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Business News HMV Timeline Retail
HMV to open temporary stores for Christmas rush
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 22 September 2009
I think its fair to say HMV have had a good 2009, aided in part, of course, by the disappearance of both Woolies and Zavvi from the high street at the start of the year. And the entertainment retail giant has spotted another opportunity presented by the demise of their rivals, which will result in the opening of fifteen temporary HMV stores in the run up to Christmas.
The end of Woolworths and Zavvi means that some British towns have no mainstream entertainment retailers. In fifteen such towns where the local market isn’t sufficient to justify HMV launching stores full time, the retailer will open temporary outlets to cash in on the Christmas rush, the time of year when many non-traditional entertainment consumers suddenly need high street access to CDs, DVDs or video games. Not sure on the logistics of setting up the temporary stores, but it sounds like a great idea to me – though any independents in these fifteen towns buoyed by the demise of their local Zavvi might disagree.
Anyway, HMV chief Simon Fox told Billboard: “We’ve acquired 29 stores over the last few months, most of them former Zavvi locations, and it’s obviously very sad what happened, but what we are doing at the moment is planning for Christmas, and it will be the first Christmas obviously in the UK without a Woolworths, without a Zavvi, so we are looking to take some temporary store locations for the Christmas period as well as the permanent sites we have just taken. We are working hard to make the most of the Christmas opportunity”.
