An Open Letter

Dear HMV

I'm sorry to say this, but you've let me down, and let me down not once but twice.

After work I trekked up to Oxford Street to pick up the new Christmas CD from SLADE. With mounting excitement I walked into your emporium and turned to the new CD racks looking for the snow-globe cover of the album, then went to the 'S' shelves, then went to the counter to ask. Yes, you have 60 copies... in the warehouse. There's a certain joy of walking into a record shop, seeing the record you want, picking it up, reading the back and then grasping it firmly, a spring in your step, knowing you have a record you *want*. I know I can go back another day and get it but *that's not the point*!

Christmas cheer having gone by this time, I went to the soul shelves to get the 'Divas Of Motown' CD and, guess what? It's not there. So I go to ask and I'm told you have 50 copies and the nice girl comes round to show the elderly gentleman where the CD is. She can't find it so gets one of the lads and he can't find it either. He says it might be downstairs in the jazz section. It's not.

So, that's two CDs you have 'in stock' but not in the shop. That's like saying, 'buy it online'. I've shopped in that huge record emporium for over 20 years and will continue to do so - I like browsing in the physical world, not just buying stuff online. And there are so few record shops still open these days. But I feel badly let down.

And then what did you do? You restored my faith in the power of browsing in the real world and I got two Christmas records, one by The Supremes and one by The Temptations - I have a few Christmas songs by both, but not full records and both from the '60s! There are also records in the same series by The Four Tops, the Jackson 5 and (a young) Stevie Wonder. I can't listen to them until next week (Christmas doesn't start until December in my book) but it's nice to have them.


But please, HMV, get your ordering and stock system sorted out? Please?