| HMV 08:53 - Feb 8 with 6311 views | Statzdale |
HMV to close in Rochdale , another store bites the dust.
Will the last one to leave turn off the lights
Plus the big HMV is shutting on Market Street in Manchester also [Post edited 1 Jan 1970 1:00]
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| HMV on 09:13 - Feb 8 with 3648 views | KenBoon |
Inevitable.
It was in a rubbish spot in a rubbish shopping centre. Isn't the stairs entrance at that end to the Exchange Centre closed off too?
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| HMV on 09:21 - Feb 8 with 3621 views | SuddenLad |
Didn't realise we actually still HAD an HMV in town. I thought there was one in Yorkshire Street years ago, opposite the entrance to the shopping centre. |  |
| “It is easier to fool people, than to convince them that they have been fooled†|
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| HMV on 09:44 - Feb 8 with 3583 views | nordenblue |
Don't worry there will soon be a big wheel for everyone who's not visiting the town anymore to look at,you really couldn't make this council up,we really must have THE worst performing council in the country. | | | |
| HMV on 09:47 - Feb 8 with 3579 views | KenBoon |
| HMV on 09:21 - Feb 8 by SuddenLad |
Didn't realise we actually still HAD an HMV in town. I thought there was one in Yorkshire Street years ago, opposite the entrance to the shopping centre. |
That was Our Price. Or 'ar Price as the locals called it.
I remember about 20 years ago there was talk of vending machines where you could plug a walkman/mini disc style device, select the album/songs you wanted, pay and it'd copy them straight to it. (This was before the Internet and more importantly Broadband became a reality). What did stores like HMV do? Put their heads in the sand and put the price of albums up. First along came CD Wow and other importers and sold albums at huge discounts. What did the record stores and the BPI do? Moan about it and took them to court. Then there was Napster and other file sharing sites where music was shared illegally. Despite demand you couldn't get digital downloads in the UK until recently because they were either banned or the range was terrible. Heck it was 'illegal' to rip CD's you'd bought to your MP3 player. So as MP3 players grew in popularity and legitimate ways of selling MP3s online were stopped, what did the Record Companies do? Increase the copy protection on CD's and in some cases put Spyware on them.
It's literally taken 15 years from when the first MP3 players came out to have proper legal music download sites and streaming services like Spotify. Maybe if they'd have acted earlier they'd have more control over the market and be in a stronger position now. Instead they put their heads in the sand, let other companies exploit what they could have and then tried to force them into stopping rather than competing. | | | |
| HMV on 09:57 - Feb 8 with 3563 views | SuddenLad |
'Ar price. Yes, of course. My mistake. All look the same to me !!
Still can't beat Bradleys.........  | |
| “It is easier to fool people, than to convince them that they have been fooled†|
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| HMV on 10:01 - Feb 8 with 3548 views | Sandyman |
| HMV on 09:57 - Feb 8 by SuddenLad |
'Ar price. Yes, of course. My mistake. All look the same to me !!
Still can't beat Bradleys......... |
Black Sedan on Fleece Street was an ace record shop. |  | | |
| HMV on 10:04 - Feb 8 with 3548 views | onetonyellis |
| HMV on 09:57 - Feb 8 by SuddenLad |
'Ar price. Yes, of course. My mistake. All look the same to me !!
Still can't beat Bradleys......... |
An amazing link here to Yorkshire Street in 1968, taken from Facebook. A thriving, bustling, busy, hard working northern town centre. | | | |
| HMV on 10:26 - Feb 8 with 3500 views | judd |
| HMV on 10:04 - Feb 8 by onetonyellis |
An amazing link here to Yorkshire Street in 1968, taken from Facebook. A thriving, bustling, busy, hard working northern town centre. |
Wasn't that the dole queue? |  |
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| HMV on 10:52 - Feb 8 with 3462 views | off2div1 |
| HMV on 10:04 - Feb 8 by onetonyellis |
An amazing link here to Yorkshire Street in 1968, taken from Facebook. A thriving, bustling, busy, hard working northern town centre. |
Can't see a hoody anyware! O for the good old days. |  | | |
| HMV on 11:31 - Feb 8 with 3400 views | Syke_Dale |
| HMV on 10:04 - Feb 8 by onetonyellis |
An amazing link here to Yorkshire Street in 1968, taken from Facebook. A thriving, bustling, busy, hard working northern town centre. |
The likes of which will never be seen again in this town  |  | | |
| HMV on 12:03 - Feb 8 with 3359 views | ChaffRAFC |
| HMV on 11:31 - Feb 8 by Syke_Dale |
The likes of which will never be seen again in this town |
And now: Minus McDonalds obviously!
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| If I hadn't seen such riches, I could live with being poor |
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| HMV on 12:36 - Feb 8 with 3305 views | Yorkshire_Dale |
| HMV on 10:04 - Feb 8 by onetonyellis |
An amazing link here to Yorkshire Street in 1968, taken from Facebook. A thriving, bustling, busy, hard working northern town centre. |
Notice someone has thrown up (bottom left)........things don't change.
or do they........where are all our foreign visitors. | | | |
| HMV on 12:58 - Feb 8 with 3277 views | rod_leach |
| HMV on 12:36 - Feb 8 by Yorkshire_Dale |
Notice someone has thrown up (bottom left)........things don't change.
or do they........where are all our foreign visitors. |
I'm guessing that you mean people with an Asian ancestry, rather than visitors. Born and raised in Rochdale makes people not visitors. Having a UK passport make people not visitors. |  | | |
| HMV on 12:59 - Feb 8 with 3277 views | Dale57 |
| HMV on 12:36 - Feb 8 by Yorkshire_Dale |
Notice someone has thrown up (bottom left)........things don't change.
or do they........where are all our foreign visitors. |
Planning the rape and demise of our beloved once proud town.Take take take. |  | | |
| HMV on 13:29 - Feb 8 with 3233 views | ceme_ender |
| HMV on 12:59 - Feb 8 by Dale57 |
Planning the rape and demise of our beloved once proud town.Take take take. |
Despite what some people may say it's very hard to disagree that the mass influx of first and second generation immigrants from certain parts of the world has had a massive detrimental effect on many towns and cities up and down the country, rochdale included. It has gone down hill massively from what it was even 20 years to the almost unrecognisable place that it has become today. | | | |
| HMV on 13:32 - Feb 8 with 3227 views | SuddenLad |
| HMV on 13:29 - Feb 8 by ceme_ender |
Despite what some people may say it's very hard to disagree that the mass influx of first and second generation immigrants from certain parts of the world has had a massive detrimental effect on many towns and cities up and down the country, rochdale included. It has gone down hill massively from what it was even 20 years to the almost unrecognisable place that it has become today. |
Except to those who are the 'new arrivals' and for many of whom, this is a comparative paradise. | |
| “It is easier to fool people, than to convince them that they have been fooled†|
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| HMV on 13:55 - Feb 8 with 3198 views | 49thseason |
Hands up anyone who thinks that what Rochdale needs is another shopping centre (£500M?) , a nice river to look at (especially when it rains and only £3.5m) and a tram to get us to Manchester in 45 minutes (cost £450M)?
Never mind, we did invent the Co-op you know and look at our fabulous Town Hall!
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| HMV on 14:52 - Feb 8 with 3155 views | Dale57 |
| HMV on 13:55 - Feb 8 by 49thseason |
Hands up anyone who thinks that what Rochdale needs is another shopping centre (£500M?) , a nice river to look at (especially when it rains and only £3.5m) and a tram to get us to Manchester in 45 minutes (cost £450M)?
Never mind, we did invent the Co-op you know and look at our fabulous Town Hall!
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What Rochdale needs,as does the rest of Britain is,local industry and factories etc instead of all the crap asian products flooding in while all the get rich quick,i have no morals people rake it in.Something to be said for communism really,look after your own 1st. | | | |
| HMV on 15:21 - Feb 8 with 3122 views | off2div1 |
The reason Rochdale & 100s of other towns have died is nothing to do with immigration or foreign products.Its because you, me & everybody else shops in out of town shoping centres, supermarkets & t'internet.I think they call it "progress." | | | |
| HMV on 15:51 - Feb 8 with 3091 views | ChaffRAFC |
| HMV on 15:21 - Feb 8 by off2div1 |
The reason Rochdale & 100s of other towns have died is nothing to do with immigration or foreign products.Its because you, me & everybody else shops in out of town shoping centres, supermarkets & t'internet.I think they call it "progress." |
Not sure I agree. You're right to an extent, online shopping has had a massive effect on the high street store, there's no doubt about that. Oldham and Rochdale have died, Rochdale even more so than Oldham but not all towns have suffered at all. Bury, as a town centre, is 100 times better than Oldham and Rochdale and that in itself tells you it's very possible to make something of our town.
I think our towns demise is down to a number of things. For example, the tram system coming to Rochdale town centre will have had a big impact. The main road into Rochdale town centre has basically been shut for the past few years. This is enough to put anyone off. Oldham has seen the same but the road closures are a little way off the centre where the shops are and don't effect it quite as much.
You hear reports about the rent prices for the various vacant shopping spots in Rochdale exchange and businesses simply refusing to pay it and so the areas remain vacant.
Is enough being done to actually try and get people into Rochdale. I see stuff that entices people to go to Bury all the time, but nothing for Rochdale and Oldham. It's like our football club, I don't think enough is being done to get people through the gates and the same applies for our mess of a town centre.
Maybe, when the tram is up and running, the roads are open, we may see an increase in shoppers in Rochdale town centre. But, much more has to be done to get these vacant shopping areas filled and more has to be done to get people to shop in Rochdale as opposed to Bury. Give people a reason to stop shopping in Manchester and do all we can to offer as much as what Manchester has as possible.
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| HMV on 16:06 - Feb 8 with 3078 views | YouTubeDale |
| HMV on 10:04 - Feb 8 by onetonyellis |
An amazing link here to Yorkshire Street in 1968, taken from Facebook. A thriving, bustling, busy, hard working northern town centre. |
That's how I remember it, a real hustle and bustle and full of white faces. Yes, I agree we have fallen victim to "progress" with the enormous impact of the internet, out of towns (the Trafford Centre should never,ever had been given the green light) and supermarkets as already said. We are sensitive to Rochdale but this is happening all over the country.
As far as the "white faces" comment is concerned there has been such a massive change in my generation. And it is the rate of change which is alarming. Rochdale isn't the same place any more. Rochdale is a different place.
But I am not a racist. I have Asian friends and we have to accept the situation and live in harmony. On a footballing front I just wish Asians would represent their share of the population and turn up to watch THEIR football team too, since they are Rochdalians.
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| HMV on 16:54 - Feb 8 with 3030 views | MBoothman |
Let's look at it from a wider perspective. Due to the massive increase in car ownership (+80% from 1980-present), the decreased cost of importing goods from China and the widespread use of the internet, there no longer needs to be the amount of retail outlets as there once was; you do not need 500+ HMV stores when 1 website (Amazon) will do the same thing for cheaper. Not only that, but production has got dramatically more homogenised and standardised during the last few decades (especially in the food sector), meaning the exact same product is available nationally at a fixed price. Whether this product is delivered to retail outlets and then customers, or increasingly straight to the customer's home is determined by the customers themselves. The tide, is as obvious, is in favour of the latter.
The only way to stop town centre decline is to invest (or get businesses to invest) in things you can't get online; restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues being one obvious area, but also in stuff like clothing (people still like to try on clothes before buying), fresh food (organic and 'farmer's market' type goods increase year after year) and services like barbers, salons, spas, and gyms.
To me its obvious that we cannot do what Bury has done; the Rock has probably taken the very last bit of the market share in this area for that (and the Rock benefits massively from having a thriving 'world famous market' on its doorstep - no really, it does) - there is no more room in this part of the world for those kind of places. Instead we should make Rochdale town centre a smaller, but more individual town centre - decrease rents for start-up businesses, create a new market, preferrably a mixture of indoors and outdoors, and wherever large premises cannot be rented out (Littlewoods at the bottom, HMV, Maccy's) they should converted to other uses, like offices, or even split up into smaller units available for renting. The future for Rochdale town centre is not in emulating other towns, but in the exact opposite; making it as different as possible. |  |
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| HMV on 16:57 - Feb 8 with 3029 views | off2div1 |
I here that rochdale has a large number of betting shops generating millions by its punters.I also believe that a lot of loan company,s have set up in the town charging silly interest rates for their owners is this what we want in our town centres.Being an exile I visited the town centre a few months ago and was greeted by the charming youth of Rochdale they were abusive loud drugged up WHITE chavvs.The local bobbies did little to calm these idiots down and made many people nervous.This may be one of the reasons people dont shop in town anymore. | | | |
| HMV on 17:10 - Feb 8 with 3014 views | Dale57 |
| HMV on 16:54 - Feb 8 by MBoothman |
Let's look at it from a wider perspective. Due to the massive increase in car ownership (+80% from 1980-present), the decreased cost of importing goods from China and the widespread use of the internet, there no longer needs to be the amount of retail outlets as there once was; you do not need 500+ HMV stores when 1 website (Amazon) will do the same thing for cheaper. Not only that, but production has got dramatically more homogenised and standardised during the last few decades (especially in the food sector), meaning the exact same product is available nationally at a fixed price. Whether this product is delivered to retail outlets and then customers, or increasingly straight to the customer's home is determined by the customers themselves. The tide, is as obvious, is in favour of the latter.
The only way to stop town centre decline is to invest (or get businesses to invest) in things you can't get online; restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues being one obvious area, but also in stuff like clothing (people still like to try on clothes before buying), fresh food (organic and 'farmer's market' type goods increase year after year) and services like barbers, salons, spas, and gyms.
To me its obvious that we cannot do what Bury has done; the Rock has probably taken the very last bit of the market share in this area for that (and the Rock benefits massively from having a thriving 'world famous market' on its doorstep - no really, it does) - there is no more room in this part of the world for those kind of places. Instead we should make Rochdale town centre a smaller, but more individual town centre - decrease rents for start-up businesses, create a new market, preferrably a mixture of indoors and outdoors, and wherever large premises cannot be rented out (Littlewoods at the bottom, HMV, Maccy's) they should converted to other uses, like offices, or even split up into smaller units available for renting. The future for Rochdale town centre is not in emulating other towns, but in the exact opposite; making it as different as possible. |
Surely people would need to earn money somewhere to use such places as bars and resturaunts etc.I cannot see people from outside the town just coming to use those.Farming and industry need to be reintroduced into this country.as well as mining because its totally unnecptable that uk mines have shut so crappy cheap coal can come from China.Now we have god knows what in imported products and god knows what people eat in kabab houses etc after a few beers. | | | |
| HMV on 17:26 - Feb 8 with 2994 views | 49thseason |
| HMV on 16:54 - Feb 8 by MBoothman |
Let's look at it from a wider perspective. Due to the massive increase in car ownership (+80% from 1980-present), the decreased cost of importing goods from China and the widespread use of the internet, there no longer needs to be the amount of retail outlets as there once was; you do not need 500+ HMV stores when 1 website (Amazon) will do the same thing for cheaper. Not only that, but production has got dramatically more homogenised and standardised during the last few decades (especially in the food sector), meaning the exact same product is available nationally at a fixed price. Whether this product is delivered to retail outlets and then customers, or increasingly straight to the customer's home is determined by the customers themselves. The tide, is as obvious, is in favour of the latter.
The only way to stop town centre decline is to invest (or get businesses to invest) in things you can't get online; restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues being one obvious area, but also in stuff like clothing (people still like to try on clothes before buying), fresh food (organic and 'farmer's market' type goods increase year after year) and services like barbers, salons, spas, and gyms.
To me its obvious that we cannot do what Bury has done; the Rock has probably taken the very last bit of the market share in this area for that (and the Rock benefits massively from having a thriving 'world famous market' on its doorstep - no really, it does) - there is no more room in this part of the world for those kind of places. Instead we should make Rochdale town centre a smaller, but more individual town centre - decrease rents for start-up businesses, create a new market, preferrably a mixture of indoors and outdoors, and wherever large premises cannot be rented out (Littlewoods at the bottom, HMV, Maccy's) they should converted to other uses, like offices, or even split up into smaller units available for renting. The future for Rochdale town centre is not in emulating other towns, but in the exact opposite; making it as different as possible. |
You are exactly right. There is no future in shopping as we know it and certainly not in Rochdale. I would rather build something akin to the Halifax Piece Hall with lots of tiny units where start up businesses could begin trading and where businesses change on a regular basis so that there is always something new to see.
Rochdale could become the leisure capital of the Northwest by putting a massive arena on Kingsway, some Exhibition halls / conference facilities which would attract hotels, restaurants, etc. and create 100s if not 1000s of jobs.
The only long term solution for Rochdale is to get large numbers of decent jobs into the town and give local people the financial security to afford mortgages and force up property prices and rid us of the curse of the downwards economic spiral we are currently locked into.
There is no point in relying on short term Government grants and European money, we need new local political thinking which accepts responsibility for taking big decisions and piloting a completely new future for the town. The time for sticking plasters is long gone. | | | |
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