HMV looks to be bouncing back – and it’s just announced an enormous new store that’s opening in Birmingham.
Last Christmas, things looked grim for HMV. The music and movies retailer went into administration for the second time, and this time, it looked like curtains for the last major specialist retailer of physical film and music media.
What happened next? Well, the chain was saved, but not without casualities. Several branches were lost, but over 100 were ultimately saved when Canadian record chain Sunrise Records acquired HMV at the start of the year.
The strategy at the time was to bolster the stock of vinyl across HMV stores, and certainly in my local, the DVD and Blu-ray space has slightly declined. But still: it’s by distance the best store to go to in order to browse catalogue discs.
And now, in a surprise announcement, HMV is opening another store. Not just a standard one either: in October, it’ll open the doors to what will be Europe’s largest entertainment store.
It’s going to be called HMV Vault, and it’ll offer 25,000 square feet of music, film, TV, games, merchandise and more. It’ll also have a permanent stage area, and the plan is to attract signings and events to the retail space.
The store will be opening in Birmingham, in the Dale End area near the city centre. All ahead of HMV’s 100th anniversary that’s coming in 2021, where we’re promised “more exciting developments”.
We look forward to hearing about them.
Image: BigStock
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