June 25, 2008
June 24, 2008
June 23, 2008
The “New” HMV
On my way home from work Friday I stopped by the renovated HMV on Bloor St.
The new design of this store is the first of its kind in Canada and meant to take the retailer beyond just selling staid media such as CDs and DVDs by providing a multimedia experience to shoppers. Supposedly this has helped increase sales at UK stores and will help HMV compete with bricks and mortar retailers such as FutureShop as well as the online models such iTunes.
I’m not a retail analyst, so whether it will work in all stores, I can’t tell you. I can tell you this: If I can’t buy what I want, it doesn’t matter.
The store layout provides space for fewer CDs and DVDs. This would be okay except the bulk of that space is devoted to discount movies and TV on DVD – rows and rows of Warner Bros. properties, for example. So if I wanted several hundred copies of One Tree Hill, I’d be heaven, but I wanted season six of JAG.
JAG was not the most ground breaking series ever made, but it did run for 10 seasons, was created and produced by TV vet Donald Bellisario (Magnum, NCIS) and was released through CBS / Paramount, a major entertainment company. My point being I wasn’t on the hunt for some rare foreign film.
Not only did the store not have season six, which recently came out, but it did not have any seasons of the series at all.
I realize it’s impossible to stock every DVD every released, but as I say, I was looking for something rather mainstream at a large chain and came away empty-handed.
June 20, 2008
Excuse me, I have a question….
If Bell’s network is so congested, why are they still signing up customers?
June 19, 2008
June 18, 2008
We also want to drill for oil in Teddy Roosevelt’s head….
Not only should we drill the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but we should also start looking at homeless people and orphans as a viable alternative to coal.
