The Retail Apocalypse (Incorporating Casual Dining Closures)

I want the Infinity War, Deadpool 2 and Pacific Rim 2 4K blu-rays, ordered Infinity War from eBay for £13.99, but HMV have an exclusive Deadpool 2 Super Dooper cut steelbook 4k for £14.99 which is cheaper than everyone else for the regular one so will hopefully grab that today. Pacific Rim looks to be £20 everywhere.
HMV have it in their 2 for £30 offer as well.

Partridge Iciclebubbles wrote:Is this our fault?

Yes.

Purehmv has been taken offline too, i had over 230,000 points on my card.

If the business isn't saved, then i'm gonna have to find somewhere else (not Amazon) to pre-order my films, any recommendations?

HMV stayed away from online for way too long as they believed it would hurt their core physical store business but all they did was allowed other online companies to hurt their business instead. If they had the foresight they should have launched an online streaming service, music, TV and film. These were all things suggested over a decade ago but they refused to consider it.

Often industry leaders die after failing to adapt as they only look short term and all they can see if that they have to damage their business short term, lay off big numbers of staff as they change their business model.

Toys R Us were they same.

Return_of_the_STAR wrote:HMV stayed away from online for way too long as they believed it would hurt their core physical store business but all they did was allowed other online companies to hurt their business instead. If they had the foresight they should have launched an online streaming service, music, TV and film. These were all things suggested over a decade ago but they refused to consider it.

Often industry leaders die after failing to adapt as they only look short term and all they can see if that they have to damage their business short term, lay off big numbers of staff as they change their business model.

Toys R Us were they same.

I'm surprised Morrisons aren't more strawberry floated than they already are considering how long they went completely ignoring online delivery up until a few years ago, and even now it's still limited to certain parts of the UK and it's rolling out at a snail's pace.

Mafro wrote:

Return_of_the_STAR wrote:HMV stayed away from online for way too long as they believed it would hurt their core physical store business but all they did was allowed other online companies to hurt their business instead. If they had the foresight they should have launched an online streaming service, music, TV and film. These were all things suggested over a decade ago but they refused to consider it.

Often industry leaders die after failing to adapt as they only look short term and all they can see if that they have to damage their business short term, lay off big numbers of staff as they change their business model.

Toys R Us were they same.

I'm surprised Morrisons aren't more strawberry floated than they already are considering how long they went completely ignoring online delivery up until a few years ago, and even now it's still limited to certain parts of the UK and it's rolling out at a snail's pace.

Morrisons is the only main supermarket here in town, and most of the time it's a struggle to even get hold of some of the basics let alone things like movies.

I only started shopping for movies online with HMV because their shelf was a joke which no one bothered updating when any new releases came out.

Speaking of which, some new movies (such as Slender Man) came out on disc a couple of days ago, i know it wasn't a big release, but they still haven't updated the shelf (it was the same too when Infinity War came out).

Vermi-Claus wrote:

Winckle wrote:

Vermi-Claus wrote:Looked at Amazon as a possible alternative for pre-orders, and unless i fork out a fortune for prime, each order has a regular delivery charge of £2.99, daylight bloody robbery, they can strawberry float right off.

Amazon FAQs wrote:Deliveries to the UK
Orders including £10 or more of eligible books, dispatched by Amazon, qualify for FREE Delivery. All orders of £20 or more of eligible items, dispatched by Amazon, across any product category also qualify for FREE Delivery.

That's all very well, but you may not have noticed that it only applies to orders of over £20, which ain't a lot of use when pre-ordering a single blu ray.

Not only that, but the last time i was pre-ordering from amazon, my orders were either late, or not showing up at all.

This may sound crazy, but hear me out. Wait until there are two films you want, then pre-order both.

I've been using hmv a bit recently mostly for the two 4K blu rays for 30.

It's nice to have a place to look at random horror movies.

The Sunderland store got rid of all games and instead sells Xbox credit. The metro centre store is next to a huge GAME and had much like the Newcastle store... A lot of funkos. I don't mind the odd one but compared to say Infinity War on dvd, blu ray and 4k, how many people are going to buy a pixelated Altered Beast Funko and pay 20 for it.

It's a very odd shop, they push vinyl but most serious collectors would go independent or online. They sell headphones but no sound systems.

GAME STOP in the USA is in a bad position and when Sony and Microsoft announce that next gen will pay extra for disc drives it'll be the end of GAME.

I was in GAME before Christmas to get a gift card for my nephew and the amount of tat they sell in there now is amazing. The store was about a 50/50 split between actual games and gaming tat.

Winckle wrote:

Vermi-Claus wrote:

Winckle wrote:

Vermi-Claus wrote:Looked at Amazon as a possible alternative for pre-orders, and unless i fork out a fortune for prime, each order has a regular delivery charge of £2.99, daylight bloody robbery, they can strawberry float right off.

Amazon FAQs wrote:Deliveries to the UK
Orders including £10 or more of eligible books, dispatched by Amazon, qualify for FREE Delivery. All orders of £20 or more of eligible items, dispatched by Amazon, across any product category also qualify for FREE Delivery.

That's all very well, but you may not have noticed that it only applies to orders of over £20, which ain't a lot of use when pre-ordering a single blu ray.

Not only that, but the last time i was pre-ordering from amazon, my orders were either late, or not showing up at all.

This may sound crazy, but hear me out. Wait until there are two films you want, then pre-order both.

Vermi-Claus wrote:

Partridge Iciclebubbles wrote:Is this our fault?

Yes.

Purehmv has been taken offline too, i had over 230,000 points on my card.

If the business isn't saved, then i'm gonna have to find somewhere else (not Amazon) to pre-order my films, any recommendations?

I was just in HMV and they asked me if I had a membership card, so they're still giving out points it seems.

Winckle wrote:This may sound crazy, but hear me out. Wait until there are two films you want, then pre-order both.

Of course, why didn't i think of that! But wait, when you find yourself eligable for free shipping, it is 3-5 days with no chance of it showing up on release day, for that service it is still £2.99!

HMV on the other hand was free delivery for all orders over £10, and orders used to arrive on the day of release.

Amazon really do have an incredibly crappy delivery setup.

Sleighamorph wrote:I was just in HMV and they asked me if I had a membership card, so they're still giving out points it seems.

The website currently says 'down for maintenance'

Not exactly a coincidence though if you ask me.

What HMV probably should have done is shuttered all their high street stores sooner with the exception of a few flagship stores such as Oxford Street, Glasgow, Westfield etc and focussed more strongly online. Their deals online throughout the year have been very good (their 2 for £30 offer changes all the time for example), and they have various exclusives, but I don't know if these were also reflected in-store, and of course business rates, taxes, staff wages and so on has to be factored in.

Physical media is also a sector where you have to sell a lot, and these days that's obviously not happening. There's no money in DVDs whatsoever. Launch at £10 a copy or less and within 6 months they're with Music Magpie, discounters and stacked to the roof in Poundland for the equivalent of a bag of peanuts.

In terms of electrical, they wouldn't have the buying power to compete, though they did had a few good offers on Beats recently.

Sympathy goes out to the 2000+ staff though, who may find themselves kicking off the new year unemployed, in what may be quite a turbulent economic 2019.

Vermi-Claus wrote:

Winckle wrote:This may sound crazy, but hear me out. Wait until there are two films you want, then pre-order both.

Of course, why didn't i think of that! But wait, when you find yourself eligable for free shipping, it is 3-5 days with no chance of it showing up on release day, for that service it is still £2.99!

HMV on the other hand was free delivery for all orders over £10, and orders used to arrive on the day of release.

Amazon really do have an incredibly crappy delivery setup.

They really don't, in fact the opposite is true, they may have the best delivery setup in the country. It just so happens to be gated behind Prime, which you don't want to pay for. Being able to order stuff and have it arrive the same day is wonderful and has saved me many trips to the shops.

A few years ago, a RAM stick in my computer failed and was causing crashes. I was able to order a replacement on Prime Now and have it delivered less than 3 hours later.

Got to agree wity Winckle here. Amazon's delivery service is second to none - as long as you're happy to subscribe to Prime. Given the cost and hassle of heading into town you may as well get Prime.

The funny thing is a decade ago the board of directors at HMV were advised to make their online presence stronger and enter the streaming market. Said directors sniffed at the likes of Netflix and co being the future. THAT'S why Britain's high streets are dying - dinosaurs with no vision are running the show.

"Well in my book you either do it right, or you get eliminated"

Winckle wrote:They really don't, in fact the opposite is true, they may have the best delivery setup in the country. It just so happens to be gated behind Prime, which you don't want to pay for. Being able to order stuff and have it arrive the same day is wonderful and has saved me many trips to the shops.

A few years ago, a RAM stick in my computer failed and was causing crashes. I was able to order a replacement on Prime Now and have it delivered less than 3 hours later.

Bloody hell it's hard for anyone to compete with 3 hour delivery.
The fastest service I have available from them is next day so I assume you live right next to a distribution hub?

Peter Crisp wrote:

Winckle wrote:They really don't, in fact the opposite is true, they may have the best delivery setup in the country. It just so happens to be gated behind Prime, which you don't want to pay for. Being able to order stuff and have it arrive the same day is wonderful and has saved me many trips to the shops.

A few years ago, a RAM stick in my computer failed and was causing crashes. I was able to order a replacement on Prime Now and have it delivered less than 3 hours later.

Bloody hell it's hard for anyone to compete with 3 hour delivery.
The fastest service I have available from them is next day so I assume you live right next to a distribution hub?

Pizza only takes 20 minutes, 3 hours for a stick of RAM doesn’t sound that impressive.

Do you all l live in fairly rural areas or something? I live in a smaller town and virtually never need to order any thing online as I can always find what I need near me.

I'll usually look up prices on Amazon as virtually all retailers here will price match them but I've stopped buying most things from them as it's more of a hassle to send stuff back if there's an issue.

And they deliver on Sundays.

Back to HMV, I'm wondering what, if anything, will replace the unit in Regent Arcade in Cheltenham?

Gemini73 wrote:"Well in my book you either do it right, or you get eliminated"

While I agree it's hard for most companies to be able to do it right as they don't have billions to be able to absorb early losses as they buy a fleet of vehicles, hire thousands of staff and build a nationwide chain of delivery hubs.
If I wanted to try and start a company now to compete I seriously don't think I'd get any change out of £5B if I wanted the company to survive for any length of time and even then it would most likely fail as I doubt even that would be enough to also advertise the new service.