy early, or the price shoots up [I got my Dutton John Foulds this way, but was too late fo Doctor Atomic - they also had cheap Mark Padmores]. A second in favour of The Collector's Room in Endless Street, Salisbury, opposite the bus station. Edward Dowdell ran iot for years, after moving here from Essex, and when he retired to California it was taken over by Matthew the painter whose pictures adorn the covers of many BIS releases. All that has changed is greater sensitivity to English folk, so you can buy June Tabor's boxed set, as well as shedloads of classical secondhand [some vinyl remnants], jazz secondhand, and even some obscure European jazz/pop - as well as an excellent ordering service and a fine selection of latest releases and classic versions. The clientele is pretty good, too, and includes Chris Newman from this board.

Third word: make your will NOW, and express the intention that your fine collection of CDs be sold to The Collector's Room [what will happen otherwise?!?] Think of it as The Dogs' Trust.

BTW, it's the secondhand bookshops I feel sorry for, who cannot possibly compete with organised Oxfam which doesn't have to buy its stock from anyone. Charity can take away people's livelihoods.

Apart from that, Nipper can stick his head right into his horn.

Is this the way capitalism works? Salisbury had an excellent local firm of booksellers, Ottakar's, with branches in several other towns nearby, including Andover. Waterstone's bought it out, ran the premises as another branch for a brief while, then closed it, since they already had much larger premises 200 yards away. [Ottakar's ran poetry competitions, writers' circles, author-talks and so on - none of which were taken up by Waterstone's]. So, the profitable smaller firm was bought up by a larger, richer firm, which has now, it seems, become unprofitable... Not asset-stripping; asset-wasting.

[MickyD]

Having read all this gloomy outlook for the future, I was really rather surprised to see Chris O'Reilly's piece in IRR this month - he is in charge of Presto Classical and chairman of Independent Classical Specialists. I quote: "Compared to countries like the USA, the United Kingdom is still doing reasonably well for independent classical CD shops and hopefully we can keep it that way for many years to come."

I very much hope he is right. Here in France, rumour has it that some eight of the fifty-odd Harmonia Mundi boutiques are due for closure, and some of them in big towns, too. All very sad, because they are nice places in which to browse and sample CDs.

[vinteuil]

from 'The Times' this morning -

"The music industry has come out fighting for HMV after supply fears sent the company’s shares to a new low.
Seven leading executives, including the heads of the four largest record labels, have written to The Times pledging to support HMV through its recent difficulties and praising its contribution to the music industry.
Up to 700 jobs will be created as part of the scheme when it admitted it was in danger of breaching its banking covenants. The covenants will be tested in April and it is understood that KPMG’s debt advisory team may ask its banking syndicate to waive that test in return for a fee.
HMV was shaken by the removal of trade credit insurance to its suppliers, with its shares falling as low as 22¾p, down 13 per cent, before recovering to close at 25½p, a fall of 3 per cent. Insurers’ decisions to pull credit cover contributed to the downward spiral that claimed Woolworths two years ago.
HMV had already outlined plans to close 60 stores, including 20 branches of its Waterstone’s chain, to cut its rent bill and to give it more headroom on its financial covenants, which relate to its property costs.
Because the store disposals will not be completed before then, the retailer has decided to secure its position by opening negotiations with its lenders.
Signatories to the letter in support of HMV include David Joseph, chairman and chief executive of Universal Music UK; Ged Doherty, chairman and chief executive of Sony Music UK; Christian Tattersfield, chief executive of Warner Music UK, and Andria Vidler, chief executive of EMI Music in Britain and Ireland.
They write: “It is business as usual. We are each continuing to supply HMV with our music and they are continuing to do much more than sell it; their unique approach plays a vital role in breaking new artists and supporting British culture in the broadest sense. HMV is at the heart of our industry, and they have full support from each of us.”
The letter was also signed by the heads of Ministry of Sound Group, Beggars Group and Domino, the independent label that is home to Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand.
Record labels and publishers see HMV, the last significant high street entertainment retailer, as a vital sales channel because they fear the consequences of customers buying only through supermarkets and online.


There was also support for Waterstone’s, Britain’s largest bookstore chain, from the publishing industry.
Random House said Waterstone’s was a valued customer: “We are trading with them under our normal terms. It is business as usual.”
HMV yesterday tried to allay fears in the City over its position by releasing a statement to the Stock Exchange saying that it maintained “excellent relations” with suppliers.
Chief executive Simon Fox said: “As we said today, we don’t have any supplier issues and it’s very encouraging to see the industry supporting us so publicly, which they didn’t have to do.”
HMV has rejected parallels with previous high street casualties, such as Woolworths and Zavvi, by pointing out that it continued to generate cash and was profitable. Analysts expect a pre-tax profit this year of £46 million, even after its poor Christmas period, when like-for-like sales fell by 13.6 per cent.
Under Mr Fox, HMV has sought to broaden beyond book, CD and DVD sales, which have declined as customers flock to the internet and supermarkets.
It bought MAMA, a live music venue operator, and opened mobile phone concessions in stores. Mr Fox said earlier this month that sales of technology products, a relatively new category for HMV, had performed strongly over Christmas and that he intended to accelerate its extension across its 285 UK stores. "

[visualnickmos]

visualnickmos - why are you assuming that Broucek is not gay, with a prettier partner?

A wild guess based on nothing but stereo-typing. Maybe he [Broucek] does have a very pretty male partner - it does happen....! But my money's on him being straight....

[mathias broucek]

A wild guess based on nothing but stereo-typing. Maybe he [Broucek] does have a very pretty male partner - it does happen....! But my money's on him being straight....

Am pleased to have created a small amount of mystery but my better half (Etherea?) is very much female.

I was however serious about not knowing what to do when stranded in a town centre with no book shop or record shop! Anyone who says, "don't go shopping" has clearly never met Etherea!

[VodkaDilc]

On visiting my local HMV today, I found that the Classical department had been moved from its self-contained lower floor sanctuary and relocated on the top floor with the DVDs. Still a reasonable selection, but it seems like the beginning of a trend. Pop CDs have been relegated to the lower floor, in order to make room for more games and gadgets on the busier ground floor.

Obviously orders from above. Has this happened in other branches this week?

[Old Grumpy]

Our local (Newcastle upon Tyne) was reorganised a few weeks ago - I thought they were closing - boxes all over the floor and empty display stands. It turns out these were the new stands for all the "gadgets".

The classical/jazz/blues section does seem to be a bit run down stock-wise though, I don't think they must carry the level of stock they used to. It is still in the same place as before though.

OG

[Chris Newman]

For the last three years my HMV has only sold CfM discs in their classical dept. Poo to them!