Islanders grab last-chance bargains in final days of HMV
AROUND 3,000 transactions were made at HMV during its final two days of opening.
Hundreds of islands visited the shop on Saturday for its last day, as stock was sold off at half price.
The shop in the Market Building suddenly closed its doors in February – one of 27 branches shut down by administrators after the chain was sold.
HMV manager Ben Queripel said they only found out the business was being shut on 5 February when they turned up for work that day.
Mr Queripel was one of several staff members who was back at the shop last week to help sell off the remaining goods.
The shop opened on Thursday evening and all day Saturday. Customer numbers were limited to 120 in the shop at any one time and there were long queues outside on both days. ‘I never expected it to be so busy,’ said Mr Queripel.
On Thursday there were no tills and all receipts had to be hand-written, which contributed to the queues.
However, the staff were able to get hold of tills on Saturday and that helped keep the customers moving.
Mr Queripel said there had been about 3,000 transactions over the two days.
Among the shoppers was Kevin Spruce, who picked up some CDs, Disney DVDs and a cook book. ‘I think it is very sad it is closing,’ he said.
‘It’s a shame, but it’s part of a wider problem, which HMV and the music market is having, and Amazon. The pricing on Amazon is such that HMV was only just competing.’
A Market Building spokesman said people had been buying a wide array of goods during the special opens. He said the store would not be opening again.
‘Today is it,’ he said.
‘This was the final chance.’
