The Sad State of HMV

HMV, or His Master’s Voice based on the famous Francis Barraud’s painting, tells us on their website that they are “Canada’s  premier retailer of music, DVD, Blu-ray, Headphones, books and more, and has proven itself as an innovative leader in Canada since 1988″. And until last year, this was probably the truth. That is pretty much when they reduced their space by 2/3 of what they used to have…

His Master’s Voice by Francis Barraud, 1898

I used to spend hours at a time in that store when I first moved to Toronto, it was right next door to Toronto’s own Sam The Record Man and they were great competitors. HMV was gigantic and had everything, I spent so much money there buying music and movies… mostly movies… God knows I have the collection to prove too… I would go there and start at one corner and worked my way throughout all the store, it was my Saturday morning routine and I’d always come out with something… but it’s no longer the truth. I guess they can blame the internet for it. It’s true that it’s easy to download from iTunes or log on to Netflix instead of strutting your stuff downtown to get the latest in movies or music. But… Reducing their space meant that they were reducing their selection too… and not in a good way. In my opinion they went from specialty store to new release store… that’s it… I went today during lunch time and spent less than 10 minutes in there… They had not even bothered updating the new release wall yet with all the new movies that came out yesterday… they still had the new release from last week… oh wait, I’m lying, hiding in there somewhere was Project X that came out yesterday… well, maybe it was the only worthy one of 6 new release in their opinion but still… they used to proudly display EVERYTHING before…

Here’s when I got off the HMV train: this past Winter, the 6th season of Adam 12 finally came out of dvd on January 17th after a long 1.5 yr wait. Of course, I was there that day ready to buy my copy… None available… I asked one of the clerk in case it was still in a box somewhere but he told me their inventory showed no copies in stores but 3 sets had been ordered, no delivery dates yet… I came back the day after, nothing, and then again the day after and nothing… I went the following Tuesday when new releases come out and still nothing, another clerk checked and told me the same thing, no copies in store but 3 sets ordered… It took 2 full weeks for the dvd to arrive and then when I saw the price I was a bit taken aback, it was $36.99 when all the other ones came out at $22.99 on the first week of release… That’s when I decided to go across the street to Sunrise Records and investigate their inventory, they did have the 6th season and it was $24.99… so I snatched it saving myself $12… I watched that season in just a few nights… Then in the Spring, the good news came that Season 7 would be released on April 10th… Like a good fan, I was at HMV that day and they didn’t have a copy in store, I immediately crossed the street and Sunrise did have multiple copies for sale and I snatched mine right away… 2 weeks later, I notice that HMV had finally received their allotment at the ridiculous price of $36.99… So not impressed.

What I’ve noticed in the last months is a lack of interest in their inventory, the Quebec movies section used to be 4 or 5 fulls row on one their racks, now, we’re lucky to see half a row of selections… from what I can see is that when a title is sold out they don’t necessarily reorder new copies unless it’s a fairly recent title. Now don’t get me wrong, there are some good deals to be had, but nothing special… no real hard to find, obscure, titles, just main street stuff… It’s sad.

On the other hand, just across the street, my new favourite store, Sunrise Records is offering some sweet deals and tons of hard to find old and or foreign titles… and I find myself spending a lot more than 10 minutes per visit in there nowadays.

I was sad when Sam The Record Man closed down, I’ve made my peace with HMV already, they can close and I won’t shed a tear…

And now I’m told that my 2nd major hang out, The World’s Biggest Bookstore on Edward St is threatening not to sign their next lease… grrrrrrrrr