Entertainment Retail

[Mark]

MVC, Music Choice, Fopp, ChoicesUK, all gone (or going). HMV profits in sharp decline. Who knows what state Virgin are in. Even some lesser-known online retailers are going to the wall.

Is there any future in entertainment retail, and if so, what future?

[leowyatt]

I think they simply can't compete with the online retailers such as play.com. Well if you takeH HMV prices I'm not surprised there has been a sharp decline, robbing bastards!

[Mark]

True, but what happens to the non-internet generation, dwindling though it obviously is?

[Haly]

True, but what happens to the non-internet generation, dwindling though it obviously is?

Supermarkets, they sell all entertainment stuff a lot cheaper than any dedicated store anyhow.

[Mark]

Supermarkets don't carry much beyond the latest chart and a few shelves of clearence offers. While I guess that's fine for the majority, it's still not even close to what the existing retailers offer.

I don't have a personal problem with this of course - I get all my stuff from the internet like everyone else here - but it just seems like another market segment is being driven into extinction. What's next? Games retailers.

[Haly]

I dunno, my local Morrisons seem to do pretty well with a good array of DVDs but either way if the existing retailers charge extortionate rates though, then they don't deserve to pretend they can compete.

I love looking in HMV but when they charge £20 for all DVDs and £16-17 for a CD it's just ridiculous.
The only person out of my friends or family who doesn't use the internet for their purchases is my Grandmother, and in her case she couldn't afford HMV prices anyhow.

The same will no doubt happen with game retailers if they don't remain competitive, I know I hardly buy in store now because the prices are so awful. For example, new releases in store at £49.99 while online £24.99.

They're the ones in charge of their own destiny, they don't have to beat online prices, just be vaguely near so they win with the convenience of being able to buy immediately.

Edit: Thinking about it, I feel more sorry for the poor sods paying over the odds without realising how cheaply they could buy things online.

[semi-pro waster]

I think the future in entertainment retail is likely to be supermarkets or the like on the high street for the mass market, internet for most people (particularly of the generation currently say 18-35 and almost everyone younger) but I somehow reckon that smaller, more niche outlets will survive as they have a more defined market which simply isn't catered to as well on the internet. I quite enjoy picking up older films from secondhand shops or small retailers but if I'm ordering a lot then I tend to use a store on the internet for convenience.

[Mark]

It's quite scary thinking about what's happened.

MVC went bust.
Music Zone bought half the MVC stores, then went bust.
Fopp bought half the Music Zone stores, then went bust.
HMV bought 5 of the Fopp stores.

I think I see a pattern here. :eek:

[Garp]

I buy stuff from HMV, but only their special offer stuff that I know is cheaper than I can get it online. Like this thing:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Red-Curtain-Trilogy-Strictly-Ballroom/dp/B000CEXDZI/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/203-2018613-0035131?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1187763084&sr=8-1
£15 in store. Amazon is only cheaper if you discount delivery; or their occasional 3 for £20.

Other than that their prices are usually too high to justify purchasing. I can't really complain about their prices though, because they have different overheads. They'll never be able to compete with the likes of Play and amazon simply because they have the staffing and shop expenses to cover.

What I think a lot of these retailers are failing to do is turn shopping into a worthwhile experience. They still see it as "Shove a load of stock on the shelves and people will buy it". They need to be enticing the people into the stores, offering something more than just the stock, making their business less focussed on getting people in and out of the shop with products as fast as possible.

I used to like shopping in the Fopp in Brighton. They always had a reasonable stock of the non-mainstream music, and they had staff their that knew their stuff and who'd make suggestions based on what artists you were looking at (far better than Amazons 'people who bought that bought this..'), I've picked up some interesting albums as a direct consequence of that, and come across some good artists I wouldn't otherwise have heard.