HMV

Last year I received a gift card to Best Buy for my birthday, my intention was to spend it on Modern Family Season 1, and Community Season 1. I was able to find Modern Family but was unsuccessful at finding Community. I thought I’d use the rest of my gift card on the purchase of a couple CD’s only to see their collection is so small that there was no way they’d have the lesser mainstream artists I wanted. For the next six months my mission was to find Community, so I would go to Best Buy and Future Shop occasionally with no success, I didn’t even walk out with a CD. One day I decide to walk into HMV, and there it is, both Community and some great selection of CD’s!
My downside with HMV is they’ve become so focused on Movies and Video Games that their CD collection has shrunk a fair bit as well. Maybe I’m old fashioned but I’m still the type of person who would rather buy a CD, where I have a physical version to have and hold for all time, than to download an MP3, that I can easily lose if my computers hard-​drive crashes. But yet they’ve got one of the greater selections of CD’s, and I’m constantly finding excellent «2 for…» items so I can’t complain.
As for the Pure HMV card… I really have no idea why I signed up for it, every time I go on the website there is nothing there that sparks my interest. Oh well, guess I can use it on gift cards at least.

hmv is an excellent place to go if you either hate music or love music but are a masochist. this hmv claims to have the best selection of their stores in calgary, which is grim and depressing. so on the upside, although you won’t be able to find something depressing like tori amos, you’ll feel so depressed just being there that you won’t need the CD after all.
another helpful feature of the store, if you haven’t been lately, is that they’ve stopped allowing their staff to select music to play and started feeding non-​stop commercials for whatever pussycat doll tripe they’re pushing. whereas once music stores were intimidating, library-​like mazes of choice and self-​definition, you can now safely make your purchase knowing that the voice on the satellite radio thinks very highly of sporty spice’s latest album of classic rock ballads.
to be fair, there are a couple of nice kids working there who know subversive and underloved bands such as the little-​known ‘arcade fire.’ but on tmy most recent visit, a cute, pallid twilight girl with some very edgy, ‘alternative’ piercings informed me that if the 2011 blondie release i was looking for was called ‘parallel lines,’ then no, they didn’t have it in stock. i’ll give you a minute to process that in its entirety.
sure, if you have no soul i’m sure you’ll be pleased to discover you can purchase dumb and dumberer for the low, low price of $ 3. but most of the times i’ve sifted through their discount dvd bin, i’ve been less struck by the great bargains, and more offended in defense of some of my favourite classics. spinal tap should cost more than a justin beiber cd. maybe you disagree, but i think the only way to read this is a full-​on rain-​of-​toads sign of the coming apocalypse.
on a positive note, hmv is always in plentiful supply of smooth shiny posters of your favourite bands and singers, including robert pattison, taylor lautner, angry birds, and ‘arry pottah. maybe you’re sneering your nose up at this, but it’s one stop shopping for all your slash fanfic shrine needs: add some glitter glue and you’ve got a crossover/​mashup orgy of teen heartthrobs. also find super-​authentic che guevera belts and really retro ramones t-​shirts for people who have never listened to a single song by the ramones, or think ‘che’ is this cool indian tea.
and how could i not mention the carefully selected book section? — which juxtaposes catcher in the rye with twilight, twilight, and more twilight. rest assured, the book-​inventory-​choosing masterminds at hmv have pretty high literary standards.

I love DVDs, and when they are super cheap I buy them in bulk. HMV always has huge sales of DVDs on, and this Christmas I went nuts. I needed to grab some gifts for friends, so I went around carefully selecting the crème de la crème. In the old days it was pretty difficult to track someone down to help (ok, like a year ago) but I was quickly asked if I needed any help. Nope! Just there to grab some great movies.
When I got up to the till, the girl smiled really big when I shoved my movies forward and complimented me on my awesome taste. Hello, that is totally the best way to get me back in the store (but it’s gotta be authentic). We chatted about movies for a minute or two, then she wished me a merry christmas and sent me on my way. That is definitely the way to do it right.

These days, it’s rare to step foot into a record store. But every once in awhile, I wander into HMV just because I like the experience of going through the ‘Top 10′ display and I like physically browsing through the CD/​DVD racks.
I just wanna say that the service at this HMV is excellent.
I wandered in a couple of days ago and was extremely impressed with the service I received. A very professional sales guy helped me with what I was looking for and he was extremely friendly and courteous.
Just wanted to give credit where credit is due and the next time I’m craving an HMV run, I’m definitely heading back here.