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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | Stewart Mason <flamingo@theworld.com> |
| Subject | Re: This Just In....... |
| Date | Mon, 31 May 2004 23:39:09 -0400 |
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At 07:16 PM 5/31/2004 -0400, Jaimie Vernon wrote:
>You mean BOTH the HMV stores in the United States (i.e. New York City) are
>going to shut their doors? Oh....my....God.
To be fair, they did have more of a retail presence in the USA than that:
at one time, I think there were about four HMV stores in the
Boston/Cambridge area. The only one I ever went into was the one in
Downtown Crossing (which I *think* is still open at the moment), and that
was only because some of our dim sum crowd liked to stop in there and shop
for DVDs on our way back from Chinatown sometimes. I prefer the CD Spins a
few doors down: this store is in about 1/4 of the space of the HMV, and
somehow they have MORE CDs!
>The chain worked and functioned in Canada (currently at 102 stores
>nationally) because they regionalized their catalogues....and carried not
>only the Top100, but indie product from locals. With the standardization of
>catalogue from coast-to-coast they give most people no reason to enter the
>store at all now.
The thing that killed HMV for me is when hmv.com stopped being a Canadian
portal. When their web presence was based in York, that sweet sweet US/CAN
exchange rate was enough to erase the ridiculous markup. (CDN$18.99 at that
time was about US$12.65, a price that I consider reasonably fair for a CD.)
And yet some chains never learn. I was in Record Town over in Copley
Square a couple weeks ago -- exactly the sort of crappy mall record store I
only go into to scavenge the remainder bin (and I got a few gems for only
99 cents apiece, including a Sham 69 simples comp and an early album by the
'70s funk group Fatback) -- and on my way back to the remainders, I noticed
that their list price on many catalogue discs was...$21.99!!! TWENTY-TWO
FRICKIN' DOLLARS, PEOPLE! And these weren't imports or hard to find items,
these were like, you know, Beck's MUTATIONS 'n' shit.
Would you be shocked if I told you that I was the only person in the store?
S
NP: ironically enough, BAD FOR BUSINESS by Jules and the Polar Bears, which
I discovered yesterday in the $2 bin at Bullmoose Music in Portsmouth NH,
where five excellent CDs, including a new copy of the Mothers' CRUISIN'
WITH RUBEN AND THE JETS, cost me all of $16.80.
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