HMV books

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In HMV's in Ireland, the book racks tend to be tiny. And the selection of paperback books is just fucking horrible, it's like every student left winger bible all next to each other.

In fact dealing, as I do, with so many music fans/writers in Dublin, and since HMV is the only really big record store in Dublin, I have become convinced that they are manufacturing opinion. Indeed, Chomsky should be writing about THIS.

I just find the idea of people "picking up" Stupid White Men along with the Sex In The City DVD and the White Stripes album kind of disturbing.

Is this mere snobbery or do I have a point? Is this the case in Britain? Should HMV be banned from selling books? It would be nice.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 13:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I have briefly browsed at the HMV book section: lots of 'countercultural' rubbish.

''I have become convinced that they are manufacturing opinion''

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 13:16 (twenty-two years ago)

banned from selling some books Vs. forced to sell all books.

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 13:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I am not sure about HMV, but I guess it must be similar to the books that Fopp sell. Currently they are plugging books by Iain Banks & Gabriel Garcia Marquez along with numerous biogs. In this case I don't really think it is a bad thing, I guess I am more likely to pick up a book in there as I tend not to browse in the bookshops in Cambridge, as they tend to be huge & full of students/tourists. So not exactly answering your question, just adding an opinion of mine.

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 13:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Student demographics, innit? Maybe they assume that all Tories are 51-year-old management executives who only ever look in the classical and easy listening sections.

Bit surprised to hear that HMV's the only big record store in Dublin. No Virgin or Tower? Or Rough Trade equivalent?

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 9 September 2003 13:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Fopp sell books that i) they think fit the demographic profile, ii) are remaindered.

Marcello's OTM - HMV stock what they think their punters will buy; they'll buy some kind of data (possibly even NIELSEN BOOKSCAN data, it's great you know) detailing the sort of books their target market is buying and they'll have a buyer who's an expert in those areas. Books are a lower-priority thing for them so they have a limited selection.

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 13:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I was joking about the manufacturing opinion part, of course.

Yeah I know it's their target market, but it's a bit chicken/egg, does this mean their target market only want to read Hornby/Moore/"Reasons to Hate America Vol 28876876865775654"? Is it that easy for them to sell a few books? Tom you and your evil "marketing men" are ruining everything. (joke)

There's a few good small record shops, but I would say along with Irish chain Golden Discs (barely any non chart/classic records) they are easily the most dominant outlet. There's only one or two Virgin stores and both are small. Tower have one extremely popular store but it's quite small.

I guess I'm saying, even as someone who isn't an avid reader, should books be reduced to the same level of omnipresence or popularity as CDs, ie shouldn't buying a (non fiction at least) book be a more serious affair than buying a CD or DVD? Or at least wouldn't it be nicer to just leave books in book shops?

Or maybe I'm also simply saying, isn't it a bit desperate that someone might buy books which are so expressly targeted towards them? This is just me making bloody straw men again I suppose but anyway.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 13:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I see exactly what you're getting at Ronan - I think for places like HMV books are an 'impulse buy' thing so they only want to stock stuff they actually know will sell, nobody thinks "well HMV always knows what books I like I'll go there for books in future", they come in to buy a CD and get Michael Moore in the 3 for 2 deal. If they want a book I dare say they will visit a bookshop.

I don't agree that buying a book should be a more serious affair than anything, it's only a book for goodness sakes.

(I sometimes get very annoyed at Borders' CD selection for similar reasons - they clearly have a fixed idea of the Sort Of Thing the Reading Public want.)

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 13:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, HMV don't look at it from that way. It's about profit. From a certain point of view I ... uh... approve of it: At least they try to get the customer what they want (even though for HMV it's about *sales*). The client don't see it that way, Ronan, they look to fill that bottomless hole in his/her stomach. Consume, consume, consume to build his/her ego. hehehe So Tom, it's not just a book. heheh

― nathalie (nathalie), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 13:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I find buying them all pretty serious, in their own ways. But I always buy books in bookshops; don't recall ever having bought one out of HMV or Virgin. Personally it would be nicer if chainstores like HMV didn't stock the same 100 bloody CDs/books/DVDs and nothing else in every one of their branches apart from the flagship Oxford Circus one. And even then, attempting to buy anything which deviates even a millimetre from the broadsheet/glossy monthly/Hornby acceptability criteria usually means having to leg it to Rough Trade or These Records or Minus Zero or similar.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 9 September 2003 14:01 (twenty-two years ago)

The last (possibly only, I don't remember) book I bought in HMV was the NME "Top 100 Best Selling Singles Ever" coffee-table job, which they had piles of on sale for remainder prices. This proves Marcello's point somehow I think.

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 14:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah you're right Tom, it shouldn't be a more serious affair, but I guess I was getting at the fact that literature has not been democratised to the same extent that music has and that this particular form of democratisation is a bad thing.

Interesting you mention Borders, I was going to ask did any of the bookshops there do CDs, I would say that, using myself as an example (ie someone who wouldn't go to a bookshop unless I had a specific purchase in mind), there are people who only buy books in HMV and it seems an awfully strict mini-canon.

I suppose in fairness to HMV the books they sell look quite in tune with the music they sell, to some extent.

Interesting to read Marcello's post. When I go to London I am amazed at the selection in the HMV's, everything's relative I guess.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 14:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Surely the range of music sold in HMV is considerably wider than the range of books? Actually, it's just occurred to me that I have NO IDEA what books ARE on sale in HMV - can I safely assume it's all No Logo and Harry Potter and High Fidelity and The Corrections and so forth. Is their selection of music-related books any good? Do they sell purely based on demographics or can you buy Jackie Collins or John Grisham or Bridget Jones' Diary in there as well?-

Music-wise, I think HMV gets a bit of a bad press really - there've been several occasions in the past couple of years when I've trawled Berwick Street looking for a CD only to find it nestling in the racks of the Piccadilly HMV after all.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 14:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Slightly off-topic, & I refer to it in CoM this week, but record shop embarrassment time: one Friday teatime just before Xmas last year, standing in the queue with my Girls Aloud CD single; directly in front of me, gorgeous woman purchasing the Dalek CD at full £14.99 retail price. I thought to myself (a) she is beyond cool; (b) we could communicate; but (c) I am a nearly fortysomething Ken Stott lookalike in a suit and navy blue overcoat buying the Girls Aloud CD single; ergo (d) in her eyes I would be sadder than sad. So I paid my £2.99 and sloped up Berwick Street, thinking "well I really ought to listen to that Dalek CD" and found a copy in Reckless for £6.99 but that kind of magnified my ruination rather than eliminating it.

Sorry...back to topic ;-)

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 9 September 2003 14:28 (twenty-two years ago)

we should burn all these books < / hitler >

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 15:43 (twenty-two years ago)

have i told you before marcello that ken stott is a hero of mine? i mean this seriously! and funnily enough, i have also had similar embarrassment also with the girls aloud album in my local tesco... smiled at gorgeous slighly boho-looking woman in front of me in checkout queue, she smiled back, looked at my groceries and then turned away - i am convinced we would have spoken and fallen passionately in love were it not for the prominent inclusion of cheryl tweedy et al in my weekly shop. having said that, though, i probably would have had some difficulty explaining away all the obnoxious dancehall and gabba i own if we had have embarked upon a torrid affair, so probably just as well.

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 16:12 (twenty-two years ago)

better a short-lived, 'intense' affair than nothing at all dave ;)

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 16:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I've never bought a book in HMV. I almost bought Bez's autobiography there a few months ago, but decided that just flicking thru a few pages of it in the shop was sufficient!

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 18:15 (twenty-two years ago)

HMV is prime reading space: as long as you can kneel down to the floor, no one cares what/how long you read. HMV is, as usual, out to recoup any cash they lose from that current CD sale: "Hopefully Ms X will have instant amnesia, forget they just spent 13 pounds on a CD....and cough up the extra change for a book from Nick Hornby (or whoever is the author du jour)"

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 18:22 (twenty-two years ago)

All anti-HMV points made so far are otm, but I did end up taking advantage of their three-for-two offer the other day... I wanted a copy of the Michael Bracewell book, couldn't find it in Borders (which isn't much better anyway), was tired, had to meet people, so despite having already given HMV cash already (topless Justin poster, bizarrely cheap Gillian Welch album) that day was forced to return and buy that. And then thought 'well, may as well get Middlesex and a random Will Self novel while I'm here'.

― The Lex (The Lex), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 20:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Or maybe I'm also simply saying, isn't it a bit desperate that someone might buy books which are so expressly targeted towards them?

Ahh, the sophisticate's fear of the marketing team getting them right. I suffer from this too. It's almost as pathetic an attempt at asserting individuality as choosing a new mobile phone fascia, I guess.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 20:54 (twenty-two years ago)

It shld be also be remembered/remaindered that HMV and Waterstones = the same company

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 22:32 (twenty-two years ago)

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