HMV set to go into administration

[Decider-VT]

I went into the HMV in the Metro centre and prices are still stupid

Fast and furious boxed set for ?72

Honestly, as if Amazon are much better. They showed their true colours when they started raising their prices after HMV went into administration. I've noticed that things have generally been cheaper in work for a while now and doing things like slapping an extra ?10 onto the price of the Hyrule Historia when it got popular (it's cheaper to import from the US site, postage included) certainly doesn't help me to shake that assertion. I've been very critical of the way that work has been run in the past but you can rest assured that if Amazon were to get a monopoly on music and film retail, they'd be shafting the suppliers as hard as they did when it came to selling books.

[Decider-VT]

I should also point out that there are masses of dead stock floating around in the stores now, whose prices haven't been updated for years because it's all been in storage in the warehouses. They should be re-priced but... well, Deloitte cleared the warehouses after firing well over half of the people in head office, who were responsible for pricing stock.

[Mr M0by]

I went into the HMV in the Metro centre and prices are still stupid

Fast and furious boxed set for ?72

To be fair that's not really representative of pricing across the whole store, given that probably over 40% of a stores blu ray footage is priced ?8/3f?20/?5f30 or less. That might not even be the correct price. But I do agree pricing like that is embarrassing if it is - especially if prevalent.
Alternatively however Family Guy: Something something dark side Blu Ray is ?4.99 in store vs ?10 on Amazon, the X-Men First Class is ?4.99 vs ?8.75 and Hobbit 3D 4 disc set is ?15.99 from either... and that's just from 3 quick checks.
HILCO (HMV Retail UK) have owned the chain for 2 working days, it's probably going to be a while before their strategy (good or bad, I've no idea) plays out. As I'm on my way to a board room meeting with them now - maybe I'll ask them!

[Family Fry]

Of course before re-pricing, legally an item has to be on offer at a previous (higher/top) price for 28 days, price establishment.
They may already be starting the process for older stock, hence the higher prices.

A price used as a basis for comparison should have been your most recent price available for 28 consecutive days or more.

Probably why Fast & Furious is ?72, will find out in 28 days when it hits like ?17.99. Bargain.

[charlesr]

Halo4 was ?42 last weekend in HMV. I paid ?40 at Argos on release date.
It's a question of survival. I see that and think that all the other prices are also not worth looking at and don't make a purchase.

Totally off topic, but ?55 for Skylanders Giants and then god knows how much for each new character.... They must be raking it in. My nephew even has a Skylanders bag with compartments for the characters.

[Mr M0by]

One of the first 'commercial' actions Deloitte/Hilco did 8 weeks ago was to abandon the Was/Now pricing mechanic for Visual product and all of the multi-buys for all formats. I doubt we'll see much, if any such advertised stock like that in the near future.

[buster_broon]

well we know the HMV model is flawed hence some of the pricing

but even when they were knocking 30-40% off blu rays in the stores that are closin, the prices on some items still weren't competitive because they were so bloody high

and HMV are guilty of shifting prices especially when the blue cross first started - that was just smoke and mirrors

I tried to get a 32GB vita card which was ?60 online but part of the blue cross sale which would take it to ?45 which is pretty decent

website went down, so I walked into the branch at the harlequin centre (Watford) and they had one, yes I though but when it rang up on the till it was ?80 and blue cross reduced it to ?60 - hmmmmmm

even the guy behind the counter was saying I'm sure this was a lot cheaper than this

[Neon Ignition]

I'm assuming much of the problems will eventually be ironed out. Hilco's track record suggests they know what they're doing and the current model is so broken they don't have a choice but to change it. By all accounts GAME has much improved its fortunes in just one year so its possible for a turn around to happen, it just needs to be driven through. Hopefully it'll survive in a better form. Games wise I don't think online retailers are as good with their deals and pricing as they used to be (I buy less games online these days because of this) and when I go into town with the missus or friends its nice to have somewhere of interest to go to rather than having a choice of 3 waitrose, a dozen Tesco Locals and 2154 womens clothes shops. There's no positives to these stores dying off so hopefully Hilco avoids short term penny pinching for long term success

[Family Fry]

Halo4 was ?42 last weekend in HMV. I paid ?40 at Argos on release date.
It's a question of survival. I see that and think that all the other prices are also not worth looking at and don't make a purchase.

Totally off topic, but ?55 for Skylanders Giants and then god knows how much for each new character.... They must be raking it in. My nephew even has a Skylanders bag with compartments for the characters.

Skylanders is massive, some of the stuff the game does is pure moneymaking evil genius.

Like when you character 'dies' in game they have to given a rest period which mean physically taking the character off the stand and replacing them with another character.

The new Skylanders Swap Force this year is themed that you can combine characters now, with snap off parts also has a new portal.
Which means when you buy 2 characters you really get 4 HOW COOL IS THAT?

The evil old man cynic in me says it's ALL evil.
The kid in me who owned about a million WWF and TMNT figures says if he could put them onto a dock and play them in a game, would have been the coolest thing ever.

This is why I think the Disney Infinity game has potential to kill Skylanders just MORE characters and environments all of which are recognised and loved worldwide by all ages.


Totally off topic as well but yeah Activsion will end up making more money on Skylanders than CoD, if they are not already.

[charlesr]

I watched them playing Giants. It was so "by the numbers" it was incredible. Go here. Hit that. Pick up that. Stand on button while other player goes through. No puzzles that I could see. No tactics needed. Button mash for the win. But they loved it. Looked pretty though on the Wii

[speedlolita]

My local Game has 3 meters of Skylander stuff. Considering the whole store is only around 40 meters, that's a fair percentage of shop front..

[Decider-VT]

and HMV are guilty of shifting prices especially when the blue cross first started - that was just smoke and mirrors

I tried to get a 32GB vita card which was ?60 online but part of the blue cross sale which would take it to ?45 which is pretty decent

website went down, so I walked into the branch at the harlequin centre (Watford) and they had one, yes I though but when it rang up on the till it was ?80 and blue cross reduced it to ?60 - hmmmmmm

even the guy behind the counter was saying I'm sure this was a lot cheaper than this

It was always ?80 in-store. The website had cheaper prices because it exploited the Guernsey tax loophole in the same way that Amazon did. As for the high price of the memory cards themselves... well, Sony.

My local Game has 3 meters of Skylander stuff. Considering the whole store is only around 40 meters, that's a fair percentage of shop front..

We have a whole corner of the shop, including some sort of astroturf on the floor and three dedicated pods that assorted brats damage stock to use. I'm faced with piles of figures with torn packaging every Sunday morning. I hate Skylanders almost as much as I hated Rock Band.

[ItsThere]

Have you got any Rock Band drum kits for 360 floating around for cheap?

[gaz@manc]

Honestly, as if Amazon are much better. They showed their true colours when they started raising their prices after HMV went into administration. I've noticed that things have generally been cheaper in work for a while now and doing things like slapping an extra ?10 onto the price of the Hyrule Historia when it got popular (it's cheaper to import from the US site, postage included) certainly doesn't help me to shake that assertion. I've been very critical of the way that work has been run in the past but you can rest assured that if Amazon were to get a monopoly on music and film retail, they'd be shafting the suppliers as hard as they did when it came to selling books.

I've been amazed to see how many products Amazon have been raising in price recently. I admit that I used them for at least half of my entertainment purchases, but its actually been cheaper to buy some new release blu rays in HMV. What happened to ?14, ?15 for a bluray preorder on Amazon? A lot of spring/summer releases were at ?18 a couple of weeks ago. The Hobbit is ?2.50 cheaper in HMV compared to buying from Amazon. I'm relieved the Manchester branch is remaining open, I will definitely start to look in there before I purchase online in future.

[CMcK]

Amazon cannot keep making such a tiny profit forever. Prices will have to go up sometime.