Do you still buy DVDs? I used to buy pirate DVDs a decade ago but now I just download. I got used to the image quality of HD and Bluray rip videos a few years ago (720p and 1080p) and have never bought any DVDs since then. I have bought a few films and music shows on Bluray from Amazon UK though in recent years. They are simply amazing in terms of image quality. The only advantage of DVD compared to Bluray I think is the price.
I'm a dinosaur now. Only Fopp left to browse and find stuff you wouldn't think of buying. The online shopping world is absolute shit. It means workers are treated appallingly and the social contracts of life are just destroyed. Cheap rules. Cheap destroys. And we just let it happen. I'm glad I'm old enough to remember how it was and sad that the new generations are more and more just tools of the machine. We need a revolution.
Retail is utterly fucked. Its just a case of who goes soonest.
You say that but a friend of mine has a pet store and I saw an aquarium in there for £799. When I told him it was available online at £389, he told me to give him £400 and he's still making a profit. How many stores rely on us not looking elsewhere and penalise us for being lazy, insurance companies do it as do energy companies.
He might be making a tiny gross profit in that, but it's normal for retailers to sell for about 2-2.5 times what they paid for stock (this includes the VAT element). Out of this they have to pay all the costs associated with property (business rates are an insidious tax), staff wages albeit at low rates and rents which can be enormous. I haven't worked in retail for a few years but I was at Borders in 2009 during their demise when they were latterly acquired by Hilco who currently own HMV. Borders was a good outfit but could never compete against Amazon, who could buy from publishers much more cheaply than Borders to the extent that Amazon could sell books profitably for less than it cost Borders to buy them. Even with a 30% staff discount, a lot of stuff was still cheaper for me to buy through Amazon. Property costs at Borders were also a killer. The loss of a chain of good shops with passionate, knowledgeable staff was a real shame, but it wasn't the first and I see retailers going down like dominoes now. You lose a house of Fraser or Debenhams from a small/medium sized town and a main draw disappears causing smaller collocated retailers to suffer in turn. It's the modern world and I don't see what will halt it.
I'm a dinosaur now. Only Fopp left to browse and find stuff you wouldn't think of buying. The online shopping world is absolute shit. It means workers are treated appallingly and the social contracts of life are just destroyed. Cheap rules. Cheap destroys. And we just let it happen. I'm glad I'm old enough to remember how it was and sad that the new generations are more and more just tools of the machine. We need a revolution.
Do you still buy DVDs? I used to buy pirate DVDs a decade ago but now I just download. I got used to the image quality of HD and Bluray rip videos a few years ago (720p and 1080p) and have never bought any DVDs since then. I have bought a few films and music shows on Bluray from Amazon UK though in recent years. They are simply amazing in terms of image quality. The only advantage of DVD compared to Bluray I think is the price.
I still buy the films / shows I want on bluray / uhd because streams just can't match it terms of video and audio quality. If you have a decent quality bluray player and TV the difference is very noticeable due to how much compression sky, Netflix and amazon have to use. Until broadband speeds are ten times what they are now, you'll be receiving lower quality even if it is "4K". By the time they catch up though, 8K will be here and they'll be behind again. Value for money though, physical media just can't compete.
I bought a Cohn Brothers box set in HMV Grimsby 'final sale' last week (the store is closing soon) , six movies for £12 , an absolute bargain ... walking round the store and checking what was on offer, all six of the box set movies were on sale individually .. total cost buying all six individually? .. £47 .. HMV went haywire pricing wise. Pity because the store is/was packed with obscure stuff, both movies and music. However the old style stores just can't keep pace with the technology advances made by Apple, Amazon & Co. It's a pity, especially as the helpful young staff will all soon lose their jobs in a part of the country where good and interesting jobs are scarce.
I posted this over 5 years ago … the Grimsby store was 'reprieved', but it seems that little has changed since then .. shame for all the potential job losses, especially in areas where alternative jobs, good jobs that is, are harder and harder to find
Do you still buy DVDs? I used to buy pirate DVDs a decade ago but now I just download. I got used to the image quality of HD and Bluray rip videos a few years ago (720p and 1080p) and have never bought any DVDs since then. I have bought a few films and music shows on Bluray from Amazon UK though in recent years. They are simply amazing in terms of image quality. The only advantage of DVD compared to Bluray I think is the price.
I still buy the films / shows I want on bluray / uhd because streams just can't match it terms of video and audio quality. If you have a decent quality bluray player and TV the difference is very noticeable due to how much compression sky, Netflix and amazon have to use. Until broadband speeds are ten times what they are now, you'll be receiving lower quality even if it is "4K". By the time they catch up though, 8K will be here and they'll be behind again. Value for money though, physical media just can't compete.
This is something I would have been pushing, go into a HMV shop and they will have a CD playing but not a display or information showing the difference between an elecrronic file or stream and blu-ray. Every single shop that sells Tv's would have this and I don't understand why HMV wouldn't.
Going back to what I said about Mike Ashley here's a short version as the enquiry panel/committee is nearly 2 hours long
Do you still buy DVDs? I used to buy pirate DVDs a decade ago but now I just download. I got used to the image quality of HD and Bluray rip videos a few years ago (720p and 1080p) and have never bought any DVDs since then. I have bought a few films and music shows on Bluray from Amazon UK though in recent years. They are simply amazing in terms of image quality. The only advantage of DVD compared to Bluray I think is the price.
I still buy the films / shows I want on bluray / uhd because streams just can't match it terms of video and audio quality. If you have a decent quality bluray player and TV the difference is very noticeable due to how much compression sky, Netflix and amazon have to use. Until broadband speeds are ten times what they are now, you'll be receiving lower quality even if it is "4K". By the time they catch up though, 8K will be here and they'll be behind again. Value for money though, physical media just can't compete.
This is something I would have been pushing, go into a HMV shop and they will have a CD playing but not a display or information showing the difference between an elecrronic file or stream and blu-ray. Every single shop that sells Tv's would have this and I don't understand why HMV wouldn't.
Going back to what I said about Mike Ashley here's a short version as the enquiry panel/committee is nearly 2 hours long
I'm a dinosaur now. Only Fopp left to browse and find stuff you wouldn't think of buying. The online shopping world is absolute shit. It means workers are treated appallingly and the social contracts of life are just destroyed. Cheap rules. Cheap destroys. And we just let it happen. I'm glad I'm old enough to remember how it was and sad that the new generations are more and more just tools of the machine. We need a revolution.
Funny how a few years ago we all bought HD TVs to now watch variable quality streams.
...and a blu-Ray DVD player on which I've never watched a blu ray
A 4K Blu-ray player came as a freebie with my tv. Over a year later and and I’ve watched one 4K disc on it. Shows manufacturers knows and have done for a long time which way the world is heading but the high street has its fingers in its ears.
I remember back in the early '80s reading an interview with one of The Human League (I think Martyn Ware, but possibly not). They were talking about the early sampling sampling machines (Synclavier etc) and he said that in the not to distant future the memory capacity would be so great that no-one would need physical media anymore. He when on to prophesize a scenario much as we have today where you key in a name of a song and it's pushed down a phone line to your stereo. I believe that's what the song WXJL Tonight is all about. The weight of technology is very much against high street shops and the pressure was always going to be greatest in sectors where the physical medium plays second fiddle to the primary merchandise.
Outside of the niche Vinyl interest, music and film physical sales are dead.
HMV needs to either scale down massively and just stick to merch + vinyl or they're going for good.
Trouble is, with streaming you can only watch what Netflix or Amazon or Disney or whoever else wants to get in on the game have signed deals for. I don't want to have to sign up for loads of different services to watch what I want so I still buy DVD/Bluray of my favourite film & TV as who knows when it's going to disappear.
I still subscribe to a DVD by post service as I can't get the films I want to see via Netflix etc. I'm on spotify but I'd still rather buy the music than rent it as albums can get pulled at any time plus the artists get bugger all money from streaming
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Borders was a good outfit but could never compete against Amazon, who could buy from publishers much more cheaply than Borders to the extent that Amazon could sell books profitably for less than it cost Borders to buy them. Even with a 30% staff discount, a lot of stuff was still cheaper for me to buy through Amazon.
Property costs at Borders were also a killer. The loss of a chain of good shops with passionate, knowledgeable staff was a real shame, but it wasn't the first and I see retailers going down like dominoes now. You lose a house of Fraser or Debenhams from a small/medium sized town and a main draw disappears causing smaller collocated retailers to suffer in turn.
It's the modern world and I don't see what will halt it.
Going back to what I said about Mike Ashley here's a short version as the enquiry panel/committee is nearly 2 hours long
Could be a good owner...
Shows manufacturers knows and have done for a long time which way the world is heading but the high street has its fingers in its ears.
I still subscribe to a DVD by post service as I can't get the films I want to see via Netflix etc. I'm on spotify but I'd still rather buy the music than rent it as albums can get pulled at any time plus the artists get bugger all money from streaming
£17.90 a month unlimited.