HMV stores to be turned into supermarkets?

Existing sites of HMV shops could be swallowed up by one or more large supermarket chains after the music and film retailer’s move into administration earlier this month, reports The Guardian.

The paper claims creditors are looking into the possibility of selling off as much as half of the ailing company’s buildings to the ever expanding juggernaut of major supermarkets as it looks to reduce a crippling debt, with Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s all said to have registered interest.

The Guardian reports that Morrisons is thought to be interested in up to 20 sites to boost its smaller M Local chain. It is also understood that Morrisons could look to buy up properties from Blockbuster, which joined HMV in administration this month.

“There is a big push for good convenience store space and there is probably more demand than supply,” Neil Saunders of market analysists Conlumino has remarked. !HMV has some quite prime sites on high streets, but not all its sites will be suitable.”

It would be painfully ironic for record companies if many stores were to re-emerge in a new Tesco guise after the three majors – Universal, Sony and Warner Music – suddenly showed some concern in the demise of HMV due to their reluctance to have an industry dominated by online outlets and supermarkets – as one source was quoted as saying:

“They don’t want their only choice to be Tesco or Amazon.”