Last shop on the High Street (1 Viewer)

[moviepas]

HMV London shop was going for decades in Oxford Street and they also sold appliances like fridges that HMV made. They had a fire mid-1930s and a picture, that might have been in The Gramophone at the time, that showed a man opening a fridge and the light was still on. I would suggest that was a set-up. I used then for mail order for a few items a few years back on DVD and had trouble getting a replacement for a set of the MGM Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple where I was missing a disc and had two of another. Eventually, I had to resort to British Consumer Affairs and in the end I got two sets, one coming express thru a courier service to my front door. The HMV Shop and HMV were eventually unrelated and I guess someone bought rights to use the name and run franchises. The current HMV Shop does not export. Much to the pity. HMV here in Australia closed many years ago now and they had a good magazine and I did buy from their store around the corner from my home in a major enclosed shopping complex. Often the large store had one staff member on. She was often quite rude and I told her so. Virgin had stores and a video label here and many good older British films from the 40s and 50s, in particular, were issued on there label and a rep once gave me a car trunk/boot full of sample VHS. The only trouble was they had time codes the top or bottom of the frame. We still have a couple of chains that have DVD/Blu Rays/CDs, and, now vinyl but majors like Kmart have dropped DVDs/Blu Rays. In the early DVD days Kmart often had 15%-25% off sales that included DVDs about once a month and by 8am on the Thursday there would be crowds, including me, waiting to rush across the store to the DVD area and buy up putting items on layaway at about $2 fee. Those were the days. There are still a few onliners going that send me list and one, Fishpond, a New Zealand firm with Australian facilities is the best and match the new Amazon Australia in that line. They also sell Marketplace, Free postage on everything and will source items from distributors outside Australia and best prices. The actual producers who also have a Store don't match the Fishpond/Amazon prices but do have percentage off sales at special times like Christmas. I don't have to a Prime like service from Fishpond but from this year Amazon Australia has jumped from the introductory $4.99 a month to $6.99 per month. At least if you buy $49.99 per order with overseas items Prime gives me Free postage along with local shipping which is usually next day and a warehouse 20-30mins drive from my home. I don't stream but use You Tube and can download Limited time available TV shows and films from all the local TV networks.

 

[KeithDA]

plus a two hour documentary about Stanley Kubrick

I've struck lucky - my recently purchased (see post 9) HMV Premium Edition of 'Clockwork Orange' has the 'Kubrick - a life in pictures' documentary as an extra!!

 

[KeithDA]

Breaking news about HMV this morning:

Doug Putman, who runs the Canadian record retailer Sunrise Records, has bought the UK music and film retailer.
“We are delighted to acquire the most iconic music and entertainment business in the UK and add nearly 1,500 employees to our growing team. By catering to music and entertainment lovers, we are incredibly excited about the opportunity to engage customers with a diverse range of physical format content, and replicate our success in Canada.

We know the physical media business is here to stay and we greatly appreciate all the support from the suppliers, landlords, employees and most importantly our customers.”

The only down side is that 27 of the 127 shops will close, fortunately my local one here in Darlington has survived!

 

[DP 70]

Good news for some.

 

[David Norman]

I'm assuming this is still about HMV.

If so, hopefully if a Canadian is buying the company they'll start shipping to North America again.
Several of their exclusives are very nice, but costly to get having to buy from a UK buyer and ship internationally which means having to pay VAT, higher shipping costs, and a small profit even for a couple folks that try to do it close to their cost (or got the Ebay route)

 

[DP 70]

I see the flagship HMV store in Oxford Street in London has closed.

 

[TJPC]

Here in the colonies, when you enter a Sunrise records in a former HMV location you would think you were still at HMV if you had not looked at the sign above the entrance.