Does anyone still shop at HMV?

They shouldn't be wasting their time demanding assurances/occupying.

Well the Irish stores are a different situation, as it's a separate company that was put into receivership - not administration - literally hours after Deloitte was appointed yesterday. It's more akin to the Game situation months ago, where much of the UK business was saved (for now) while the Irish stores and their staff were cast adrift with no guarantee of owed wages, etc.

I meant that from an employees perspective of a company going into liquidation and I suppose this is more of a complicated situation. I still maintain that if I was a HMV employee right now my ebay account would be doing some serious trading. Fuck going through hardship while some fat fuck is still living well because they are paid by a holding company or something. Once I spent a day installing floodlights at my bosses house in torrential rain even though he knew the company was going to be liquidated the next day and the monthly wages were not going to be paid. Lost out loads in o/t, bonuses and retainers. You have to take control of the situation or just end up feeling belittled and exploited.

When Freddie Laker's Skytrain went bust, his 'attitude' to the stranded travellers meant he went from "friendly uncle" to "ruthless capitalist" overnight in the public's view.

Does anybody know whether HMV are still accepting points on the HMV loyalty card, or whether it's the same story as with their gift vouchers?

Only redeemable against ancient overstock cassingles of Bros's 'I Owe You Nothing'

xpost almost certainly worthless now. The pure website is down for 'essential maintenance' http://pure.hmv.com/

Maybe if the rewards scheme was more attractive it may have helped them stave off their current woes by building brand loyalty. However A4 posters of Aaron Eckhart or framed sleeves of the Cornish Fisherman's Choir just not cutting it.

Can't they get the Zutons back together to do a benefit or something?

I had one of those cards, yeah the selection of stuff you could redeem the points for was pretty unimpressive. I ended up using mine on their download store, just odd tracks I'd been looking for - that in itself was a chore though, it wasn't exactly user friendly.

The main HMV website is now replaced by a notice.

Funny, the site was up and trading yesterday...

i actually buy from currys/pc world more than ever tbh. their prices are v. competitive with online & you can reserve items online then go into the store and pick them up. i think i prefer this model to home delivery tbh (as long as the price matches the online stores, which it does usually)

argos is good in this respect too actually

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21055640
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21057345

pcworld/currys and argos in fine health it seems

You could also do that with HMV, reserve/pick up...

No you couldn't. Tried that last year and was told there was a "famine" in the supply chain. Got it from Amazon, and Amazon, rather than HMV, got my money. Hence the mess HMV are in now.

ironically pcworld and argos were on radio this morning citing tablets sales as their saviour and the only place i've ever seen those tablets was in hmv... (although the display model of the nexus 7 wasn't working)

OK, you could "try"..

Waterstones, before christmas, two books I wanted to get for prezzies, both had discounts (one about £10 off), so bought online, for pickup in Bracknell branch, about 2 days later got a notice both were ready.

The VU box of the 1st album, did a lookup and found Bracknell didn't have it but reading did. I don't remember if it was the 'online' price it was being offered at, as I wasn't wanting to actually buy one.

Actually, that's another point... So, HMV REading had one, but I never saw it on display. (Fopp Glasgow did, was there between Xmas/Newyear)

i think Jessie might've beaten me to the punch as the first person to type "Whitefriargate" on ILX

i wonder why they never did 'HMV exclusives'; unique songs you could only buy through the store online like iTunes did? or DID they do that and i just missed it? my copy of the Scott Walker '30 Century Man' DVD came in a nifty loooking 'HMV Exclusive' sleeve with a booklet but i never saw that kind of thing again.

Still wondering about their overseas operations. Both the Japan and Hong Kong websites are still up and running, although I'm not gonna test it by ordering anything from them.

Oh, they used to do that all the time. The "NMTB" sex pistols 2CD set came with some exclusive postcards...

my copy of the Scott Walker '30 Century Man' DVD came in a nifty loooking 'HMV Exclusive' sleeve with a booklet

there is an 'exclusive' hmv version of the new ke$ha album.
tis a differently designed slipcase.

went in this lunch hour and picked up the superb grace jones 2cd set, 'the compass point sessions', for £7.50 which i'm quite chuffed about.
but not a lot has changed, but the staff were running round shuffling stock like their lives depended on it.

There is that "you might keep your job if we get bought" aspect, I can believe it.

dunno where else to put this so to heck with it. figure that probably hardly anyone reads the Popbitch mailout anymore so I don't feel too lame c+p-ing from it

>> Thicker than Waterstone's <<
The high street's last stand

Last October, HMV overhauled their
staff policy. Afraid it was their
workers' body art and sandals that
were driving customers away, bosses
demanded that all extreme tattoos,
piercings and toes be covered up.

What good did ragging on the staff
do them? None.

So Waterstone's, take heed. Tales
reach us of the training session
you held in which employees were
chastised and berated for three
hours. In between admonishments
they were given such pearls of
customer service wisdom as "If
you see someone browsing the
sport section, shout over 'What's
the score?'" and suggesting that
they deliver soup to the homes
of any regulars who fall ill.

When one employee mentioned he'd
have to make an hour and a half
round trip to deliver soup to any
sick regulars in London, the woman
leading the session pointed to a
picture of a sad face she had drawn
and said "This is what the last
person who challenged me
looked like."

maybe i shd write to Waterstone's and tell them that if any of their staff so much as look at me while i'm in there i will never visit them again

If someone from Waterstones turned up at my house unannounced when I was ill I would probably call the police on them.

Last time I went into a Pret I made a point of singling out the surliest looking staff member and telling them I was fine with this being an anonymous alienated transaction.

woah

it sells the sandwich without a grin or else it gets the hose again

When one employee mentioned he'd
have to make an hour and a half
round trip to deliver soup to any
sick regulars in London, the woman
leading the session pointed to a
picture of a sad face she had drawn
and said "This is what the last
person who challenged me
looked like."

how do these people get/maintain jobs and not fall through the floor into the kind of sulphurous hell they deserve?

i hate the robotic greeting in pret, it's so annoying. i can't look them in the eye, everyone knows it's disgusting and wrong.

i used to work in a waterstones and it was pretty great, but i think there were whisperings then of barbarians at the gates, in respect of hr stuff. think uniforms were just being introduced when i was there.

(xp) Because people keep going into places like Waterstones and spending money there. I'm a Foyles man myself.

But there's not many foyles' outside CXst. Maybe they should expand and set up shops in all towns.. oh wait.

I know someone who worked in Pret. They have loads of visits from mystery shoppers and anything less than a perfect score leads to trouble. The worst thing is that the punishment for any one person getting marked down by a mystery shopper is inflicted on the whole team - and everyone knows it was you - so you kinda don't want to be the one who doesn't smile enough or goes too slow.

mystery shoppers presumably easier to spot in hmv as they were the only ones willing to pay £16 for a cd

That mystery shopper thing is why I always try and big up the surly looking one.

I bought a Christmas present at HMV.

Yeah more on Pret here http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/business/pret-a-manger-with-new-fast-food-ideas-gains-a-foothold-in-united-states.html?pagewanted=all

http://thenewinquiry.com/blogs/marginal-utility/pret-a-mourir/

p much otm

I'm all for efficiency and politeness but fuck making people feign hyperactive jollity at all times, especially on that kind of money.

see i'll eat battery eggs whilst bedecked in sweatshop garb but pret, it turns out, is my limit

friend of mine was actually told that if she smiled she'd get her pret coffee free. she walked out

i felt fucking terrible the other day when i bought my first innocent product. it was half price okayyyyy

If you want to see ... all the principles of immaterial and affective labor, Virnoesque virtuosity, lateral surveillance, obligatory reflexivity, emotional management, gamification and so on

long been my dream to witness, tbh

innocent have moved into big branded new skyscraper offices in west ldn where my mum lives, come up from grove and it's like the fucking eye of sauron

give me 10 shards over that, brr

Went and checked on the local branch today and there is a note up on the door about going into receivership and how to contact them. Including a point being made about expected volume of contact so better to try to contact them via a website email address.

Shop still looks like it is fully stocked & has advertising pointed towards the door etc. Will miss being able to browse in there even if the ability to do that comfortably was progressively deteriorating over the last while. I was still finding some interesting and unexpected stuff in the racks up until recently. Sir Cloudesly Shovell the Rise Above label stoner band springs to mind from a few months back.
There were still several titles I had my eyes on last time I was in there. So wonder what next? Is there going to be a major sale happening?

Really do feel sorry for the guys working in there that I half knew.

As Ian says, its up to Charidee Shops now.

If Deloitte is the administrators, the clusterfuck will continue. They are the worst.

They're no Duff & Phelps.

i miss ottokar's, yall remember ottokar's

now that i work in central london i've been coming into contact w/pret more than ever before and i have to say their operation is impressive. the coffee is good. there's not a huge selection but you never have to wait more than a few seconds to get served. i haven't particularly noticed any overweening forced jollity but then again i am american so maybe that sort of thing seems normal to me.

plus the people who work there are cute as all hell.