His Master's Voice. Silenced

[stufarq]

I see a scandal brewing if they refuse to accept gift tokens.
Imagine all those who got tokens as xmas prezzies.
Could be some angry people.

From what the news has said, it seems to be a requirement of insolvency law. They can only sell existing stock for actual money or something like that. I don't think it's HMV's decision to nullify the vouchers, it's a condition of their insolvency.

[lazarus corporation]

Already happening I believe. HMV staff have been tweeting along the lines of "Yeah... You've lost a £20 gift voucher. I'm losing my *(*&^%%^&( job. Get over it."

Well, I'd snap up anyone with that attitude. Especially someone so intelligent as to publicly broadcast it..

Given the financial (and emotional) turmoil that happens when someone loses their source of financial stability in the middle of a recession, I'd be tempted to let it pass. Being s**t scared about not being able to pay the rent/buy food doesn't necessarily make someone a poor potential employee

I'd rather be unemployed than work in HMV.

At least until the government starts making me work in Tesco for nothing.

I'm sure there are many HMV employees (ex-employees?) who would willingly swap their predicament for yours.

Don't get me wrong - HMV was a crap music shop, but that doesn't mean that I'd dismiss (no pun intended) all the people who worked for them and relied on those jobs for food/rent. Let's not confuse the corporation with the employees.

[DeWinter]

Already happening I believe. HMV staff have been tweeting along the lines of "Yeah... You've lost a £20 gift voucher. I'm losing my *(*&^%%^&( job. Get over it."

Well, I'd snap up anyone with that attitude. Especially someone so intelligent as to publicly broadcast it..

Given the financial (and emotional) turmoil that happens when someone loses their source of financial stability in the middle of a recession, I'd be tempted to let it pass. Being s**t scared about not being able to pay the rent/buy food doesn't necessarily make someone a poor potquote="Jeremiah"]I'd rather be unemployed than work in HMV.

At least until the government starts making me work in Tesco for nothing.

I'm sure there are many HMV employees (ex-employees?) who would willingly swap their predicament for yours.

Don't get me wrong - HMV was a crap music shop, but that doesn't mean that I'd dismiss (no pun intended) all the people who worked for them and relied on those jobs for food/rent. Let's not confuse the corporation with the employees.[/quote]

In my new character as non-argumentative opinionated swine, I decided to put the question to the court of public opinion that is Facebook, to see if it's just me being unsympathetic.
Popular opinion was "No" to hiring him/her. Even from my unemployed friends. So I think I can at least say it was a very stupid thing for him/her to do. Its not as if people havent got in a stew before for posting things on Twitter/Facebook about their employers/customers.

[lazarus corporation]

Well, I'd snap up anyone with that attitude. Especially someone so intelligent as to publicly broadcast it..

Given the financial (and emotional) turmoil that happens when someone loses their source of financial stability in the middle of a recession, I'd be tempted to let it pass. Being s**t scared about not being able to pay the rent/buy food doesn't necessarily make someone a poor employee

In my new character as non-argumentative opinionated swine,

NEVER start your argument with a statement that no one is going to believe

...I decided to put the question to the court of public opinion that is Facebook, to see if it's just me being unsympathetic.
Popular opinion was "No" to hiring him/her. Even from my unemployed friends. So I think I can at least say it was a very stupid thing for him/her to do. Its not as if people havent got in a stew before for posting things on Twitter/Facebook about their employers/customers.

Would it be unfair to suggest that your friends on Facebook do not fulfil the necessary criteria of a representative sample of the population?

For example, if my Facebook friends were polled then we'd never have a Tory government ever again and the world would be full of arty liberals, but I suspect that's because of my choice of friends (or the people who can put up with me) rather than a true reflection of the world at large.

And anyway, they were his/her ex-employees and ex-customers. He/She is looking at redundancy, and (as a manager responsible for hiring people - yeah, someone made the stupid mistake of promoting me into as position of managerial responsibility several years ago) I'd ignore such statements and concentrate on what the person can offer.

[moses]

They were responsible for the closure of many FOP record shops and other indie stores and were always the most expensive shop around.

No.
They weren't.
People stopping going to FOP & indie stores was the reason for that.

Yes.
They were.
Bollocks, why would anyone choose to pay more for a cd from a shop that makes more money per cd than the band and the record company put together?

[Nikolas Vitus Lagartija]

Author and columnist Grace Dent "outs" herself as an old Sisters fan - that place where my crimp-haired friends and I met boys and bought Sisters of Mercy T-shirts - in this opinion piece about the death of HMV in last week's Independent : http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/com ... 52882.html

[weebleswobble]

Bought my first Sisters product in the Glasgow HMV.

Alice 12"

[Jeremiah]

Author and columnist Grace Dent "outs" herself as an old Sisters fan - that place where my crimp-haired friends and I met boys and bought Sisters of Mercy T-shirts - in this opinion piece about the death of HMV in last week's Independent : http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/com ... 52882.html

I'm not sure I really understand the idea that shopping online is somehow easier or more convenient. (Edit: obviously I'm talking about physical goods not digital downloads.)

Sure I can make a purchase from the comfort of my armchair. Then a few days later I get a card through the door saying someone tried to deliver something while I was out.

I phone the courier company, and discover their estimate of delivery times cannot be any more accurate than "morning" or "afternoon" and in any case they won't deliver outside of working hours.

So I either have to try to arrange to take a day off work (during which I don't dare have a shower or go to the toilet in case the delivery comes while I am otherwise occupied) or face an hour and a half bus journey followed by a 45-minute walk from the nearest bus stop since the courier's depot is in an out-of-town industrial estate. At the end of which they refuse to give me my parcel because I forgot to bring photographic ID AND proof of address.

Why don't people just buy things from shops?

[mh]

I'm not sure I really understand the idea that shopping online is somehow easier or more convenient. (Edit: obviously I'm talking about physical goods not digital downloads.)

Sure I can make a purchase from the comfort of my armchair. Then a few days later I get a card through the door saying someone tried to deliver something while I was out.

I phone the courier company, and discover their estimate of delivery times cannot be any more accurate than "morning" or "afternoon" and in any case they won't deliver outside of working hours.

So I either have to try to arrange to take a day off work (during which I don't dare have a shower or go to the toilet in case the delivery comes while I am otherwise occupied) or face an hour and a half bus journey followed by a 45-minute walk from the nearest bus stop since the courier's depot is in an out-of-town industrial estate. At the end of which they refuse to give me my parcel because I forgot to bring photographic ID AND proof of address.

Why don't people just buy things from shops?

Oh, I just get stuff delivered to work.

[DeWinter]

I'm not sure I really understand the idea that shopping online is somehow easier or more convenient. (Edit: obviously I'm talking about physical goods not digital downloads.)

Sure I can make a purchase from the comfort of my armchair. Then a few days later I get a card through the door saying someone tried to deliver something while I was out.

I phone the courier company, and discover their estimate of delivery times cannot be any more accurate than "morning" or "afternoon" and in any case they won't deliver outside of working hours.

So I either have to try to arrange to take a day off work (during which I don't dare have a shower or go to the toilet in case the delivery comes while I am otherwise occupied) or face an hour and a half bus journey followed by a 45-minute walk from the nearest bus stop since the courier's depot is in an out-of-town industrial estate. At the end of which they refuse to give me my parcel because I forgot to bring photographic ID AND proof of address.

Why don't people just buy things from shops?

Personally? The shops rarely, if ever, have what I want. On the admittedly rare occasions these days I have spare money to spend gratuitously, I can guarantee I'll come home with a full wallet and a sense of grievance if I try and spend it in my nearest town ( Scun7horpe "Twinned with Mordor and The Bog of Eternal Stench. But neither admit it."). I think the last time I went into the HMV there it was for something in the tv comedy variety (Bottom or Fawlty Towers, or something) only to find it'd all been replaced with Blu-Ray versions of the films they were selling in their feature film section. One Christmas I went there to buy a dvd for someone only to find they'd got rid of the entire section I wanted and filled it with "Twilight". Not the entire series, just a six foot row of the one bloody book!!
As for finding a bookshop, or even a place that doesn't sell clothes stitched by a child in Bangladesh that fall apart in the wash, not a hope. So if I want to spend money in the shops, I have to spend an hour and a half and the better part of a tenner on the bus to Hull. No ta.
The service in the High Street has been s**t, the selection homogenised to extinction and town centres themselves seem to have become nothing but meeting points for bagheads here in the North. Sticking to the net, me.

[DeWinter]

NEVER start your argument with a statement that no one is going to believe

Would it be unfair to suggest that your friends on Facebook do not fulfil the necessary criteria of a representative sample of the population?

For example, if my Facebook friends were polled then we'd never have a Tory government ever again and the world would be full of arty liberals, but I suspect that's because of my choice of friends (or the people who can put up with me) rather than a true reflection of the world at large.

Git!

A little unfair, perhaps. If I was as free with my political opinions in real life as I am on the net, I dont think anyone would stomach me enough to be friends, never mind become engaged to me! I'm still more normal than anyone who comments on the Guardian/Telegraph website though. I haven't decided yet who's the most insane, the Scottish Cybernats or the Anti-EUSSR crew.

The most extreme views of my aquaintance belong to my Labour voting step-father, rather than Ukip-er me, oddly enough. For sheer blind hatred Northern Labour outdoes Shire Tory by a country mile...

[6FeetOver]

Why don't people just buy things from shops?

'Cos the shops don't stock clothes for tall girls!

Ohhh...whoops! We were talking about records, weren't we? My bad.