Axed staffers hijack HMV Twitter account: 'We're tweeting LIVE from HR' A hijacker claiming to be an axed HMV worker took over the music retailer's official Twitter stream yesterday to tell the world of a "mass execution" taking place at HQ. A fortnight ago HMV (His Master's Voice) called in the administrators when bosses realised they were likely to miss banking covenants at the end of January. …
She was managing social media at HMV so technically didn't "hijack" the account. I think she'll do ok despite all the ruckus, it'll die down soon enough. It's more a statement of HMV's complete lack of knowledge in this area given she tweeted them this morning telling them they still needed to change passwords on the account. They really are a clueless company, their apathy to even acknowledge online as a business model until it was too late is damning as well.
I feel sorry for employees who are waiting for the axe to fall again.
This post has been deleted by its author
Indeed.
The stores continued belief that they could still charge "full retail", when (at the time) Play were selling the same for nearly half the price boggled the mind. Even worse were imports - sold in HMV at around £30 for a CD, when it could be delivered from the other side of the world for less than half.
Even when they finally went online, the prices tended to be the same as instore.
The biggest trick they missed, was not allowing a click and collect type affair - buy online and collect in store. They had the necessary number of premises to cover it and presumably the stock control database to back it up.
It's a shame, as I still remember it being one of the go-to shops, especially the flag-ship Oxford Street store - when VHS was king in the late 80's that store was fantastic.
HMV is an initialism not an acronym, as you can only sensibly pronounce it as the separate letters H-M-V.
HiMVoi would be an acronym, as you can pronounce it as a single word.
Both are abbreviations.
Ref: http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/acronyms and http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/initialisms
"the company you dearly love is being ruined"
I've never loved HMV, and as far as I'm concerned they ruined themselves decades ago. Perhaps if they hadn't done their best to monopolise the market with stupidly inflated CD prices for such a long time then they might be getting a bit more sympathy now. They failed to move with the times and now _they_ are having to pay the price. Too bad.
Oh c'mon, we're all going to miss going in, listening to some shite death metal blasting over the speakers, trying to guess which category your artist is this week, paying £17.99 for a CD because it's non-chart, waiting 10 minutes to be served by some collage student in aforementioned death metal t-shirt, then going home and breaking the CD case trying to get the f'ing security tag and shrink wrap off.
How I do much that wonderful experience.
Ever? Yes. Back in the day retail was the only method other than mail order. If you mean was it a good idea since the advent of the internet? Then no, retail was always going to suffer the additional costs and so ultimatly wasn't going to be viable unless they added value in other ways (don't ask me, if I knew I'd be running my own store!).
you've just reminded me of Sefton Delmer's black propaganda efforts for the British during the Second World War.
One of his fake German radio stations ("Gustav Siegfried Eins") broadcast as a ultra-patriotic Prussian type denouncing lower rank Nazis for corruption in contrast to brave soldiers freezing to death on the Eastern Front.
Sefton killed off the station and the character with the Gestapo raiding the station and shooting the broadcaster "on air".
Fascinating chap going by what I've read of him - some stuff here http://www.psywar.org/seftondelmer
Well, it looks like there is an intern who has just ruined her career. Silly mistake, I'm sympathetic that they've lost their jobs, having recently gone through redundancy myself, but never burn your bridges. You never know when you'll be wanted back, if you can show a professional attitude while everything is falling apart around you, it makes you a valuable person to employ.
I (and those who I worked with) now have a reference from the person who ran my division at the company I was made redundant from saying how professional I was throughout the whole affair, which is rather good.
...is really quite good. The staff, especially one or two individuals, are really helpful - you know, actually offering to help without being asked, I know it's unusual these days - without being pushy and leaving you to browse if that's all you want.
I go regularly, but unfortunately, rarely buy anything because they (a) stock mostly pre-owned games, and I prefer to buy new and (b) don't carry any of the music that I enjoy. Do buy the odd BluRay, though.
I think that there is a place for a good mass market retailer still. I prefer to buy CD over digital download, and BluRay over digital download - I don't like the encumbrance of DRM that often comes with downloads and it's easy to get physical media in to digital format for phones, tablets, media streamers etc (thank you "ExactAudioCopy" and "AnyDVD HD"/"Handbrake") and for a small amount extra over mail order (which includes multi-day delays if you want free shipping) it can be worth it.
Have a sibling working at HMV, poor chap. Jokes aside, the threat of redundancy is horrid. Best of luck to anyone out jobhunting.
I do think there is a place for a Retail CD / DVD on the High street. I just think they need to review their range. Drop the T-Shirts / Posters / Crap bog Books. Increase the back catalogue range.
Any planned purchases I do are online. I think if HMV offer the same Online range and pricing as Amazon et al, i'd happily shop there. (clearly, the in store range won't be as big, but definitely has room for improvement). In store purchases tend to be a lot more impulsive. I'll wander in for a mooch, then remember they only sell Beats Audio 'phones and Tulisa Contoshaglots albums. Then i'll wander back out.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
