It's no big secret that HMV is a struggling retailer. It's suffering from the double-whammy of a declining high street caused by the economic situation and a declining market for music on physical media.
HMV is for many towns, the last place the consumers can visit in the high street to buy music. The other big names have gone - Our Price, Virgin (later Zavvi), Woolworths - and independents stores are in decline leaving many towns with none. Sadly I wonder if in five or ten years time this last bastion will also loose its physical presence.
Despite the obvious impact that the above points must be making on the business, I wonder though if HMV are doing themselves any favours. It seems that with each passing year, the amount of space given to the humble CD is declining, being taken over firstly by DVDs, Blurays and Games and most recently by technology. Not only that, the stock on offer has some very interesting pricing options.
The trouble with the pricing is that it's impossible to go in to the store with a budget and a list of albums. Each disc being priced differently (ranging from £7 to £15 or more - excluding sales) makes it impossible to know beforehand exactly how much will be spent. Indeed, it encourages price checking - if I see a disc that I want on offer at, say £12, I will be checking Amazon to see if it can be had for significantly less. Looking at a DVD set of the television series 'Black Books' today, I saw it available in store for £30. Amazon will sell me the same for £17.99! Much as I enjoy browsing a shop, I'm not putting myself out of pocket by an additional £12.
Of course, the price only comes in to play if what the customer wants is available. So often I go into the store with a list of albums in mind only to find that not one of them is stocked. Sometimes I can check a few stores if I'm traveling around but I find the situation the same everywhere. Although a physical store cannot stock everything, the problem is exacerbated by the diminishing range of CDs and although the sale of physical albums has fallen significantly thanks to downloading, it is by no means dead yet.
As for technology, whilst I understand HMV branching out into this area and in particular digital music players, headphones etc., I find it bizarre that they also see fit to stock tablet computers of various makes and models. The technology corner is starting to look like a section of Comet more than a music store and HMV certainly isn't the first place I'd think of to buy such equipment. If their opinion is to sell these devices because they can play music, well I wouldn't be surprised to see full computers making an appearance and perhaps a range of mobile phones too!
I understand the need for the business to diversify but I think it may be going too far. I find that as a music customer the store is not catering for my needs and there are plenty of times when I walk out empty handed. I think they should re-think the deminishing stock of CD albums, better focus the technology section, and bring in standardised pricing. All of this would encourage me to visit the store more often, spending my hard-earned cash which as a business is surely the most important thing.
I've had a mini shopping spree at Play.com over the past few weeks with about 5 CDs being delivered including REM - Accelerate, British Sea Power - Open Season, Bluetones - Expecting to Fly, The National - Alligator and the latest Now album.
After buying all this music, one might expect me to start reviewing the odd CD. I'm afraid this post is much more mundane - I'm going to comment on packaging. That's not the booklets and jewel cases, but the envelopes that the discs are delivered in.
Traditionally, Play have delivered their CDs in thin but padded jiffy envelopes. This was good. The discs had a degree of protection from the rigours of the postal system. However, 4 out of 5 of the above CDs were not delivered using these, but instead using cardboard CD wallets.
These new wallets look nice and neat, but there's no padding. No protection from a disgruntled Royal Mail employee throwing the packet into the post sack or the mail van going over a pot hole causing all the other mail to slam on top of it.
Fortunately, only 2 jewel cases have received damage but they both were in the newer packaging. I'm betting this is not a coincidence and that the number of occurances of damaged jewel cases may well increase.
I'm not going to send the discs back over it. The damage was just to the circular clasp that holds the disc in place. It's easy to replace jewel cases, but if the problem continues I may have to drop a line to Play.com - the first time I will ever have complained to them!
After buying all this music, one might expect me to start reviewing the odd CD. I'm afraid this post is much more mundane - I'm going to comment on packaging. That's not the booklets and jewel cases, but the envelopes that the discs are delivered in.
Traditionally, Play have delivered their CDs in thin but padded jiffy envelopes. This was good. The discs had a degree of protection from the rigours of the postal system. However, 4 out of 5 of the above CDs were not delivered using these, but instead using cardboard CD wallets.
These new wallets look nice and neat, but there's no padding. No protection from a disgruntled Royal Mail employee throwing the packet into the post sack or the mail van going over a pot hole causing all the other mail to slam on top of it.
Fortunately, only 2 jewel cases have received damage but they both were in the newer packaging. I'm betting this is not a coincidence and that the number of occurances of damaged jewel cases may well increase.
I'm not going to send the discs back over it. The damage was just to the circular clasp that holds the disc in place. It's easy to replace jewel cases, but if the problem continues I may have to drop a line to Play.com - the first time I will ever have complained to them!
I learnt yesterday, that the ability to use a Maestro card (formerly Switch) or a Solo card for a recurring payment subscription has been withdrawn by it's operator Mastercard.
Thanks to a message presented to me when logging on to eMusic, I discovered that the only way to continue such subscriptions is to use a credit card or American Express card, although there was nothing to indicate that Visa Debit was going the same way - not yet at least.
This is quite worrying for two reasons. The first being that there appears to have been very little by way of communication that this change has been made. It's only thanks to the fact that by it's nature I frequently log in to the eMusic website, that I found out. Secondly, it is creating another incentive for people to sign up to credit cards at a time when the nations consumer debt is at an all time high.
I know there are better ways of paying for a recurring subscription, such a Direct Debit. However, using a debit card was easy. Not only for the consumer, but presumably for the organisation as well who would only have to run one payment system.
The change has obviously been made with security in mind. A recurring payment system could be open to fraud considering there is no authorisation once the payment has been setup. The risk of forgetting about the subscription could also be a reason for the change, but I argue that people should be checking their statements frequently enough so that they never accidentally forget about more than one payment.
To me, this change seems like a backwards step, making subscription models in e-commerce that little bit more awkward in the UK. I am also concerned that this is just the first step, and it won't be long before credit cards follow suit. After all, if recurring payments are a risk to debit cards then they are risk to credit cards as well.
Thanks to a message presented to me when logging on to eMusic, I discovered that the only way to continue such subscriptions is to use a credit card or American Express card, although there was nothing to indicate that Visa Debit was going the same way - not yet at least.
This is quite worrying for two reasons. The first being that there appears to have been very little by way of communication that this change has been made. It's only thanks to the fact that by it's nature I frequently log in to the eMusic website, that I found out. Secondly, it is creating another incentive for people to sign up to credit cards at a time when the nations consumer debt is at an all time high.
I know there are better ways of paying for a recurring subscription, such a Direct Debit. However, using a debit card was easy. Not only for the consumer, but presumably for the organisation as well who would only have to run one payment system.
The change has obviously been made with security in mind. A recurring payment system could be open to fraud considering there is no authorisation once the payment has been setup. The risk of forgetting about the subscription could also be a reason for the change, but I argue that people should be checking their statements frequently enough so that they never accidentally forget about more than one payment.
To me, this change seems like a backwards step, making subscription models in e-commerce that little bit more awkward in the UK. I am also concerned that this is just the first step, and it won't be long before credit cards follow suit. After all, if recurring payments are a risk to debit cards then they are risk to credit cards as well.