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Thread: HMV to close all stores in Canada

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    Member Brave73's Avatar
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    HMV to close all stores in Canada

    http://business.financialpost.com/ne...all-102-stores

    One of the last big music retailers in the country, another victim of the digital age.

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    Insect Overlord Progatron's Avatar
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    I'm very fortunate to have a couple of local independent music shops where I can go to find loads of prog and jazz CDs (or vinyl, if I was so inclined). The last few times I was in HMV it was nothing but top 40, unless you wanted a Greatest Hits compilation or Floyd/Zeppelin/Beatles. In fact, music seemed to be the smallest percentage of what was available.
    Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.

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    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    Wow, I thought all traces of HMV were long gone -- I guess just in the US.

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    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Progatron View Post
    The last few times I was in HMV it was nothing but top 40.
    That seems to be the first sign of impending demise. Same thing happened with Tower.

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    Member lak611's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Progatron View Post
    I'm very fortunate to have a couple of local independent music shops where I can go to find loads of prog and jazz CDs (or vinyl, if I was so inclined). The last few times I was in HMV it was nothing but top 40, unless you wanted a Greatest Hits compilation or Floyd/Zeppelin/Beatles. In fact, music seemed to be the smallest percentage of what was available.
    It's the same where I live. I've always preferred local shops anyway, not chains, even back in the 80s when I was a teenager and buying records.

    We have one store that sells used vinyl and most of it is progressive rock.
    Laura

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    Insect Overlord Progatron's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by lak611 View Post
    It's the same where I live. I've always preferred local shops anyway, not chains, even back in the 80s when I was a teenager and buying records.

    We have one store that sells used vinyl and most of it is progressive rock.
    Just down the street from me is an indie shop that's been an institution in this city since I was a teenager, called Looney Tunes. Just one guy (he basically lives there) with a ton of imports, and a large vinyl and used CD section. Hard to navigate the shop with all the junk in the middle of the aisles (turntables, boxes of who-knows-what, private collections that aren't for sale yet, etc.) - at the moment, you can't even get to the "J, K, L" section of CDs without straining and hurting your back... but great fun to come across some gems. It was at this store I discovered Mahavishnu Orchestra all those years ago. And now, in my mid-40s, I still find stuff. Just last week I discovered Spiral Realms - Solar Wind, which he was playing in the store while I browsed. Loved it instantly and bought it on the spot. So, a frustrating but ultimately rewarding experience.

    In the next town over is the marvelous Records On Wheels, owned and operated by PE's own "Birdy", which is a decidedly different experience. Clean, bright, spacious, immaculately kept and with a lot of love put in to the display. Huge prog availability that goes far beyond the usual UK/American bands, many with their own title cards with hand-drawn band logos and descriptions. A joy to shop there. Everything a record store should be, and even more a bonus for the prog fan.

    And finally, whenever I go to Montreal, I hit Freeson Rock on Mont-Royal Est. - a hybrid prog/metal specialty shop (I stick to the prog side) which I have never walked out of without a couple of hundred bucks' worth of discs. Pretty much heaven.

    ... you just don't get experiences like that at a corporate chain who are only interested in moving the latest 'product'. HMV was at one time a respectable place, but times change and it became incredibly narrow on the music field, and began filling its shelves with a bunch of other junk. It just seemed... cheap to me.
    Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.

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    HMV in the UK were on the brink of total failure (they went into administration) about 4/5 years ago. They went wrong IMHO because they had long since lost a sense of purpose and had a pitiful selection of way overpriced back catalogue. I remember one 'genius' relaunch where some bright spark had the idea that selling headphones was to be their saviour. It predictably failed.

    When they were saved they immediately 'got it' and righted the previous wrongs. However, a huge amount of their stores were closed in the process.

    I do wonder about the UK stores now. As I remember it was HMV Canada going through a wobble which preceded the problems in the UK.

  8. #8
    Just all long as Canada doesn't close The Beer Stores, I am good.

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    Insect Overlord Progatron's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Dark Elf View Post
    Just all long as Canada doesn't close The Beer Stores, I am good.
    I would much prefer if Ontario did end that monopoly and give consumers some choice and competitive pricing.
    Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.

    *** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***

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    About five years ago I visited Montreal and I was amazed by the bustling HMV store. It was like being at a Tower in the 1990s. They had a nice sized Prog/Prog Quebec section. They had several Nathan Mahl titles, a shitload of Harmoniums and both Sloches. I bought the Sloche discs and sales girl immediately started talking French. I gestured that I didn't understand and she was very surprised that a non-Quebecois would be buying Prog Quebec titles.

    Given that the place appeared to be thriving in 2012 I'm sorry to hear things went downhill for them.

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    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    HMV in the UK were on the brink of total failure (they went into administration) about 4/5 years ago. They went wrong IMHO because they had long since lost a sense of purpose and had a pitiful selection of way overpriced back catalogue.
    The Tower documentary, "All Things Must Pass," talks about the same thing happening at Tower. Once the chain was sold to some money guys, who had NO CLUE about the record business, they made predictably terrible decisions and their investment evaporated from their fingertips.

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    Member dropforge's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rcarlberg View Post
    The Tower documentary, "All Things Must Pass," talks about the same thing happening at Tower. Once the chain was sold to some money guys, who had NO CLUE about the record business, they made predictably terrible decisions and their investment evaporated from their fingertips.
    Was this before they were sold to the liquidators? I watched ATMP, but I recall the decision was made at the end to sell the whole shebang to (forget the name, something with American in their name) the liquidators, and that spelled the end of the chain as we remember it.

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    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    Yes. The founder was forced out IIRC and the suits ran the business into the ground by trying to sell tchotckes instead of records. They ended liquidating and trying to save their shirts.

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    ^Same thing happened to a record label...
    http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...citigroup.html

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    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    There used to be a huge-ass Virgin Megastore in Times Square -- I assume it's gone now, but I'm hardly ever at Times Square anymore. Anyone know what's there now? Probably two or three places like an ESPN Zone would have been needed to fill that space. How about the Virgin store at Union Square?

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    Jon Neudorf
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    Nope, 102 stores in Canada at the moment. Still frequent the store often, especially when visiting cities like Edmonton or Calgary as their flagship stores still had an excellent selection. And the one in Toronto is pretty massive. In my city there is not a whole lot of choices for music so this is very sad news for me personally. Wish things would change but alas, the digital revolution has beaten down a major player. In a word...FUCK.
    As a side note I too support local shops but this really sucks.

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    Jon Neudorf
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    The above was a response to Jed, post #3.

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    Member dropforge's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    There used to be a huge-ass Virgin Megastore in Times Square -- I assume it's gone now, but I'm hardly ever at Times Square anymore. Anyone know what's there now? Probably two or three places like an ESPN Zone would have been needed to fill that space. How about the Virgin store at Union Square?
    All the Virgin Megastores on this side of the Atlantic are gone now. A number of them exist in Middle Eastern locales. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Megastores

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    Member Ten Thumbs's Avatar
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    Good riddance. They had expensive catalog even in the 90s. They entered Canada with big money backing, buying up chains (for the locations) and opening new stores in most malls, trying to outflank competitors ( they did outlast the other national chains). I'd heard their strategy was they didn't mind losing a lot of money in their first decade here so that they could dominate for the following 20 years.
    I remember tomorrow

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    That's Mr. to you, Sir!! Trane's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    Wow, I thought all traces of HMV were long gone -- I guess just in the US.
    TBH, I don't have memories of HMV (or Tower , FTM) megastores anywhere else but in the UK...

    I mean, when I left Canada in the very early 90's, I don't think there was any HMV anywhere... and when I returned for holidays, I'd look for indies ships

    So this news is really news to me


    Quote Originally Posted by jlneudorf View Post
    Nope, 102 stores in Canada at the moment. Still frequent the store often, especially when visiting cities like Edmonton or Calgary as their flagship stores still had an excellent selection. And the one in Toronto is pretty massive. In my city there is not a whole lot of choices for music so this is very sad news for me personally. Wish things would change but alas, the digital revolution has beaten down a major player. In a word...FUCK.
    As a side note I too support local shops but this really sucks.
    Wow... I guess that totally escaped me... In French-speaking Europe we had FNAC, Virgin and Free Record Shop.fame mega stores, only FNAC (poorly) surviving, but they deal all kinds of stuff ... and in Germany there were Saturn and to a lesser extent Mediamarkt.

    Quote Originally Posted by Ten Thumbs View Post
    Good riddance. They had expensive catalog even in the 90s. They entered Canada with big money backing, buying up chains (for the locations) and opening new stores in most malls, trying to outflank competitors (they did outlast the other national chains). I'd heard their strategy was they didn't mind losing a lot of money in their first decade here so that they could dominate for the following 20 years.
    which other chains? Sam The Record Man, and maybe Records on Wheels I guess

    Yeah, sounds like big capitals trying to kill indies to grasp monipolies... Everything I hate
    Last edited by Trane; 01-30-2017 at 05:55 AM.
    my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.

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    Member TheH's Avatar
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    ^^

    There where HMW stores in Germany, at least in my Hometown Münster there was one. Gone for over 10 years now.

    Mediamarkt is a much lager and more famous chain than Saturn here by the way. Although both belong to the same mother Company
    (Metro). Also both have downsized their CD Department a lot. Only the Saturn in Cologne has (had?) a really huge CD Department.

    Other Megastores where by WOM (World of Music), but most of them are closed now (I think there's one left in Düsseldorf).

    Also there is the Drugstore chain "Müller" who also sell Toys and CD. Some of those stores (not all) have a really huge (for Germany)
    CD Department over several floors (for excample Essen).

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    back in the 80's i used to love visiting my family in Toronto
    and always spent an afternoon browsing in HMV & Sam's on Yonge Street
    lunch at 'The Big Slice' pizza, etc...

  23. #23
    That's Mr. to you, Sir!! Trane's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheH View Post
    ^^

    There where HMW stores in Germany, at least in my Hometown Münster there was one. Gone for over 10 years now.

    Mediamarkt is a much lager and more famous chain than Saturn here by the way. Although both belong to the same mother Company
    (Metro). Also both have downsized their CD Department a lot. Only the Saturn in Cologne has (had?) a really huge CD Department.

    Other Megastores where by WOM (World of Music), but most of them are closed now (I think there's one left in Düsseldorf).

    Also there is the Drugstore chain "Müller" who also sell Toys and CD. Some of those stores (not all) have a really huge (for Germany)
    CD Department over several floors (for excample Essen).
    I used to go to Saturn in Cologne about once or twice a year.But I believe the Saturn in Cologne is probably one of a kind

    Yes, Mediamarkt is generally bigger than Saturn (rare in Benelux), though the rest of the Cologne Saturn store at the end of the small sidestreet is the average size of a Mediamarkt in Belgium or NL.

    Does that Muller store in Essen still have as big a choice as it used to?? Cos I could be tempted to go take a look and adenture in the Ruhrgebiet.
    my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.

  24. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by Progatron View Post
    The last few times I was in HMV it was nothing but top 40, unless you wanted a Greatest Hits compilation or Floyd/Zeppelin/Beatles. In fact, music seemed to be the smallest percentage of what was available.
    Yeah, HMV was barely a music retailer at all for the last few years. They were primarily a DVD store, then came posters, T-shirts, graphic novels, and assorted pop culture collectibles. The place to go if you were looking for, say, Doctor Who salt & pepper shakers, an R2-D2 cookie jar, or Big Bang Theory vinyl figurines, but not much left in the way of music.

  25. #25
    Insect Overlord Progatron's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brad to the Bone View Post
    Yeah, HMV was barely a music retailer at all for the last few years. They were primarily a DVD store, then came posters, T-shirts, graphic novels, and assorted pop culture collectibles. The place to go if you were looking for, say, Doctor Who salt & pepper shakers, an R2-D2 cookie jar, or Big Bang Theory vinyl figurines, but not much left in the way of music.
    Exactly. It was a place I went while my wife shopped in other stores, but apart from chuckling at the odd curiosity ("Hey, a Game Of Thrones coffee mug!"), it was a bit of a puzzling experience. Flipping through the CDs, I often wondered if the listening audience for the current mega pop stars even bought physical product.
    Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.

    *** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***

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