HMV to close all stores in Canada

erebus

Last physical store with a selection of music is closing in my town and across Canada. Walmart is the last man standing. Kind of liked browsing and discovering new things. I am becoming obsolete.

Holland

Feel bad for those that are losing their jobs from this. We have one in our small mall here and I always venture in when I am there to see if they have any PJ stuff for sale.

PJfanwillneverleave1

This sucks.
I bought my Backspacer CD on release day from the only HMV store where I live and at the time the astronaut drummer in space shirt was available for $10 w/ the purchase. I didn't buy it thinking that it would be available in the shop - ouch.
That is my only regret from my purchase of Backspacer.
HMV was the place to go just in case they had something that others didn't.

demetrios

It sucks!

https://twitter.com/TheTorontoSun/status/825124642587287552

But not shocked. With digital media pretty much taken over everything I haven't seen amazing deals or specials there in a while, and I used to shop at the Spring Garden location for years. This time back in '98 they were running that sweet Pearl Jam contest to see them in Phoenix. Loved HMV's promo on Yield. After Yield, I never seen any Pearl Jam promo setups again here in Canada. It was sad.

With HMV closing down the local ma & pa records stores will br taking over, but many continue to jack up their prices. It's hard to support the local record stores when they sell the same product 25% more then what's on Amazon. Still blows my mind that single CD's are still selling for over 15 bucks.

These days if you wanna buy the physical audio / video media it's either you support & buy directly from the artists official website or Amazon with Prime.

VedderMTL

Yep. I am out of a job after 17 years

stoppler_pj

That really sucks.

Zod

I always found HMV to be a little expensive. I tend to buy my cd's from amazon.ca, and vinyl is usually from amazon.ca, amazon.uk, or local record stores.

Back in the day when there were more stores I found it cheaper to buy cd's at A&B sound and Future Shop.

The one thing HMV was good as was imports. Import versions were often hard to find and contained extra tracks from the north american version.

I guess I won't miss it too much.... but given how grim best buy's bluray and cd sections are.. maybe I should of made more of an effort to support it. Records are becoming easier to find than cd's these days.

100 Pacer

Had a chance to watch All Things Must Pass last year documenting the rise and fall of Tower Records. The writing's been on the wall for a long time unfortunately.

RunIntoTheRain

VedderMTL said:

Yep. I am out of a job after 17 years

Sorry to hear that. Hope you are able to find another job quickly.

nicknyr15

Sad stuff. Sorry to anyone affected by this.

hsohi

Hard to beat Amazon. I live in the GTA and lately they have been delivering packages to me on the weekend.

demetrios

hsohi said:

Hard to beat Amazon. I live in the GTA and lately they have been delivering packages to me on the weekend.

Mail delivery service on the weekends. Man you guy's are lucky. We don't have that here in the Maritimes.

Many folks interviewed on CTV News were not shocked at all. One dude said he's not surprised when CD's are still selling in there for over 20 bucks. I do miss the imports I used to score @ HMV when Sams closed many year's back. But still it was expensive to shop in there. When your up against digital media, reduce the price on those cds & dvds man.

Jbarker

Tough news. Good luck to all those employees hit by this.
Sad state for my town, it's the only record shop - next one is 5 hours away.
Personally I love the interaction in a record shop: The physical hands on, flipping through CD's or records, the dialogue with the employees, trivial suggestions back and forth with other browsers, not to mention the personal time. The intangible value of a record shop is worth more than the few dollars I could save by purchasing online. I will miss the romance.

Brothermoon

I had noticed they weren't restocking the vinyl for the last few months or so in the store here. I thought, perhaps they're getting out of the vinyl game. Looks like they're getting out of the game all together. Sad...

mfc2006

VedderMTL said:

Yep. I am out of a job after 17 years

so sorry to hear that. it was a cool store.

green_girl

That's too bad. Hope you get another job soon. It's a crazy ride that we're now mourning the big box shops who are trying to keep up with Amazon. The big box shops are now the struggling local enterprise. You really have to shop with a conscience to support local sometimes, because, yes, $20 CDs are hard to swallow, or they probably don't even have the album you're looking for. But still, I try not to buy everything online.

Zod

green_girl said:

That's too bad. Hope you get another job soon. It's a crazy ride that we're now mourning the big box shops who are trying to keep up with Amazon. The big box shops are now the struggling local enterprise. You really have to shop with a conscience to support local sometimes, because, yes, $20 CDs are hard to swallow, or they probably don't even have the album you're looking for. But still, I try not to buy everything online.

I agree about the poor guy losing his job. That definitely sucks. The counterpoint though. HMV was always kind of expensive. Most mall(ish) record/cd stores were. Even before Amazon I wasn't really shopping at HMV. We had Western Canadian chain called A&B Sound which was probably the best place for buying music. They were huge and they often had the best prices. Future Shop was a 2nd. Walmart was always cheaper but their collection sucked. It's why I only shopped at places like HMV, BK Music, Sam the Record Man etc... they were expensive.

I guess I'm kind of counterarguing that it's not only Amazon. Even before the time of Amazon, other plays did a better job. I suppose HMV outlasted them but they went into a giant hole to do it :(

I guess the real answer is that physical media isn't popular enough to warrant being sold in stores anymore. At least not bigger operations with lots of floor space, and high rent/lease costs. People in my age group primarly have their collections establish. You don't have a new format (cd) that everyone's rebuying they're collections on. In the early/mid 90's you had the older demographic buying into the new format, and the younger generation buy everything for the first time. Now you've got the older generation who doesn't need to buy a new format, and a younger generation that's gone mainly digital.

I don't think there's anything that stores like HMV could of one. Physical media is becoming a niche product, and that's what they sell :( Warehousing outfits like Amazon have much lower overhead and can order from suppliers on demand. Makes it easier for them I suppose.

PJfanwillneverleave1

Zod said:

green_girl said:

That's too bad. Hope you get another job soon. It's a crazy ride that we're now mourning the big box shops who are trying to keep up with Amazon. The big box shops are now the struggling local enterprise. You really have to shop with a conscience to support local sometimes, because, yes, $20 CDs are hard to swallow, or they probably don't even have the album you're looking for. But still, I try not to buy everything online.

I agree about the poor guy losing his job. That definitely sucks. The counterpoint though. HMV was always kind of expensive. Most mall(ish) record/cd stores were. Even before Amazon I wasn't really shopping at HMV. We had Western Canadian chain called A&B Sound which was probably the best place for buying music. They were huge and they often had the best prices. Future Shop was a 2nd. Walmart was always cheaper but their collection sucked. It's why I only shopped at places like HMV, BK Music, Sam the Record Man etc... they were expensive.

I guess I'm kind of counterarguing that it's not only Amazon. Even before the time of Amazon, other plays did a better job. I suppose HMV outlasted them but they went into a giant hole to do it :(

I guess the real answer is that physical media isn't popular enough to warrant being sold in stores anymore. At least not bigger operations with lots of floor space, and high rent/lease costs. People in my age group primarly have their collections establish. You don't have a new format (cd) that everyone's rebuying they're collections on. In the early/mid 90's you had the older demographic buying into the new format, and the younger generation buy everything for the first time. Now you've got the older generation who doesn't need to buy a new format, and a younger generation that's gone mainly digital.

I don't think there's anything that stores like HMV could of one. Physical media is becoming a niche product, and that's what they sell :( Warehousing outfits like Amazon have much lower overhead and can order from suppliers on demand. Makes it easier for them I suppose.

When I lived in Victoria I really liked going to A&B sound. That is my pastime I did it every few days.
The escalator going up anticipating a possible Pearl Jam find was exciting. That is how I discovered and own gremmie out of control on tape. It got to the point the staff told me when I came to the top of the escalator "sorry", nothing new.
I agree that most people our age have their collections established by now but damn I feel for others that are just starting.

Horse2345

PJfanwillneverleave1 said:

Zod said:

green_girl said:

That's too bad. Hope you get another job soon. It's a crazy ride that we're now mourning the big box shops who are trying to keep up with Amazon. The big box shops are now the struggling local enterprise. You really have to shop with a conscience to support local sometimes, because, yes, $20 CDs are hard to swallow, or they probably don't even have the album you're looking for. But still, I try not to buy everything online.

I agree about the poor guy losing his job. That definitely sucks. The counterpoint though. HMV was always kind of expensive. Most mall(ish) record/cd stores were. Even before Amazon I wasn't really shopping at HMV. We had Western Canadian chain called A&B Sound which was probably the best place for buying music. They were huge and they often had the best prices. Future Shop was a 2nd. Walmart was always cheaper but their collection sucked. It's why I only shopped at places like HMV, BK Music, Sam the Record Man etc... they were expensive.

I guess I'm kind of counterarguing that it's not only Amazon. Even before the time of Amazon, other plays did a better job. I suppose HMV outlasted them but they went into a giant hole to do it :(

I guess the real answer is that physical media isn't popular enough to warrant being sold in stores anymore. At least not bigger operations with lots of floor space, and high rent/lease costs. People in my age group primarly have their collections establish. You don't have a new format (cd) that everyone's rebuying they're collections on. In the early/mid 90's you had the older demographic buying into the new format, and the younger generation buy everything for the first time. Now you've got the older generation who doesn't need to buy a new format, and a younger generation that's gone mainly digital.

I don't think there's anything that stores like HMV could of one. Physical media is becoming a niche product, and that's what they sell :( Warehousing outfits like Amazon have much lower overhead and can order from suppliers on demand. Makes it easier for them I suppose.

When I lived in Victoria I really liked going to A&B sound. That is my pastime I did it every few days.
The escalator going up anticipating a possible Pearl Jam find was exciting. That is how I discovered and own gremmie out of control on tape. It got to the point the staff told me when I came to the top of the escalator "sorry", nothing new.
I agree that most people our age have their collections established by now but damn I feel for others that are just starting.

Lol, i remember that escalator. I remember seeing Ben Harper play there too.

Zod

PJfanwillneverleave1 said:

Zod said:

green_girl said:

That's too bad. Hope you get another job soon. It's a crazy ride that we're now mourning the big box shops who are trying to keep up with Amazon. The big box shops are now the struggling local enterprise. You really have to shop with a conscience to support local sometimes, because, yes, $20 CDs are hard to swallow, or they probably don't even have the album you're looking for. But still, I try not to buy everything online.

I agree about the poor guy losing his job. That definitely sucks. The counterpoint though. HMV was always kind of expensive. Most mall(ish) record/cd stores were. Even before Amazon I wasn't really shopping at HMV. We had Western Canadian chain called A&B Sound which was probably the best place for buying music. They were huge and they often had the best prices. Future Shop was a 2nd. Walmart was always cheaper but their collection sucked. It's why I only shopped at places like HMV, BK Music, Sam the Record Man etc... they were expensive.

I guess I'm kind of counterarguing that it's not only Amazon. Even before the time of Amazon, other plays did a better job. I suppose HMV outlasted them but they went into a giant hole to do it :(

I guess the real answer is that physical media isn't popular enough to warrant being sold in stores anymore. At least not bigger operations with lots of floor space, and high rent/lease costs. People in my age group primarly have their collections establish. You don't have a new format (cd) that everyone's rebuying they're collections on. In the early/mid 90's you had the older demographic buying into the new format, and the younger generation buy everything for the first time. Now you've got the older generation who doesn't need to buy a new format, and a younger generation that's gone mainly digital.

I don't think there's anything that stores like HMV could of one. Physical media is becoming a niche product, and that's what they sell :( Warehousing outfits like Amazon have much lower overhead and can order from suppliers on demand. Makes it easier for them I suppose.

When I lived in Victoria I really liked going to A&B sound. That is my pastime I did it every few days.
The escalator going up anticipating a possible Pearl Jam find was exciting. That is how I discovered and own gremmie out of control on tape. It got to the point the staff told me when I came to the top of the escalator "sorry", nothing new.
I agree that most people our age have their collections established by now but damn I feel for others that are just starting.

I loved the escelator. They had TV/Computer stuff on the bottom level, but all the good shit was on the 2nd floor. One of my first memories of A&B Sound was a school field trip to the parliament buildings and we had some extra time to kill so we went to the cd store. That's where I bought my first copy of Vs. and also picked up tom petty's greatest hits Some of my earliest cd's.

I'm actually suprised at the # of Victoria people that post in these forums, given that our city isn't superbig. What I wouldn't give to have been old enough to go to the show's at harpo's lol....

hsohi

demetrios said:

hsohi said:

Hard to beat Amazon. I live in the GTA and lately they have been delivering packages to me on the weekend.

Mail delivery service on the weekends. Man you guy's are lucky. We don't have that here in the Maritimes.

Many folks interviewed on CTV News were not shocked at all. One dude said he's not surprised when CD's are still selling in there for over 20 bucks. I do miss the imports I used to score @ HMV when Sams closed many year's back. But still it was expensive to shop in there. When your up against digital media, reduce the price on those cds & dvds man.

The weekend deliveries by Amazon are not thru Canada Post. It's Amazon employees themselves doing the deliveries via a rented Enterprise truck. I guess it helps having two fulfillment centres close by.

HawkeyeJam

Analog til I die

HughFreakingDillon

going to HMV over the last couple months I noticed all their cd prices were insane. nothing under $20. I refused to buy anything. Before at least new releases were $12.99. I guess that's the thing about getting old. your old pasttimes disappear. back to the indie shop with poor service, terrible selection, shitty hours and no parking I guess!

nm219369

I always made my weekly trip to hmv for new realease Tuesdays, my hmv was always great for pricing, I didn't find a lot that was too expensive, mostly for new I guess, older stuff some of it was expensive, but I usually did buy most of my stuff on release day. its going to suck having to goto Walmart for my stuff, or amazon, but I liked the convience of being able to get it right away instead of having to wait for mail day.

Zod

nm219369 said:

I always made my weekly trip to hmv for new realease Tuesdays, my hmv was always great for pricing, I didn't find a lot that was too expensive, mostly for new I guess, older stuff some of it was expensive, but I usually did buy most of my stuff on release day. its going to suck having to goto Walmart for my stuff, or amazon, but I liked the convience of being able to get it right away instead of having to wait for mail day.

Doesn't new music come out on Friday's now? Or did that fall off the wayside?

HughFreakingDillon

Zod said:

nm219369 said:

I always made my weekly trip to hmv for new realease Tuesdays, my hmv was always great for pricing, I didn't find a lot that was too expensive, mostly for new I guess, older stuff some of it was expensive, but I usually did buy most of my stuff on release day. its going to suck having to goto Walmart for my stuff, or amazon, but I liked the convience of being able to get it right away instead of having to wait for mail day.

Doesn't new music come out on Friday's now? Or did that fall off the wayside?

nope. still fridays. I wish it had alwasy been fridays. that would be an awesome start to the weekend.

demetrios

HughFreakingDillon said:

going to HMV over the last couple months I noticed all their cd prices were insane. nothing under $20. I refused to buy anything. Before at least new releases were $12.99. I guess that's the thing about getting old. your old pasttimes disappear. back to the indie shop with poor service, terrible selection, shitty hours and no parking I guess!

2 local HMV locations here were jacking up CD prices but also they kept using up store space for those big head vinyl toys. Who the hell are buying up these corny toys? And why is HMV using up store space for this stuff? Halifax Shopping Centre has many of those and a whole wall with just shirts & posters. They do have ALOT of DVD's. TV series & movie DVD's. Not much "music" @ these locations.

And true about local indie shops. Many of the ma & pa shops raise the prices on vinyl which have me turning to online shopping where I can find it way cheaper, including postage.

I still don't understand why HMV, Music World & Sam The Record Man etc.. continued to sell new CD releases for over 16 bucks knowing digital online downloading is cheaper and affecting their business.

rummy

Heck, a lot of them had already shut down in Southern Ontario...The Oakville, Markham, and (I think) St. Catharines locations have been gone for a few years now.

GardLivingston89

Still have Sunrise and the Beat Goes On so ill live

HughFreakingDillon

demetrios said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

going to HMV over the last couple months I noticed all their cd prices were insane. nothing under $20. I refused to buy anything. Before at least new releases were $12.99. I guess that's the thing about getting old. your old pasttimes disappear. back to the indie shop with poor service, terrible selection, shitty hours and no parking I guess!

2 local HMV locations here were jacking up CD prices but also they kept using up store space for those big head vinyl toys. Who the hell are buying up these corny toys? And why is HMV using up store space for this stuff? Halifax Shopping Centre has many of those and a whole wall with just shirts & posters. They do have ALOT of DVD's. TV series & movie DVD's. Not much "music" @ these locations.

And true about local indie shops. Many of the ma & pa shops raise the prices on vinyl which have me turning to online shopping where I can find it way cheaper, including postage.

I still don't understand why HMV, Music World & Sam The Record Man etc.. continued to sell new CD releases for over 16 bucks knowing digital online downloading is cheaper and affecting their business.

they have obviously been failing for some time, and were looking for other ways to supplement income, so they had those toys, t shirts, moving towards way more dvd's, vinyl, and record players and accessories. but it didn't work.

if they didn't sell them for over $16 then they wouldn't turn any profit. walmart can afford to sell cd's cheaper as that is not their sole business. it's a very very small part of it. but their selection is terrible. we just have to admit that the big box cd shop is done. it's no longer viable. it's sad, but true.

I used to love heading downtown and having my choice of HMV, Sam the Record Man, Musiplex, and I can't even remember how many others. A&B Sound was an amazing store too.

all things must pass.

rummy

GardLivingston89 said:

Still have Sunrise and the Beat Goes On so ill live

Sunrise still exists?!?