Does anyone still shop at HMV?

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Don't you still get branches of Sanity at airports, allowing you to buy VAT-free Phil Collins CDs?

― Neil S, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:21 (nineteen years ago)

virgin had that card last year where you got a stamp for every £10 you spent, and then redeemed it for £10 when you got 10 stamps. took me about a year to fill it up.

― lex pretend, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:21 (nineteen years ago)

I have about four of those cards, each with three stamps. bah.

― m the g, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:22 (nineteen years ago)

piccadilly hmv = grate
cambridge hmv = :-/

― unfished business, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:24 (nineteen years ago)

Our Price did that in the early 90s. I remember getting £15 off a Janes Addiction import cd that way. Think I also got Led Zep - Remasters that way too.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:24 (nineteen years ago)

Piccadilly Tower seconded. Separate improv/experimental section! Fantastic world music section as well. They should have concentrated on that branch alone instead of trying to branch out elsewhere.

But yes, increasingly I'll stick to places like Rough Trade, Minus Zero and Sound 323 for the stuff I really want.

Selectadisc is definitely on a downturn. They seem to have very poor stock control so that they appear to have a lot of stuff but never the things you're actually looking for, and the new releases section tends to eb limited to the same sort of generic indie stuff/guff you can get anywhere.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:26 (nineteen years ago)

sp: "be limited"

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:27 (nineteen years ago)

virgin had that card last year where you got a stamp for every £10 you spent, and then redeemed it for £10 when you got 10 stamps. took me about a year to fill it up.

I got through about 5 of them.

― Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:29 (nineteen years ago)

Tower Records disappeared from Glasgow in late 90s i think. It was utter shite for the last few years of it's existence but up until then it was great(though very expensive). Was worth going in just to buy the import magazines alone.
Last time i was in before xmas there was a new shop in it's place. But didn't look any good.
Missing and Avalanche are crap now. I need to pay a visit to Volcanic Tongue sometime, but that's very expensive too. I'm as well doing mail order if i want anything from them. So Monorail is the only one worth visiting now. Unless you need cheap cd's from FOPP.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:29 (nineteen years ago)

What was that building before it was "Tower" ?

Some dept store.

― Mark G, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:29 (nineteen years ago)

HMV seem to be trying to ape the Fopp business model but without realising why Fopp are successful - bunging a few dvd's down to £7.00 ain't gonna save you, fools. Yeah the jazz and classical sections in Virgin Piccadilly are looking distinctly lonely these days. The cold winds are starting to howl...

― Matt #2, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:30 (nineteen years ago)

I lived in london for ten years and never made it to 323. it was just in the wrong part of town... where is minus zero?

― m the g, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:30 (nineteen years ago)

I bought a DVD of "Mon Oncle" with my Virgin card. It all reminded me of why I don't bother with Nectar cards at Sainsbury's in the end.

― Matt #2, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:32 (nineteen years ago)

Just the other side of Portobello Road from Rough Trade, but it's only open on Fridays and Saturdays.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:33 (nineteen years ago)

Sound 323 is a bit of a slog to get to, all the way up Archway.

I really miss These Records round the back of the Imperial War Museum which was dead easy for me to get to. But I guess their policy of not announcing themselves on the shop front and you had to know it was there and ring the correct doorbell before getting in did for them in the end.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:35 (nineteen years ago)

avalance is OK. the glasgow branch is better than edinburgh, at any rate.

volcanic tongue is excellent, but yes, way overpriced for home-made CD-Rs. good second-hand section though, and an unrivalled selection of obscure improvania. on the downside, it's a little one-dimensional in some ways, and I can never go in, browse and not buy.

I love monorail more than my own son. not that I have one, but if I did, he'd come second. great selection, decent prices, lovely, friendly staff and decent cider.

― m the g, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:36 (nineteen years ago)

hmv oxford circus is very good for dvds, stock-wise, but i hardly ever *buy* anything, because it's almost always cheaper online, the end. you get the occasional thing for £3 i guess. the thing with dvds is it's hard to know what exists, so browsing kind of makes sense. then go and buy it cheaper from caiman.

― That one guy that quit, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:36 (nineteen years ago)

I always use the Nectar card at Sainsburys - every few months it buys my girlfriend and I dinner.

― Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:36 (nineteen years ago)

best shops in london = the various MVE branches. notting hill especially.

― m the g, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:37 (nineteen years ago)

Best record shop in London = this charity shop I found that's always getting piles of cheap promos in which I buy for £1 a pop, sell on ebay for a small profit and blow the proceeds at Sound 323 every once in a while. It's all for a good cause all round - everyone wins!

― Matt #2, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:41 (nineteen years ago)

MVE would be best if they'd stop using such ridiculously sticky stickers! Keep seeing things I want in digipaks for a couple of quid but you know trying to get the sticker off will end up tearing half the cover off with it.

― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:43 (nineteen years ago)

I was in the Camden Lock branch of MVE the other day (the one near Fopp) and it seemed to be staffed entirely by twattish gap year students rather than the usual suicide cases. What's up with that, huh?

― Matt #2, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:43 (nineteen years ago)

The thing about the Oxford Circus HMV is that they always seem to have one copy of whatever I'm looking for in stock where nobody else in central London has. It's almost as if they have a premonition: "oh get a copy of that - MC'll buy it."

MVE Notting Hill are v. good. Camden MVE is in a bit of a mess. The Berwick Street one is good though - I particularly like that shelf they have in between the main stock and the bargain basement downstairs where things are sort of semi-bargain priced; handy for picking up new releases you're not sufficiently sure about to pay full price.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:43 (nineteen years ago)

Last time i was in before xmas there was a new shop in it's place. But didn't look any good.

whatever it was (i can't even remember), it was only open for about two weeks.

― stirmonster, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:45 (nineteen years ago)

There are some bloody good charity shops dotted around various quarters of the capital, but I'm loath to identify them since if I do that then the professional crate diggers will move in.

Flashback in Islington is a terrific second-hand shop with a good vinyl basement.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:46 (nineteen years ago)

That's my favourite shelf too! Anyone know when the Reckless fire sale might involve the shop that isn't full of deep house 12"'s?

― Matt #2, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:48 (nineteen years ago)

HMV sales are often really good, bought shitloads more stuff in HMV than any other major high street retailer

― Tom D., Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:52 (nineteen years ago)

I also regularly peruse that middle shelf at Berwick St MVE. I might go there this lunchtime. They had some of the Can remasters last time I was in there but they were 6 quid and I'm a bit skint at the moment. They'll be gone before they get cheap enough for me I expect.

When/how often do they mark down their prices? Some things I've been watching never seem to get any cheaper.

― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:52 (nineteen years ago)

If only. Clearly they're trying to get rid of all the unsellable stuff and most likely will flog the good stuff off privately.

I see that Sounds Of The Universe have moved their modest post-punk stock to the basement so that's the end of that particular craze, then.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:54 (nineteen years ago)

I see the Mr. CD in Berwick Street is no more

― Tom D., Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:54 (nineteen years ago)

(Reckless fire sale xpost, that was)

MVE tend to mark down their prices fortnightly.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:54 (nineteen years ago)

Yep, Mr CD gone and also its sister shop up the road, whatever that was called. Expect HIP HOP IS DEAD thinkpieces in next Friday's Grauniad.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:55 (nineteen years ago)

No great loss there really.

― Matt #2, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:59 (nineteen years ago)

Mr. CD? I bought some good stuff in there, downstairs in the smelly tubercular basement... but not after they smartened themselves up and promptly went out of business

― Tom D., Tuesday, 13 March 2007 11:03 (nineteen years ago)

I'm going to take a trip to the enormous Dalston Oxfam, to get rid of some unwanted old CDs and hopefully find some vinyl gems!

― Neil S, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 11:06 (nineteen years ago)

So who will sign up for the social networking site? haha

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 11:08 (nineteen years ago)

I've been to that Dalston Oxfam a couple of times but didn't see anything special; maybe the blogger routnely buys all the decent stuff.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 11:14 (nineteen years ago)

Is beanos actually gone?

― Mark G, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 11:14 (nineteen years ago)

I just dumped a load of terrible 90s hard house 12"s on Dalston Oxfam ha ha

― blueski, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 11:19 (nineteen years ago)

Oxfam run specialist shops just for music now don't they? No chance of bargains now.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 11:20 (nineteen years ago)

sp: "routinely"

No, Beanos is still functioning on two floors, selling off all its stock at half price. They were going to close but it looks as though they'll be trading on the ground floor only (the other floors will be given over to market stalls and suchlike).

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 11:21 (nineteen years ago)

Oxfam do indeed do specialist music shops here and there, and no they don't offer much in the way of bargains; what's the point in paying a fiver for something second-hand which you can get brand new for the same price in HMV or Fopp?

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 11:24 (nineteen years ago)

I got Syd Barrett's single there for £50, sold it on...

― Mark G, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 11:25 (nineteen years ago)

A fiver? Add a couple of squids on to that and you're getting there

― Tom D., Tuesday, 13 March 2007 11:25 (nineteen years ago)

What some of the general Oxfam shops do is: find out how much an LP is worth, and price it accordingly.

Without checking the condition...

― Mark G, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 11:26 (nineteen years ago)

Oh dear, so much for my dreams of cheap LPs then. I'll just pick up some paperbacks instead, I guess.

― Neil S, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 11:35 (nineteen years ago)

There are specialised bookshop Oxfam branches now as well. They don't do much in the way of bargains either.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 11:47 (nineteen years ago)

Do they try emotional blackmail with "but it's for a good cause" if you complain about the prices?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 11:48 (nineteen years ago)

there may be a music-only Oxfam opening just a few doors down from the one in Dalston.

― blueski, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 11:52 (nineteen years ago)

I never haggle about charity shop prices unless something is actually unpriced.

Hamilton has quite a lot of charity shops, but these are literally a different world, as BL-P will no doubt confirm.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 11:53 (nineteen years ago)

Skipping 1392 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

LOL @ how much marcello cares about fucking hmv

― online hardman, Thursday, 19 June 2014 12:12 (twelve years ago)

I think he's one of those care-in-the-failing-high-street-retailer types.

― Maurice Malpas Holiday Jotter Blues (onimo), Thursday, 19 June 2014 12:49 (twelve years ago)

two months pass...

http://www.theguardian.com/business/shortcuts/2014/sep/01/hmv-stores-overtake-amazon-uk-biggest-music-dvd-retailer

― slip jig (seandalai), Monday, 1 September 2014 18:16 (eleven years ago)

https://33.media.tumblr.com/552693c9f7aabba7946cd337b1130681/tumblr_naxprviNTf1t4cidio3_500.png

― painfully alive in a drugged and dying culture (DavidM), Wednesday, 3 September 2014 17:53 (eleven years ago)

one year passes...

http://www.hmv.com/music/hmv-vinyl-week-full-line-up-of-exclusive-titles-revealed

― Cosmic Slop, Sunday, 12 June 2016 19:43 (ten years ago)

For those who cant click links at work etc

hmv vinyl week is almost here! Starting next Monday 13 June we will have great discounts on loads of vinyl albums ready for Father's Day.
But that's not all - on Saturday 18 June we will also have an amazing selection of hmv exclusive limited edition vinyl, including coloured vinyl, plus you can get your hands on selected vinyl reissues weeks before they're available anywhere else!
The limited edition vinyl exclusives will be available in all stores and online on a first-come first-served basis (while stocks last) and today we can reveal the FULL list of exclusive titles in our vinyl line-up which will be on sale from Saturday 18 June:

Sex Pistols: Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols (1000 copies on pink vinyl)
Manic Street Preachers: Everything Must Go (1000 copies on blue vinyl)
Various Artists: Let's Bop – Sun Records Collection (1000 copies on black vinyl)
Teenage Fanclub: Bandwagonesque (500 numbered copies on 'hmv pink' vinyl)
The Clash: The Clash (1000 copies on green vinyl)
Velvet Underground: Loaded (1000 copies on white vinyl)
Deep Purple: In Rock (1000 copies on marbled vinyl)
Alex Turner: Submarine OST (500 copies on 10” black vinyl)
Ben Salisbury & Geoff Barrow: Ex Machina OST (500 copies on frosted vinyl)
John Martyn: Solid Air (500 copies on green vinyl)

All of the above are strictly limited edition vinyl titles available only at hmv, but as well as these exclusives we'll also be offering you the chance to get your hands on a selection of upcoming reissues weeks before they're available anywhere else, including:

Iron Maiden: Brave New World (first ever edition on black vinyl!)
Pulp: Different Class
Pulp: His 'n' Hers
Pulp: This Is Hardcore
Pulp: We Love Life
Laura Marling: Alas, I Cannot Swim
Laura Marling: I Speak Because I Can
30 Seconds To Mars: This Is War
Beastie Boys: Check Your Head (Deluxe Edition, Remastered)
Various Artists: Guardians Of The Galaxy OST (2 LP soundtrack & film score on black vinyl)

― Cosmic Slop, Sunday, 12 June 2016 20:01 (ten years ago)

Beastie Boys: Check Your Head (Deluxe Edition, Remastered)

hmm wait tell me more

― You might as well be 80 million Lena Dunhams. (stevie), Sunday, 12 June 2016 20:08 (ten years ago)

Solid Air doesn't feel like a coloured vinyl album, somehow

― soref, Sunday, 12 June 2016 21:42 (ten years ago)

"Alex Turner: Submarine OST (500 copies on 10” black vinyl)"

How is this different than the normal edition 10" black vinyl that I bought years ago when it was a new release?

― MrExplorer, Monday, 13 June 2016 05:54 (ten years ago)

I was going to say "oh good, more overpriced reissues of 30-year-old albums on probably bad-sounding colour vinyl" but then stevie's post made me feel churlish so carry on

however, even though I acknowledge that most people my age have kids, I am still weirded out by seeing nostalgia for my childhood sold as Father's Day gifts. I recently followed a link for FD stuff expecting a bunch of idk leather wallets and antiquarian-map-print coasters or something and was all like "why would my dad want a bunch of plastic Star Wars figurines? that's MY generation... oh yeah, I remember, I'm old now"

― a passing spacecadet, Monday, 13 June 2016 11:33 (ten years ago)

I saw a teenage girl about a week ago, walking down the road with a Stone Roses album in a HMV bag.

― Mark G, Monday, 13 June 2016 11:37 (ten years ago)

haha would much rather my 2yo daughter 'bought me' a record for Father's Day (she 'did', for my first one - a copy of Margo Guryan's Take A Picture, which contains Someone I Know, which is 'our song' for me and my partner) than leather wallets or coasters. However this year I get the impression I am being bought a print of a Graun cartoon about a dad who forces his appalling musical taste on his child.

― Oh baby, if only you knew / Gabnebb hit a hundred-and-two (stevie), Monday, 13 June 2016 11:59 (ten years ago)

She certainly wont be buying you any Led Zep vinyl for you Stevie :)

― Cosmic Slop, Monday, 13 June 2016 12:27 (ten years ago)

hahahaha "No. No. Off."

― Oh baby, if only you knew / Gabnebb hit a hundred-and-two (stevie), Monday, 13 June 2016 14:03 (ten years ago)

best video ever

― Cosmic Slop, Monday, 13 June 2016 14:08 (ten years ago)

two years pass...

On the brink of administration again. Get those vouchers used if you got any for Xmas!

― boxedjoy, Friday, 28 December 2018 09:16 (seven years ago)

we saw an hmv in bury st edmunds the other week which felt a little weird tbh, thought they were already gone

― imago, Friday, 28 December 2018 09:31 (seven years ago)

Ah, I was in hmv Newcastle just yesterday. The boxing day sale was nowt down, really. I bought a The Fall 2cd+dvd live set, from 2002 or thereabouts, remember hims this way etc.

― Mark G, Friday, 28 December 2018 13:10 (seven years ago)

The one in Cheltenham is in a different place every year. Didn't buy anything.

Hoping this won't also take fopp down with it.

― koogs, Friday, 28 December 2018 16:05 (seven years ago)

nine months pass...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/oct/11/hmv-vault-europes-biggest-entertainment-store-birmingham

― van dyke parks generator (anagram), Monday, 14 October 2019 06:51 (six years ago)

just in time for Christmas bankruptcy

― Xia Nu del Vague (Noodle Vague), Monday, 14 October 2019 09:00 (six years ago)

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