A quick heads-up before we sign off for the day. Troubled retailer HMV is will honour gift cards from tomorrow, Tuesday 22nd January, the firm's administrators have announced, following a backlash against what has been branded "almost theft".
"Since our appointment as Joint Administrators on Tuesday afternoon, we have been urgently assessing the Companies' financial position," Deloitte's Nick Edwards said in a statement passed to Eurogamer. "I am pleased to confirm that, having concluded this assessment, we are able to honour gift cards."
HMV will also resume payment of proceeds to charities, Edwards added. The firm's 200 branches and 4500 or so employees remain unaffected by the decision to enter administration at the time of writing. DVD and games chain Blockbusters UK has also entered administration, in what many see as the inevitable decline of high street entertainment retail.
If you're among those facing a potential layoff, best of luck.
7 comments so far...
Grummy on 21 Jan '13 said:
This really makes me sad, where are all these people supposed to get jobs now?
To some degree this is their own fault, HMV charging £15 or £20 for Blu Rays that I can buy for £5 from Amazon, £45 for new games that I can buy from Tesco for £32-£38, they were setting themselves up for a fall. Blockbuster believed too much that people would still want to walk into a rental store to get something rather than just ordering it for the same price, or cheaper on a box office rental from their armchair, and they ignored the strides being made Lovefilm. Why rent 3 new movies across 1 week for £15 when you can pay the same amount to Lovefilm for a mix of games and films and have unlimited amounts in a month?
The High Street stores have been too slow to adapt and stuck to their poor business practices. It sucks for the staff though, all these people who now don't/won't have a job and have nowhere to go.
A share of blame must be given to the government though. Why is it, exactly that even though they have decried the state of High Street shopping, they still let so many companies go without paying taxes? Didn't I read once that Amazon didn't pay any significant tax in 2010 despite hundreds of millions of £'s in sales? If that's right, how the hell are our High Street stores meant to survive? Amazon can undercut the high street already because they don't have to pay rental on hundreds on units across the country, to then allow them to further undercut because they don't have to pay any tax? Congratulations UK government, you killed the high street by being cowardly, retarded arseholes (please disregard if I'm utterly utterly wrong)
Metalrodent on 21 Jan '13 said:
Live HMV live! you were the only reason I ever bothered going shopping!
Worthies on 21 Jan '13 said:
I generally try to avoid Amazon for their tax hijinks and how that cripples the competition who attempt to play by more HMRC friendly rules.
I frequently buy music from HMV as I find they can be really competitive with their offers, more so than many other retailers.
However their prices for video games are less so, and I can't remember the last video game I bought there, or anywhere on the high street.
If the high street has any hope of survival, HMRC really need to crack down on tax avoidance, which is starving honest business of vital custom, as the customer will always go to where the cheapest prices are found.
I would urge others to avoid Amazon as I do.
Clanger67 on 21 Jan '13 said:
Amazon got out of it because they claimed only their dispatch arm resides in the uk.Agree that some uk companies haven't moved with the times but a brick and mortar with the overheads of this country will never compete with online only.Especially someone like Amazon whose sales part isn't even in the uk so they don't pay the taxes english companies do.
Edit: Although they are still under investigation i reckon.The sales have been in Luxembourg since 2006 though,tax exempt.I use Zavvi personally as they tend to be a bit cheaper and they are based here.
ex-boxer on 22 Jan '13 said:
I need to find out about online orders. Im pretty sure ive lost money here. I ordered a few blu rays two days before this all happened. I had an email saying two or three of the films are in the post. As for the others, awaiting stock!!! Thats not good!
CunningSmile on 22 Jan '13 said:
As Clanger said it's a loophole that any and all international companies takes advantage of but Amazon are just the most high profile at the moment. Under international law each countries division is treated as a seperate company, and transfers between divisions are treated as sales. Amazon has it's warehouse in Luxembourg and 'sells' to Amazon UK at 99% of retail value. As a result Amazon UK only makes 1% profit on paper and that's mostly swallowed up paying wages and other tax deductible expenses. HMV actually did exactly the same (or at least used to) with it's warehousing in the Channel Islands, but they just cocked up the rest of the running a business. Spending the last ten years working under the delusion iPods and music downloads were a fad hasn't helped.
Sandbwoy on 22 Jan '13 said:
Does this also mean that store vouchers can be used too? I was given a few High Street Vouchers at Christmas, the ones that can be used in various big name high street stores, and HMV was my intended destination. There are a few CD's I'm wanting to get, I went in to HMV last week to try and spend them but was told they no longer take vouchers or gift cards because of what happened. But now I'm hoping I can spend these vouchers at HMV after all. I'll give it a try.