HMV seem to have stopped doing singles, as such...

Yesterday, strollin' through, got a couple of DVDs for presents for people,

Wondered if such&such single was in. Well,there were the 7" singles mixed up in a stack display, and there were a bunch of Adele,Girlsloud, Xfactor, and about 9 other in a CD rack display. But no "Singles A", "Singles B" and so on.

So I ask, and it's "No, that's all we do now"

They kept that one quiet!

Eh? They certainly have a singles section in the big one on Oxford Street. I think. Well, at least they have a 7" section.

Well, you know, alphabeticised! With little separators.

They all gone in the Reading branch, making way for another "3 for £10" section.

The last time I specifically looked was about a year ago, in the neither-huge-nor-tiny Cardiff branch, and there weren't any then

The Ox Circ branch is the only decent HMV in existence and even their singles section is crap now.

Perhaps if they made more of an effort to sell new music instead of the same wrinkled tedious 3 for £10 rubbish that nobody wants they might get somewhere.

They re-arranged everything in the Leeds branch a while back so that the music is all on one floor, I think singles got quietly 'lost' in the shuffle although there may still be a small section near the back somewhere, hard to remember. Unsurprisingly the CD section seems to keep shrinking - it's still marginally better than Zavvi, which isn't saying much.

Singles now seem to get stocked at the entrance to the checkout queue, presumably in a similar manner to how supermarkets used to put fruit pastilles by the checkouts. The old singles section has been replaced by (I think) an extended Hooligan Memoirs section.

I hate that they've knocked through the old classical music annexe bit for more DVDs - the lighting is horrible, makes it look like an Eisenegger clearance place.

the singles section of hmv, with the possible exception of the oxford street branch, has always been crap and overpriced, and probably a bad use of space from their point of view. it's easier and cheaper to get it off amazon/ebay.

Ah, the good old kick a ball in the street days when HMV (and indeed most record shops) kept all their singles behind the counter and you had to go up and ask for them.

Memo to HMV counter staff: I know you have no choice in the matter and have to do it but please do your best to refrain from asking me if I want a shitty loss leader DVD for just £4. If I wanted it I would have GIVEN it to you with the stuff I'm actually BUYING.

Thank you for your help in this matter.

Would you like a top-up or batteries with that post sir?

Isn't that what Rymans is for?

Why would you want to buy a single?

http://www.freefoto.com/images/11/45/11_45_19---Conservatives-Poster-Campaign-2005_web.jpg

No I never bought Jonathan King's 1990 version of "I Can't Let Maggie Go" either.

You're right that the HMV staff don't have any choice but to ask you if wld you like to purchase one of these crappy DVDs seeing as you have spent 20 quid already (some stores even give a 'reward' to the staff member who makes the most 'linked sales'.) In my experience it works surprisingly often - maybe w/ 1 in every 4 customers - so don't expect to see it end anytime soon.

It's as funny as "Would you like a Toblerone" in WHSmiths.

trying to remember the last single i bought in HMV (or any shop)

The HMV in Leadenhall Market now has three racks of CDs in a corner at the back and the other nine 10ths of the store is DVDs and unsold copies of Guitar Hero/Rock Band.

Gone to the dogs, society.

People must really love films these days

yes, will they have to stop calling it "His Master's Voice" given that 90% of their sales* are now visual rather than aural?

(* made up stat based on hammersmith and, apparently, leadenhall shop layouts.)

but DVDs and games have sound too

His Master's Senses

Does anyone buy singles as a physical format anymore at all? I mean, I realise that download has meant a comeback for the single track, but the single format I thought was more or less dead.

i do tend to buy both 'sides' of a downloadable single. chances are if i like the one track i'll like the other (although i do normally check first if i can). i do cherry-pick tracks from compilation lps though.

From http://www.bpi.co.uk/members/pdf/Stats/singles2008.pdf :

Over 77m single tracks were downloaded in 2007, and digital formats now account for over 90% of all singles sold.

So 7.7m CD singles, then? That's only 150,000 sales a week.

2008 was the year I finally stopped buying physical singles. Maybe half a dozen this year, tops.

this thread is about them not selling singles *that are no longer in the charts*, if i read it right.

prowess by redcell is the first thing that springs to mind..

come to think of it, quite a lot of the b12 stuff would probably qualify

If the Leadenhall Market store is anything to go by, they've pretty much given up on selling any kind of CD at all, let alone back catalogue singles.

Apparently, they've 'put the singles section away during Christmas'

Which seems to suggest it'll be back out afterwards.

Hmm... We'll see.

Oh dear:

HMV is creating in-store areas called “The Studio” dedicated to fashion and will sell predominantly men’s clothing and accessories from brands including Boxfresh, Lee Jeans, FLY53 and Eastpak, from 1 September.

HMV’s London flagship store on Oxford Street will also sell hip-hop star Jay-Z’s designer label Rocawear.

This has happened already on the Oxford Street store. The clothes are at the back of the store where the singles, vinyl and turntables were. The place looks a mess now.

Noticed this in HMV Exeter at the weekend.

Didn't notice anything different in my local HMV, but it's not a huge one.

Lee???

^^^ It's a bit "Top Shop", isn't it.

FLY53

...clothes are the fugliest garms out there, is what I meant to type before my sausage finger slipped

HMV is to close 60 stores across the UK after suffering a sharp fall in sales over the crucial Christmas period.

riddance

Pssh, they played themselves with their "online from Guernsey to get round the VAT" sales pitch.

So, no-one goes into HMVs anymore.

Companies here are threatening to do the same. Threatening. I don't know WHO they're threatening.