HMVs Store of The Future Now Open Bay & Bloor
I wandered into the new HMV store on the weekend. I had forgotten they were upgrading it. The one thing that tipped me off — it was smaller. They had closed the lower level. The inventory mix is equal parts music and movies with a smaller (but substantial) video game section. It wouldn’t slow a passing teenager at all.
In a corner of the upper floor, I found six iMacs and three big screen tvs — one each for the major game consoles. These were available for public use. The ‘lounge’ itself was done up with new branding. The iMacs offered 15 or so websites to browse in a locked down state. The ads on these sites had been stripped out. An HMV-browser bar had been added to the page.
Sorry. No screen shots or photos.
The concept was clean bright and shiny (a la the iTunes store) but at the end of the day it was underwhelming. This is nothing risky on HMV’s part. That is fine. Do what you do best. Don’t try to be something you are not. But it presages the changes due for big-box book retail. It is an island. The tide is encroaching from all sides. You can be the best retailer in the space — but in the long term there is no escape. There is simply too much square footage out there.
Here is a link to the Telegraph’s coverage of the UK announcement.
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