HM? causeway bay store visit

ernietse

today after work I paid a visit to the first opened UK's leading music retail specialist store in Causeway Bay

I remember "HM?" has so many surprise whenever you visit since 90's

now, I look around all items but hardly can find any interesting item to buy, perhaps the stock are too old, mono stocking, not many choice but keeping promoting old stocks with special price

feeling so down although the store can still survive, but it lacks of soul, excitment, energy, creativity...

I cannot find any interesting newly reissued deluxe CD at all, so many old greatest hits cd or low-end compilation on sales

Blu ray collection is so little choice

seriously it is not appealing to buy the real thing instantly in store than buying from internet...

agic

remember tower? even much surprise back then although no as big
but many leading label, even indi, DJ, can really spend time there

psb

Physical stores will soon gone, replaced by "virtual" or online stores. In fact, I prefer online stores like Yesasia, Amazon, pchome global etc. as they are so much convenient and updated with latest info, we just use our mouse and click. Why not?

Soundboy

psb 發表於 2013-11-14 08:46
Physical stores will soon gone, replaced by "virtual" or online stores. In fact, I prefer online sto ...

Part of the fun is flipping through CDs (or LPs, cassettes, etc.) and discovering something new.  Online shops are convenient and have good prices, but sometimes I watch to see a CD first before deciding to buy or not.

ant9284

It is quite understandable that they only stock what is popular.  With much less people buying and the high cost of operations in major urban areas, they need to have goods that the mass population can more easily identify with.  Stocking rare items that will only cater to one or two specific customers will not help pay the rent.  

For online stores, they do not require to keep as much stock so of course they can have more selections for you to choose from.  Just think of it from their perspective, if they have 100 items available but customers only keep buying the same 2 or 3 items out of that 100; there really is no point in providing a greater selection.

psb

ant9284 發表於 2013-11-15 08:45
It is quite understandable that they only stock what is popular.  With much less people buying and  ...

The service quality of online stores like Amazon, Yesasia etc. are top notch. Recently my order was delayed and I wrote email to them to ask them to check shipment but it surprised me that they immediately sent a replacement order of the same CDs at 0 charge after reading my email. My first order arrived two weeks later now I end up with two copies of albums I ordered.

Online stores are free from the attutude problem and poor service of the storekeeper and shop promoters. In short, online stores are the best with all the info, future releases, 24 hour service, enough stocks, choices of different edition/format, time saving etc. etc. There is no point for record stores to exist when they carry limited range of releases and we always cannot find what we want.