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Staggering news has emerged from the debris of the HMV collapse, with sources claiming that the music chain’s financial saviour could also be considering a bid for part of dead camera chain Jessops — and might install Jessops booths inside HMV branches for the ultimate in retro retail experiences.
Shop restructuring business Hilco has acquired the debt of struggling retailer HMV, after it slumped into administration recently. This means it’s now pretty much in charge of the chain’s fortunes, with sources quoted by the Telegraph claiming Hilco is also sniffing around the fly-ridden corpse of Jessops looking to do a deal there too.
It’s unlikely we’ll see Jessops itself return to the high street. The current deal supposedly only covers selling the brand name and Jessops web site to Hilco, although both Hilco and Jessops’ administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers wouldn’t confirm or deny any formal deal.
Perhaps HMV could rent Jessops cameras to people under the Blockbuster brand? [Telegraph]
Image credit: Jessops from Shutterstock
“Jessops and HMV May Combine for Ultimate Retail Fail Combo.”
I don’t know why, but I read that entire sentence in a Geordie accent.
Sounds like something that Ant & Dec might say, pet.
Anything to do with Ross Noble’s “toblerone rolo combo”?
It might have been the Combo
A-la Marcus Bentley?
*Face palm*
They need to be a lot cleverer if that is going to work, not just a ‘store-in-astore’ concept.
Will Jessops still be absurdly priced? Or am I mistaken that they were. I never entered one before but passing the windows, the prices seemed really high.
They need to be very careful to be able to pull this off. I can’t help but think it will become a Jessops-HMV or a HMV-Jessops like Currys-PC World.
The were never cheap! About the RRP for some things like lenses and cameras but memory cards cables were a real rip off! I was a big fan of their own brand flash guns which delivered as good as canon but for around half the price! And their photo printing services was silly expensive compared to snap fish and similar…
This could work if they throw in a Blockbusters for luck.
Failed business + failed business = big massive failed business.
Will they be addressing the simple reason why they both failed in the first place, if not then why?
HMV needed to sell mainly online downloads, but better businesses do that already, so it won’t work unless you pump a tonne of cash into it and do something totally brilliant. And Jessops were selling DSLRs for £750 that could be picked up online for £550 – had a great online store, just felt they could have the same level of mark-up they had 10 years ago, those days are gone.
I can’t logically deduce how this isn’t going to fail.
And then put it all together under the Woolworths logo.
Only if they promise to bring the pick’n'mix back!
coconut mushrooms for the win !
Nah, red metre. SO MUCH SUGAR!
good job woolies went under, we would have a generations of diabetics!
Pass the popcorn, I’m ready to watch this turn into a massive mess!
This would actually be a really sensible idea as you’d get the offerings of both stores with half the rent, electricity and heating bill for stores. With the right “choose online, collect prints in store” option tied to Facebook and Instagram, moving Jessops’ photo printing operation into HMV could be a wise move.
I guess from HMV’s perspective it’s just expanding its tech bit, but I can’t see this working out, somehow.
It’ll just be a broken photo printing booth
That tramps use as a urinal
Oh god, I hadn’t thought of that. Jessops, now known as “Slightly Less Snappy Snaps”
Rebranding is needed, I’ll go with ‘sloppy snaps’.
Or…or…they could have one section for professional photoshoots by pro-cameramen and other section live music played by all different sort of local artists, that just might work
With all these businesses that have gone into administration, there’s one question that can determine if it’s inevitable or not: ‘If this business did not exist already, would anyone create it anew, with the same characteristics?’.
The HMV-Jessops idea could work, as both have prominent brand names. However, I think that they have a better chance as online-only. In fact, if Jessops had been on the ball, it could have retreated into an online-only business months and months ago, and still be trading successfully (as per WEX for instance).