Hardly Merits Visiting.

I was in the HMV in Belfast earlier. It's been revamped. I think we can now officially conclude that there are now no music shops left in the City centre. The CDs (what few there were) are now relegated to the second floor, filling (or rather not) the space previously reserved for video game accessories, which now reside downstairs in the space vacated by CDs. A couple of things struck me. Firstly they've upped the prices for their CDs again, presumably to compensate for the likely crash in sales that will result from having such a limited selection. Now HMV have never been cheap - but when a thrown together "Captain Sensible" compilation on a no mark label (think Pickwick) is priced at £7 you really have to wonder what bizarre pricing formula they are using and how long it'll be before they abandon music all together? If I was a betting man I'd say 18 months, two years tops. 

The second thing were the poor souls, browsing the CDs, who weren't aware things have changed. They shared that look of puzzled bewilderment you see when pub regulars, visiting their old haunt for the first time after a revamp, discover "The Dog And Partridge" has become a bar with a one word name, roped off bits and burly bouncers. Then experiencing the "Christ you're here. We didn't expect to see you again" when the staff suddenly remember you from the old days. It was like meeting an old girlfriend, who in the intervening months has gone blonde, sports a tattoo and has joined a gym. In HMV today the language was pretty clear. "We've moved on. Yeah it's nice to see you, but we don't need you any more and, if we're honest, we'd prefer it if you either went somewhere else, or at least pretended you don't know us"

Of course all this fits. HMV have given up on music. They'll say there's no money in it, sales are down, piracy is up and the rest. I think the reality is different. HMV doesn't know what it is. I mean think about it. What is HMV for? What is it's proposition? What makes you shop in it? Or more importantly what makes you not shop in it? The thing is HMV don't know the answers to these questions. Worse they haven't even reached the point where they'd even consider getting someone to ask them.  And so, rather than work out what they do and what they are for, they, like a three year old with some fuzzy felt, are throwing things in the hope what sticks makes a nice picture.

Honestly? If HMV had any competition they'd be banjaxed. The only thing about this that surprises me is why people like Game, on who HMV are encroaching, don't start selling music. There is a gap in the high street that is there to be filled. 

Still, like a jilted boyfriend, I can, through gritted teeth, wish HMV and Mario the best, while secretly hoping the whole thing ends in tears. 

Which, in this instance at least, strikes me as almost inevitable.