Those with a better retail knowledge please feel free to explain the rationale behind the following. I dropped in to the Wolverhampton HMV this week to find that next door (yes next door) was a new shop called Cherry Bombs selling t-shirts, mugs, water bottles, books etc – exactly the same branded tat filling the non-music shelves of HMV. Not only that but the tat was EXACTLY THE SAME. Not only that but the shop fittings were EXACTLY THE SAME. I know Boots set up next to independent chemists back in the day but this seems bizzarre. Its way wierder than that. Cherry Bombs (stapline: No Music, Just Merch) is a HMV initiative. What da hell? As my offspring would say.
1. Do they think that the very presence of music itself puts people off going in and their focus groups were full of people saying ‘I’d really like a Kurt Cobain poster/Primal Scream mug/Jean Luc Godard mousemat but I’m worried people will judge me for not actually knowing anything about their music or films’.
2. Are the queues at HMV so long that people are giving up on buying their tat due to the crowds flocking the tills with their David Bowie 60s boxsets and Van Der Graaf generator vinyl reissues?
3. My theory? Know the cheap shops that set up about now with piles of giftwrap, enormous radio controlled cars and remaindered cookbooks. HMV looked at the leftover shopfittings from store closures and went ‘You know what….let’s see what we can do’.
4. But surely, but surely. They are only cannibalising their own sales while increasing overheads. It’s not like the range is different – so yer Gentle Giant mugs, Hugh Masakela mousemats, Tarkovsky t-shirts… no its exactly the same stock.
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Anyone in Bristol here’s yours. The only online coverage acknowledging these things even exist!
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/whats-on/shopping/cherry-bomb-hmv-shop-opens-3557660
Let’s see if any are still trading at the end of February.
Love the reader’s snarky (and true) comment on that Bristol Post page regarding their refusal to countenance profanity on their “news” pages, but gleefully inadequate attention to editorial detail allowing the inclusion of photographs of Cherry Bomb tat (socks in this case) festooned with the word ‘fuck’. Great stuff guys, keep it coming.
Did you compare prices?
It’s the same stock so even they are surely not so stupid as to sell it cheaper in one than the other? Or do I now nothing and they are retail geniuses.
WHSmith have their own clearance stores either inside an existing store or standalone. One has opened up recently in Taunton (cardmarket), not far from their existing store. Tries to sell all the tat WHSmug can’t offload – mainly Star Wars books, it seems.
It’s absolutely not set up as a clearance store. Both it and HMV had big Stranger Things displays for example, so its pitch is not cheap and out of date.
No, no, I wasn’t disagreeing! I’ll go and have a shufti at the Bristol one next time I go to that Bristol.
Seem to remember that Fopp had books-only stores; the one in the main street in Cardiff was one. Seemed odd, as good though there books were, you didn’t get the full Fopp-ness.
It’s all pretty mystifying, given they are right next door to each other in Wton. And the CB store is much smaller than HMV, so the tat floorspace must be about the same.
Can you get me some “fuck” socks please?
The only insight I have to offer is that I once met the CFO of a company that had a huge DIY store. A competitor opened a similarly massive DIY store directly opposite. The new store did really well and the existing store had increased sales.
I suppose it’s because the customer is now committed to buying – they go to both stores and plump for the one with the lowest price. Whereas before they might go and have a look and not necessarily buy, thinking that they might get it cheaper somewhere else, Having the two big outlets right there solves that.
I managed a tiny TV/hi-fi shop in Barnards Green, near Malvern, many years ago. A competitor in town had the grand opening of their new store one Friday. Now bear in mind we were lucky if we sold one or two TVs a month. That Friday we sold seven.
Dont know about Cherey Bomb but the new HMV in Brum seems to be doing well and apparently has boosted visitors to Swordfish Records just round the corner.