Defunct? (HMV)

Member Name: GuruOnAMountain

Product:	HMV
Date:	27/02/05 (405 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well Stocked, Easy to Find

Disadvantages: Moody Staff, Over Priced, Extremely Busy

There was a time when I was in my early teens that I would head straight for HMV if I was out on a shopping trip. In all fairness, I was still early enough in my teens that I was relying on my parents to act as the walking wallets for any shopping I wanted to do at the time, which might help to explain things. However, now I'm earning for myself and I'm an educated consumer and have become fairly disillusioned with HMV.

I'm sure that virtually everyone reading this will have been to HMV at least once in their life, and most of you will probably be extremely familiar with the layout of HMV stores, but for those of you who aren't, here's a brief layout. Usually there are wide entrance doors, sometimes with security guards, but more usually with electronic detectors to do their job for them. When you walk inside the decor is usually quite dark and moody and there's inevitably a wall where the top singles and top albums are on display. The rest of the goods are displayed on racks, usually grouped together in terms of Rock and Pop, Jazz, Dance etc. and usually in alphabetical order within that. Sometimes there is a separate floor for DVDs, but often the store may be built on one floor.

Of course, HMV mainly specialises in music and DVDs, but the occassional T-shirts, magazines and books can often be found, but these are usually associated with music or movies. Of course, they also stock a large selection of video games, too.

HMV stores tend to be large and have a wide array of stock and I certainly can't fault them on that count. Only the most ecclectic tastes in music or movies would fail to be catered for. I tend to have fairly strange tastes, but can usually find what I want in most of the larger HMV stores, although I have found myself having to turn to Amazon for CDs that I couldn't find here on plenty of occassions.

However, if you're looking for friendly service I find you very rarely find it. The workers tend to be wearing surly and depressed expressions at best, and at times can be completely and utterly rude. I work with people with learning difficulties, and have found staff pushing past them when I've taken them into an HMV store for a look around, which I think is totally unacceptable. I'm sure there are some very pleasant HMV staff out there somewhere, but generally speaking, I don't think HMV's staff will be winning too many awards for customer service.

Secondly, the stores are always extremely busy. In all fairness, this isn't the fault of the shop, but often there isn't too much room between racks of CDs/DVDs and when the shop is busy, you are constantly getting bumped into, jostled about and having to squeeze yourself through tight spaces, which drives me up the wall!

The thing that most annoys me, though, is the prices. The prices are average at best, and often well over what you would pay for the same thing in Woolworths, WHSmith or any other high street store. Occassionally, they have a good offer on where they are selling 3 DVDs for £20 or something similar, but even then they tend to be selling mainly duffer DVDs that no one really would be clambouring to buy anyway.

Basically, I don't understand why companies like HMV are still making such a healthy profit. With the rise of internet shopping and sites such as Amazon and Play.com where consumers can browse from the comfort of their own home, avoiding the busy crowds in the process and generally getting the same goods for much better prices, surely record shops are more or less excess to requirement? It must have been at least 2 years since I last bought anything from HMV, and I really don't intend to in the future. I know that no matter how unusual a CD or DVD is that I'll be able to find it online without any problems, while it isn't 100% certain I'd be able to find it in HMV, and I certainly wouldn't have to deal with any moody staff in order to buy it.

For the consumer who has fairly ordinary tastes in music and movies who fancies picking something up while they stroll up and down the high street, then HMV will most probably meet their requirements, but I personally don't find an HMV shopping experience either pleasurable, hassle-free or particularly good value.

Summary: