The HMV store at Westwood Cross is due to shut down this month.
A clearance sale is currently taking place with the closure expected on March 18.
Last year HMV went into administration but the Westwood Cross store was one of 100 saved when it was bought by
Sunrise Records & Entertainment Limited, whose shareholder is Doug Putman, owner of Sunrise Records in Canada.
Some 27 stores were not bought and closed with 455 redundancies.
HMV at Westwood Cross employs 13 full time members of staff. They were informed of the closure this week.
The HMV collapse last year was blamed on a decline in the UK CD and DVD market with Christmas sales down 30% on 2017. It was the second time in 6 years administrators had been called in, the last being in 2013 when restructuring from Hilco came to the rescue.
The closure is not due to the administration process but because of a failure to reach an agreement on the lease terms for the Westwood Cross unit.
A spokesman for HMV said: “Regretfully we can confirm that we will be closing hmv Westwood Cross before the end of March, despite our best efforts to keep this store open. This is no reflection on the commitment of our excellent staff, but due to a failure to reach an agreement with the landlord on the terms of our lease at this property. ”
This is quite depressing, it was my go to shop for CD’s and DVDs ever since Margate essentially became a ghost town. Where will I go outside of Amazon for my physical multimedia purchases now?
I hope that it doesn’t turn into another cafe or clothing shop though as Westwood already has enough of those.
I cannot believe the landlord is letting HMV move out, there are lots of vacant shops around Thanet, keep the tenant you have, we do not want anymore empty shops.
How sad used this shop it was unique at Westwood as no other outlet of this type of shop. Surely better to have a tenant than empty property madness
I cannot believe the landlord is letting HMV move out, we have enough empty shops in Thanet, please do not be too greedy over negotiating increase in rent, this is Thanet not London.
Thanet is essentially a mini-London at this point. We may as well accept our dictators in the London boroughs.
Westwood Cross landlord must be well off enough not to need the rent from HMV. This is just greed in not being able to negotiate a fair rent with the chain who are clearly still struggling to survive. Now the shop will probably lay empty for months or longer.
BTW: If you are looking for a bargain don’t rush out. Although it says “everything must go” on the posters there is no clearance of products in the shop so it looks like all stock will just be taken to their other shops.
The landlord company is multi billon
Landlords (in this case Land Securities) need to face up to the reality of retail and that shops simply can’t afford rents as high as in the past. They’ve made massive profits but times have changed. They also need to be careful as shops are dependent on each other to survive. A reduction in variety means less people coming so less people in the cafes etc. too.
Such a stupid decision from the landlords. Westwood Cross is becoming just cheap clothes shops and coffee shops. No variety left, Thorntons have gone, Studio 21 gone, Monsoon gone. I hope the landlords have a plan otherwise the place is going to be a ghost town. HMV was my only reason for visiting.
Shame on the landlord . It is so short sighted . HMV brings in so much trade to WWX. This will massively affect all the other stores with less footfall . A very sad day for all of us .
The greed of others is killing this town who wants to come work or life in a dying or dead area no work no shops wwx should never have been built its force the small local shop to shut down to build a bigger better shopping centre on promise of jobs and larger selection on our goods we may be needing yet all they managed to do is kill of a community while someone fills there pockets and we have to put up with the a crap whole that has more leaks than a teabag and more holes in the ground than Swiss cheese
Dumb greedy and money mad landlords again ruining shoppers enjoyment at westwood cross shopping centre, i personally do not do online shopping as i like to see what i am purchasing at face value and HMV was my main place for visiting there. Sad times, will miss my purchases there and the friendly cheery staff.
I feel sorry for the staff who will lose their job,and go to sign on u-credit. When someone at the top makes a lot of money.