Is the High Street doomed

[brogdale]

Oddbins.

Again.

Oddbins wine chain calls in administrators

honestly thought they were dead already

 

[cupid_stunt]

Sunrise Records owner to keep 100 of chain’s 127 stores, safeguarding 1,500 jobs.

A Canadian music entrepreneur has rescued HMV from collapse, taking over 100 shops and safeguarding 1,500 jobs.

Doug Putman, who runs the Canadian record retailer Sunrise Records, has bought the UK music and film retailer after emerging as the leading contender over the weekend, heading off competition from Mike Ashley, the Sports Direct boss.

HMV bought by Canadian music store mogul Doug Putman

Great news that they knocked Ashley out of getting it, good news 100 shops are saved, shame about the 27 closing down.

 

[Lord Camomile]

Great news that they knocked Ashley out of getting it

While acknowledging I know nothing of Sunrise, this is almost always a positive.

good news 100 shops are saved, shame about the 27 closing down.

Yeah, that, basically.

Although again, not sure how righteous I can get given I haven't bought anything from HMV in years.

 

[cupid_stunt]

While acknowledging I know nothing of Sunrise, this is almost always a positive.

Apparently Sunrise took over HMV's Canadian stores, after they went tits-up last time around, so they have some experience of turning around failed HMV stores, hopefully that experience transfers to the UK's changing market.

 

[skyscraper101]

Doug Putman seems to put a lot of faith in better vinyl selections being the answer to HMV's problems. Time will tell I guess.

 

[cybershot]

Great news that they knocked Ashley out of getting it, good news 100 shops are saved, shame about the 27 closing down.

The 27 have been announced according to HMV store closures detailed as:

Ayr, Bath, Bluewater, Bristol Cribbs, Chichester, Exeter Princesshay, Fopp Bristol, Fopp Glasgow Byres, Fopp Manchester, Fopp Oxford, Glasgow Braehead, Guernsey, Hereford, Manchester Trafford, Merry Hill, Oxford Street, Peterborough Queensgate, Plymouth Drake Circus, Reading, Sheffield Meadowhall, Southport, Thurrock, Tunbridge Wells, Uxbridge, Watford, Westfield London and Wimbledon.

according to local news sources, the above 27 are already closed as of this morning.

 

[skyscraper101]

Oxford Street. That's their flagship.

The rents must be a pretty penny though.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Good to see Worthing will survive.

Although, I admit to not having been in it for bloody years.

 

[Pickman's model]

Good to see Worthing will survive.

Although, I admit to not having been in it for bloody years.

yeh i thought you'd been out of it for a while

 

[cybershot]

Oxford Street. That's their flagship.

The rents must be a pretty penny though.

They'll be nothing left on Oxford Street soon other than people selling tatty souvenirs

 

[brogdale]

They'll be nothing left on Oxford Street soon other than people selling tatty souvenirs

How very emblematic.

 

[skyscraper101]

Pulling out of Westfield too, Cribbs Causeway in Bristol, Trafford Centre, Manchester, and the Oracle in Reading. Definitely slashing them mall rents.

I wonder if the closure of Wimbledon means the HMV Curzon Cinema will now go?

 

[cupid_stunt]

I wonder if the closure of Wimbledon means the HMV Curzon Cinema will now go?

That's a joint venture between HMV & Curzon Cinemas, so if this deal doesn't include the cinema, I guess Curzon will take full control.

 

[hash tag]

Very pleased to see HMV survive, for now, but Oxford St
I am saddened by this, but very very sad for the staff, the staff were great, very knowledgeable, friendly and helpful.
Now, where is my nearest branch and what about my points?

 

[hash tag]

Returning back to the early question about the high street generally, I am coming round to the opinion that it is finished as I knew it.
Local and very well to do shopping streets include Northcote Road, Fulham Road and Putney High Street and they all have their
share of vacant premises. Same goes for Covent Garden I saw last night.
The world is changing and I am not sure it is for the better
I like shops, browsing, chatting to staff.......

 

[weepiper]

At last, some good news:

Brighthouse to close 30 shops and cut jobs

 

[Dogsauce]

Pulling out of Westfield too, Cribbs Causeway in Bristol, Trafford Centre, Manchester, and the Oracle in Reading. Definitely slashing them mall rents.

Might also be that if they’re going to specialise in vinyl stuff then that’s probably not the sort of thing your average mall shopper is into, more one for the city centre hipster crowd.

 

[cybershot]

The ones closing are ones where they couldn’t re-negotiate rent. So I don’t think there’s any business plan behind those closures other than reducing the rent bill. Plenty of malls left in the 100 that survive.

 

[hash tag]

Does anyone know which ones will remain?

 

[cupid_stunt]

Does anyone know which ones will remain?

All those that are not closing.

 

[Reno]

Does anyone know which ones will remain?

A friend on Facebook posted a list with all the branches which are closing a couple of day ago. Can't be bothered to trawl through Facebook, I'm sure a quick google should get you there.

 

[chilango]

Does anyone know which ones will remain?

Which HMV stores are going to close?

 

[hash tag]

Yes, thank you chilango, I know most stores near me are closing, I am trying to find the nearest that will stay open!

 

[cupid_stunt]

Yes, thank you chilango, I know most stores near me are closing, I am trying to find the nearest that will stay open!

HMV Store Finder | hmv.com

 

[newbie]

Returning back to the early question about the high street generally, I am coming round to the opinion that it is finished as I knew it.
Local and very well to do shopping streets include Northcote Road, Fulham Road and Putney High Street and they all have their
share of vacant premises. Same goes for Covent Garden I saw last night.
The world is changing and I am not sure it is for the better
I like shops, browsing, chatting to staff.......

well... it depends on your perspective really doesn't it? I still think of Northcote Rd as a grotty street market selling even worse quality tatties than the stalls in Brixton, with dingy shops and down at heel punters. As a young community activist I briefly tried to help people in the impoverished local streets. Every time I go there I'm still unnerved by the transformation into 'very well to do' Nappy Valley. Same with Fulham Road, a right dump for most of its length, though less so with Putney. I worked portering in the old Covent Garden market and then knew people who squatted there after it closed and became semi derelict.

My point being that you're noting the passing of a brief phase, one in which posh money has colonised formerly working class areas, with all sorts of resultant gentrification and social exclusion. The extent to which those changes, and the shops and shopping that exemplify them, are a good thing is a matter of some doubt, at least in my mind. Of course, a brief glimpse at the architecture reveals that those places were built for the monied classes and that perhaps it was their decline in prosperity that was the exception, not subsequently regaining it.

We're all prey to nostalgia, but it doesn't necessarily reveal much except about ourselves.

 

[skyscraper101]

I just can't think why I'd ever go into an HMV these days.

Yet, back in the 90s I could spend a whole afternoon just hanging out at the listening posts, or playing 12" house records on the decks, or just browsing. I used to make specific trips into town just to go to HMV. It really just shows how much the internet and streaming has disrupted everything.

It's sad because I pass the Oxford St store every day on my way to work and I like the decor on the front with the neon pink and the Nipper the dog logo. But it's just full of plastic and merchanside that I have no interest in buying. Now, if 12" records came down a bit in price and they replaced all their CDs with vinyl, and started specialising in dance music again, then I'd have a reason to go in.

 

[newbie]

then I'd have a reason to go in

Would you though? There are a number of vinyl shops in Soho, just round the corner. Looking back from (I'm guessing, please don't take offence) your 40s to what you did in your 20s is all very well but.

Droves of 20-somethings now don't spend their time listening to artifacts in shops, although history documentaries show people wearing peculiar clothes doing it. Just the other day we had to explain what a 7" was, what 45rpm meant, to a young 'un who looked at us like we were discussing a typewriter or Penny Farthing or something.

I know plenty of people who appear convinced that what they grew up with is so superior to any modern equivalent, despite all the evidence... analogue watches, cars you can work on yourself, feet & inches, FM radio, chisels 'made in Sheffield' with wooden handles, .... I'd add vinyl but that causes more arguments than other examples ... valve amps, books, British bikes (well, ok that's a bit farfetched), tweed jackets, fountain pens, open fires, Marathons and Curlie Wurlies, Tiswas and so on.... the corner shopkeeper who knew all their customers...

This thread appears to be adding chainstores to that list.

Maybe the relatively short age of bland, identikit highstreet shopping (interleaved in better off places with the independents we're all supposed to value so much) really was a golden age and, as with streaming music or cars that just work, having a choice of everything (not what the shop buyer chose for you) then placing an order at midnight to be delivered a day or two later is a change too far. Maybe.

 

[xenon]

Used to buy stuff in the Bristol Fop one, when I was a student. Think this was before HMV had it. Actually I think it was called Replay Records then... Why I stopped. First the ease of being able to find what I want, in stock and browse on the internet. Then later, ditching physical media altogether in favour of purchasing downloads / streaming.

Bootique type record shops, well, I don't know if they're thriving but there are a few. Rough Trade shop here sells books and has DJ nights. Another place has a bar as well, in his tiny shop. I spose it could work if HMV go more into specialising in particular genres, enthusiastic music geek staff on hand, stick a coffee bar in there too or something.

 

[DotCommunist]

HMV Store Finder | hmv.com

local press woman was saying Kettering branch is saved. My cup runneth over. Good that people there are still in a job tho.
Corby is going all out to rejuvenate its town centre apparently, reducing rents and organizing stuff. Kettering, eh not so much. It was never exactly a palace to mammon anyway but now its even quieter than ever.

 

[Pickman's model]

local press woman was saying Kettering branch is saved. My cup runneth over. Good that people there are still in a job tho.
Corby is going all out to rejuvenate its town centre apparently, reducing rents and organizing stuff. Kettering, eh not so much. It was never exactly a palace to mammon anyway but now its even quieter than ever.

i've always wondered, what's kettering like?