Fopp is Rubbish
I’m a fan of Fopp. Where I work we had a Fopp literally right across the road from us. I was not a happy bunny when they closed because of “cash flow problems”.
Happily though, HMV decided to buy u pa few of the stores and run them as Fopp stores, with the values of variety and low apparent low price still intact. I say apparent…
Today I went into my local Fopp for the first time since it reopened on saturday. The first thing that hit me was the increased number of chart items (at chart prices, except using Fopp’s “whole pound” pricing) that greeted me as I walked in. No matter, I thought - I can live with that. Then I delved further.
Walking downstairs I saw a vast array of DVDs priced at £5. Obviously £5 isn’t much for a DVD, but in the past there had also been a good chunk of £3 and £4 DVDs as well (on closer inspection upstairs I managed to find eight £3 DVDs). It looks like as part of HMV’s taking over of the store, a lot of items have been increased in price slightly to give a less flexible, and more profitable, pricing structure.
I didn’t venture upstairs to look at the CDs, but I’m expecting a similar situation. Put frankly, this newly Reopened Fopp just doesn’t feel the same as the old one, and I for one am not happy! It just feels like HMV have taken their prices from HMV and ported them over to a Fopp look and feel. As Mike said at work, the store is a prime location for HMV to take over as one of their own stores.
The thing that annoyed me most though was the “HMV exclusive” sticker that I saw on the IT Crowd DVD. Fopp isn’t HMV. It might be owned by them now, but it isn’t HMV.
I guess I’ll be going back to buying my DVDs and CDs online then. It’s a pity, I used to like Fopp.
October 14th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
If you’re referring the the Shaftesbury Ave. store, then I’m going to have to disagree with most of what you’ve written… why? Becaue I worked there before it closed and work there now also.
Firstly, the layout of the front panels and chart areas has not changed since before we closed! We have always (and still do) used the most prominent space [ie front of store] to display our best selling alums/ DVD’s… so what gos there is dictated by what our customers are buying rather than by a head office etc.
We made a big effore to source remainders/ overstocks for the (re)opening. In laymans terms this means we have more £1 - £4 CD’s & DVD’s on offer than we have ever had before.
It’s not perfect - yet! We put the place together in 2 days and flung the doors open early… we’re still waiting on loads of product to arrive, especially books and imports. There were lots of pricing issues, due to technical errors which meant that lots of product was delivered stickered at HMV prices; this is gradually being ironed out.
All original staff were given first refusal on their old jobs, and we then offered the remaining positions to staff from other London FOPP stores. HMV are giving us a lot of space so that the store is set up and run like a FOPP store should be. They have a lot of respect for the FOPP brand and understand that if it is going to work then it has to be treated very delicately.
However ‘HMV Exclusives’… couldn’t agree more!
Hope this clears a few things up! Hopefully see you soon.
Cheers.
October 14th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Thanks for the comment - I was talking about the Shaftesbury Avenue store, and pretty much everything you’ve said is fantastic to hear! I’m really glad that it does sound like HMV are being pretty much hands off with the store - that is fantastic news. Truth be told, it was seeing the “HMV exclusive” that initially got me thinking “hmmm, so what else has changed then?”.
I’ve got to be honest though, I really only saw eight DVD titles that cost less that £5. While it might be different with the CDs it really did seem like the store had lost some of that loving feeling when it came to dirt cheap DVDs. Really good to hear that you’ve got loads more stuff waiting to come in.