HMV (HMV)

Member Name: rossmoorlock

Product:	HMV
Date:	07/04/01 (827 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good range of products.

Disadvantages: Would you pay £18 for a 5 year old album?

I live in Nottingham and in our town centre we have a HMV shop. This is where everybody around goes to get their cds from and this shop is always highly recommended.
I don't think that I have ever heard anybody say a bad word about it, as everybody that goes in always seems to come out with something (most of which is paid for).

The shop is very large and has a lot of music packed into it. Most of the cds are put well into categories, so if you know exactly what you want you wont have much difficulty in finding it. They have sections like 'Pop and Rock' and 'Rhythm and Blues' etc etc. They also have a section, which has all of the top 40 albums in which makes buying new albums very easy and stress free.

Most of the staff there know exactly what they are doing and know where certain music is. If can't find what you are looking for they are always very willing to help and always seem to find what you want for you. They have a lot of staff working at one time, which makes it easy to get help, as you won't be waiting too long for somebody to come along.

Like most music shops HMV has a headphone area where you can listen to music of your choice using headphones. The idea of this is to get you to listen to music, find something that you like, and then go and buy the cd that the music is on. This doesn't always work, as I know a lot of people that just go into music shops to listen to the music when they are bored and have no money in town. So they never actually end up buying a cd.


I used to use this shop a lot and bought music from it on a weekly basis. It was always the best place to get it from, as it was just so easy to do. But in the last few weeks I have been going elsewhere to get my music. This if for a number of reasons.
The music in HMV has been getting more and more expensive over the last couple of years. You can't get a decent album for less then £13, which to me is a lot o
f money for about 10 songs.


Today I went in to HMV to try and by the album called Nimrod by Green day. I thought that it would be about £7, as it is about 7 years old. I went in only to find out that it was £17.99. I thought at first that this was wrong and that they must have put the wrong price on it. I asked an assistant working there and they confirmed that it was priced at nearly £18. I ended up walking out of the shop empty handed which wasn't the first time I had done that in the last few months.

So the price is one of the main things that is putting me off at the moment, as I can buy the music I want online for about £5-10 cheaper. I can even buy it from America and still get it cheaper even with the postage and packaging. I feel that this should not be happening, as our country should be competing with other countries a bit more instead of just trying to make large profits.

Another thing that is putting me off is the selection of music there. Although they have masses of different cds by different artists. Half of the time they have never even heard of the music that I am looking for. I understand that they can't buy in cds that are not going to sell, but I feel that they should listen more to what their customers want instead of just buying all the music that is in the charts and on Top Of The Pops, as not everybody is interested in this kind of music.

Another thing that annoys me greatly with this shop is that it is always so packed out with people. I understand that they are not going to turn people away but sometimes it is almost a health hazard as people are tripping over each other and hardly have room to move. I find it very difficult to have a good hunt for a cd in any HMV shop, as everybody is pushing you out of the way and trying to get in front of you. I always feel very uncomfortable and rushed in this shop and most of the time end up walking out feeling very hot and bothered.

Although t
here are a lot of staff walking around, trying to help and stacking shelves, there are never that many people working at the pay desks. The queues are always very long and it takes a good 10 minutes to get to the front of the them, and even longer to fight through the crowds to actually get out of the shop.

Although most of the music is put into categories very well some of it is not. I like alternative music and they always seem to put it into the wrong categories, which makes searching for it very hard. They tend to put half of in Rock and Pop and any old fool could tell that it is so obviously not that, just by looking at the cd case.

Although I have a lot of problems with this shop, I still feel that it is probably the best music shop around. If they could sort out some of the small problems then I am sure that they would get so much more business, but I think that they need to sort it out before the Internet takes over!!!!

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