HMV was one of the few places to buy anime in-store in the UK. Fopp was another; but was owned by HMV. HMV.com was also one of the few places British shoppers could buy anime online.
HMV called in the Administrators, had its shares supsended and stopped taking vouchers and gift cards. It’s still possible to walk into a store and buy a blu-ray or DVD. In fact, the blue cross sale might still be on, but it’s no longer possible to shop online.
This is what the site looks like today.
Hopefully a buyer for the chain will be found and the site will return. It’s possible someone will buy just the website too (as happened to Woolworths) but we’ll have to wait and see. It’s a strange world where stores can stay open while the Administrators manage a business but the site must close. I speculate it has something to do with inventory management.
Interestingly, Fopp’s offiical eBay store still has active auctions. That might just be the case until all the auctions run out but perhaps they’ll use eBay to shift the last of their stock.
