HMV next. That one has been on the cards for some time.

It has but I was keeping everything crossed that it would find a way out of its difficulties. I love shopping there. Bought all my Christmas CDs and DVDs from there just a few weeks ago. They are very reasonably priced nowadays, at least in the St Helens store they are anyway. And I love the atmosphere as I wander around and see what is available before I buy something.

I'm as gutted to see HMV go as I was when Woolies went, and in part for the same reason: they both played a massive part in my yoof. But I also still valued and used them as an adult. The branch in St Helens was always pretty busy. Not as packed as in their heyday but still usefully busy. Most people still buy DVDs and CDs according to recent figures but buy online instead of instore. Pity that. One day people will wake up and wonder why there aren't any shops left when they actually need them, and that's because they didn't bother going to them when they didn't.

I've seen that claim a lot on Twitter tonight but here in Sintellins they are cheap as chips. Most of their CDs are under a tenner. Well under in some cases and there are always two for one deals. DVDs cheap too. Box sets vary in price but some are exceptionally good value.


We have one option here but I've never been in there and so don't know what it offers. I guess I may find out soon enough. But I doubt they will offer the range of DVDs and CDs that HMV offers here. They have been around in Sintellins for ever.


I suppose if the investor was rich enough and creative enough it would be possible. After all, according to latest stats, most people still buy CDs and DVDs rather than download them, it's just that a large chunk of those people buy them online. HMV might have survived had they not been bogged down with other lines, like Waterstones, their live music side, Canadian purchase, etc. Although I think they took too long to lower their prices. Mind you, having rent to pay (especially rents as high as they have been) that was bound to limit how low they could go with their prices.

Levi jeans is a specific thing that Charles Fishman talks about in [iThe Wal-Mart Effect[/i. He says that, via marketing in Wal-Mart stores, and then being driven down in price over a sustained period, the quality of Levi jeans has declined.

Over 4,000 jobs to go at HMV ...

Over priced compared to what? No high street retailer can compete on price with a warehouse in the middle of nowhere with half a dozen staff.

Where does it end? If it were 4000 workers losing their factory jobs HM Gov would be all over it, over 5000 retail jobs in less than a week is a disaster.

Will WHSmiths be next? Boots maybe?

Probably a whole shopping mall at this rate.

Argos. Perhaps Homebase along with them, or HRG may split the two.

Compared to operators who were long exploiting a tax loophole that has recently been closed.

It's amazing how people lament the likes of Starbucks and Vodafone for "immoral" exploitation of tax loopholes and yet let those same morals go out of the window if it means a few cheap DVDs.

Which begs BG's question again.

Given the amount that we depend on retail for the sake of the national economy as a whole, the game of never-ending cutting of prices will actually continue to lose jobs.

How are these going to be replaced? After all, it was the retail sector that wrote an open letter to Gideon in the autumn of 2010 begging him to cut and cut again, promising that they'd make up the jobs.

To repeatThe Wal-Mart Effect[/i is an excellent illustration of how constant price cutting loses jobs and reduced quality.

It's short-sighted in the extreme.

Apparently the directors of HMV visited the offices of PWC yesterday but then found a cheaper administrator online...

Then again, Wal-Mart are the worlds second biggest employer, after the Chinese army and ahead of the NHS. (Or at least that's what one of the NHS IT providers told me)

And if Wal-Mart wasn't around there would still be stores selling the same goods to the same people.

Wal-Mart and stores like them syphon money out of local areas where local businesses they have put out of business put money into the local area.