Today sees the announcements that HMV has appointed the administrators – I can’t say I am surprised because in my mind it was inevitable, not ‘if’ just ‘when’. My expectation is that selling the business as any kind of going concern will prove impossible and that it will get broken up. HMV is history and, to be honest, it deserves to be.
The company had no unique selling propositions left to justify its existence. It didn’t offer the best price, it didn’t offer any significant standard of service and you couldn’t guarantee what you wanted to buy would be in stock either.
Amazon beats HMV at every metric, aside from paying its full corporation tax liability!
As a case in point; just last week I went into HMV in Milton Keynes shopping centre and impulse purchased two CDs by Green Day. The CDs were in the ‘Big Sale’ and cost me £5 each. I was happy enough at the time until I discovered that my £10 would only have been £8.68 on Amazon (and that would have included the cost of having them posted to me). HMV couldn’t offer value for money even on sale items and to me that had ‘death knell’ written all over it!
I am not embarrassed to admit that I thought about taking the items back on principle, although I didn’t in the end.
Amazon, Rakuten’s Play.com, WowHD and others are easy options for buying physical music, films, computer games and books because they are low engagement purchases. There is no difference between a CD/book/DVD bought from any of these sources, or a supermarket, and on that basis, why would anyone pay more to buy the same thing from HMV? For those that prefer downloads, the choices are even broader.
The High Street is no longer the place for businesses that can’t compete on price for low engagement purchases. I think that means that businesses like WH Smith and Waterstones are doomed too. Retailers that sell products that require a greater interaction with the buyer, furniture, clothing, cosmetics, shoes etc. will survive because buyers need to try before they buy. Even for those businesses there is risk because customers can still ‘try’ and then ‘buy’ on line later.
Despite having a CD collection that numbers in the thousands, HMV will disappear and I’ll be less bothered by its demise than I was by the loss of Woolworths.
What does bother me is the loss of jobs for all those that work for HMV. Having spent some time unemployed myself, I feel much empathy for those that find themselves out of work for reasons way beyond their own control.
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The company had no unique selling propositions left to justify its existence. It didn’t offer the best price, it didn’t offer any significant standard of service and you couldn’t guarantee what you wanted to buy would be in stock either.
Amazon beats HMV at every metric, aside from paying its full corporation tax liability!
As a case in point; just last week I went into HMV in Milton Keynes shopping centre and impulse purchased two CDs by Green Day. The CDs were in the ‘Big Sale’ and cost me £5 each. I was happy enough at the time until I discovered that my £10 would only have been £8.68 on Amazon (and that would have included the cost of having them posted to me). HMV couldn’t offer value for money even on sale items and to me that had ‘death knell’ written all over it!
I am not embarrassed to admit that I thought about taking the items back on principle, although I didn’t in the end.
Amazon, Rakuten’s Play.com, WowHD and others are easy options for buying physical music, films, computer games and books because they are low engagement purchases. There is no difference between a CD/book/DVD bought from any of these sources, or a supermarket, and on that basis, why would anyone pay more to buy the same thing from HMV? For those that prefer downloads, the choices are even broader.
The High Street is no longer the place for businesses that can’t compete on price for low engagement purchases. I think that means that businesses like WH Smith and Waterstones are doomed too. Retailers that sell products that require a greater interaction with the buyer, furniture, clothing, cosmetics, shoes etc. will survive because buyers need to try before they buy. Even for those businesses there is risk because customers can still ‘try’ and then ‘buy’ on line later.
Despite having a CD collection that numbers in the thousands, HMV will disappear and I’ll be less bothered by its demise than I was by the loss of Woolworths.
What does bother me is the loss of jobs for all those that work for HMV. Having spent some time unemployed myself, I feel much empathy for those that find themselves out of work for reasons way beyond their own control.
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