HMV in trouble?

[Larry]

I popped into HMV this morning, trying to get a hold of some nice, Christmas-ey Blu-Rays for us to watch. After some debate, I settled on National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and It's A Wonderful Life, both labelled as being 2 for £25.

I got to the till and the guy couldn't put them through as 2 for £25. So I told him to sod it.

As far as I care, HMV can shut down. They're f***ing useless!

that shouldn't actualy matter I'm pretty sure that if a shop puts a price on an item then they are legaly bound to sell it at that price - and if this guy was having problemes putting it through the till he should of called for the shop manager.

[Anthony Williams]

that shouldn't actualy matter I'm pretty sure that if a shop puts a price on an item then they are legaly bound to sell it at that price - and if this guy was having problemes putting it through the till he should of called for the shop manager.

I don't know whether it's a question of the law, but when I was at Waterstone's, it was definitely company policy that if something was stickered wrong, we had to sell it as stickered (unless it was stickered at a worse deal than it was actually on, in which case we gave it at the better deal...)

I'd have thought that both being part of HMV Group, it might be a uniform policy across the company?

Ant x

[Philipnet]

that shouldn't actually matter I'm pretty sure that if a shop puts a price on an item then they are legally bound to sell it at that price.

I don't know whether it's a question of the law, but when I was at Waterstone's, it was definitely company policy that if something was stickered wrong, we had to sell it as stickered (unless it was stickered at a worse deal than it was actually on, in which case we gave it at the better deal...)

I'd have thought that both being part of HMV Group, it might be a uniform policy across the company?

Ant x

Give me a moment whilst I get my wig on

The legal position is that any stickered/labelled price is an offer. A customer may accept that offer or not. Only when the items are rung up on a till and the customer has exchanged money for them do we reach the legally binding stage. And various Acts are there to allow the customer to receive a refund, for whatever reason, if asked for in a reasonable time-frame.

However, it's always good customer policy to give it to the customer at the cheaper price - the business wants them coming back for more .

[Anthony Williams]

So company policy as opposed to law? Boo-yah! What a guess!

Ant x

[WhiteCrowNZ]

It's kind of interesting, seeing a lot of stores go down that people were quite affectionate about - this is the one everyone always seems to have felt ripped off by ...

[Si Hunt]

Phil is right, the old chestnut about the customer being able to buy it at whatever it's 'stickered up at' is utter myth. If you think about it, it wouldn't work as no-one can prove who actually put the price there - so you'd get people sneakily swapping labels around and then demanding it at that price.

It really annoys me in supermarkets when people start eating things before they've paid for them - not only is it utterly uncouth to turn up at the checkout with a sticky wrapper, but it's not actually yours until you've handed over the money (and the store has chosen to accept it). So it's totally wrong.

Incidentally, Tesco had (and to my knowledge, still have) a store policy of refunding twice the difference on any item labelled incorrectly on the shelf. Before now I've managed to find something stuck up at 50% more than it should be and walked away with it for nothing! It's worth knowing.

Si.

[Larry]

It really annoys me in supermarkets when people start eating things before they've paid for them - not only is it utterly uncouth to turn up at the checkout with a sticky wrapper, but it's not actually yours until you've handed over the money (and the store has chosen to accept it). So it's totally wrong.


Si.

I mainly see this from mothers with very young children where they have given their child a bread roll or some crisps to eat I suppose they just do this to keep them quiet while they do the shopping. But as you say it is wrong as it is technicaly stealing - after all shps will sack on the spot any of their staff caught eating just a single grape.

[Si Hunt]

It's manners, not to mention law. I would buy some grapes as soon as I went in, then give them to the kids to eat while I walked round and did my shop.

Si.

[Llordllama]

I only ever eat the grapes I spot in other people's trollies - so that's all fine and legal.

[Stuart Wallis]

It's therefore fine and dandy to come round and eat the chocolate from your basket then?

[Llordllama]

You'd have to fight the Wife off to get at any chocolate

[Stuart Wallis]

There's no answer to that!

[Si Hunt]

HMV in Peterbrough had the "Police Squad" DVD, that's six half hour episodes of a 30 year old comedy, for £19.99p. That's why they're in trouble.

Si.

[duncan]

My HMV wants £50 for Lost Series 5.

£17.99 on Amazon!

[Stuart Wallis]

There' no answer to that!

[Larry]

There' no answer to that!

er buy it from Amazon..

I'm wanting to get the season box sets of NCIS, i'm probably going to end up getting it from Amazon, but I am going to wait untill i've had a look in HMV, to see if they are doing any 2 for £10 offers or some thing similar..I won't be holding my breath.

[Larry]

HMV in Peterbrough had the "Police Squad" DVD, that's six half hour episodes of a 30 year old comedy, for £19.99p. That's why they're in trouble.

Si.

reckon £10 to £12 would of been reasonable enough for that..

[Si Hunt]

Yes. I'm not trying to goad anyone, and I know that a reason has been given that they have to order one in or something, but I just can't see the excuse for charging around 100% more for a DVD than you'd pay on-line.

More than anything, I find it engenders bad will. That DVD being £20 doesn't affect me personally - they won't be relieving me of twenty quid for it - but I immediately feel for the folks who don't have computers, or don't know any better, and pick it up in ignorance. Why should they be fleeced?

Si.

[Larry]

. Why should they be fleeced?

Si.

no one should be - I'm wanting to buy the NCIS series 1-6 box set as I was in Reading I thought i'd just have a look in HMV , to see how much it cost. When I saw the box set I nearly fell off my wheel chair it was priced at £150 where as on Amazon, you can buy it new for £75, I was very nearly tempted to go and ask one of the shop assistants how they can justify an £80 price difference.

[Captain Tancredi]

The strategy of keeping the widest stock but charging more for it saw them through years when rivals who cut profit margins too deeply went to the wall.

It looks as if they're trying to diversify without really making much of an effort to hold on to their existing customers. The HMV in Leeds city centre- a fairly big one all told, and now the only place you can buy CDs and DVDs outside of supermarkets and specialist shops, has two floors. When I first moved here, the ground floor was CDs from front to back and the first floor was video, DVD and a special section for classical and jazz CDs. Now the ground floor is about a quarter CDs, a quarter DVDs on promotion, a quarter gaming and a quarter general merchandise. The first floor is for DVDs, classical (which was moved downstairs and back up again, losing most of its shelf space in the process) and soundtracks. I think their business plan is based largely on attracting passing trade now and offering deals which seem good enough so that you think it can't possibly be cheaper online- the likes of Mad Men, CSI, Friends and Frasier have been offered in big box sets for reasonable prices compared with the hassle of ordering something which is going to come several days hence when you aren't in.

[Larry]

. When I first moved here, the ground floor was CDs from front to back and the first floor was video, DVD and a special section for classical and jazz CDs..

that must have been the norm for most HMV shops, before the Oracle shopping centre was built the main HMV, shop in Reading was pretty much the same in lay out. Looking around their main shop today I would say at least 60 to 70% of it is devoted to dvd's with the rest taken up by cd's and computer games.

[Rob McCow]

Share Price: start of 2010 - 90p, start of 2011 - 30p. Oh dear.

[Captain Tancredi]

HMV in Leeds today had Torchwood series 1 & 2 for £80...or 1,2 & 3 or £70...

[SiHart]

60 stores to close over the next few months...

They're not gonna make it, are they?

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

It IS a shame, despite what I said previously. I won't miss their expensive CD's and DVD's, but it's still a fun shop to look round, and the calendars, accessories and reduced items are always worth a look. Trouble is, CD's and DVD's are the core of their business!!

"The pace of change in the markets in which we operate underlines the urgency with which we must continue to transform this business," said the firm's chief executive Simon Fox.

All very well, but surely they should have been transforming the business long ago. I notice the use of the word "continue", yet it doesn't to me seem any different than it was five years ago. It's all too late. The supermarkets (one of their attributed reasons for failure) have been cutting in on the CD market for years, what have they done to expand into downloads and/or find a new core product now that physical formats are becoming redundant/cheaper than they can sell them for?

Sadly, I doubt there's much they can do now money is tight. Sadly, because it will be a crying shame if the high street becomes nothing more than rows of clothes shops and supermarkets, yet that's the way it's going.

Si.