HMV

This is my go to store in the Mic Mac Mall. I love going in and browsing the rock, metal and punk sections looking for new and old cd’s from bands I want to get into, or already love, or an unknown album recommended by the fellow bearded wise man of my kind of music. So far all his recommendations have been great. I really love this store.

HMV seems one of the very few music stores to have survived the MP3 age, and that could largely be in part of their willingness to adapt by diversifying their product. Gone are the days of record stores catering to the discerning client and in are the days of the fickle, impulsive consumer.
At this particular location, music CDs have been relegated to the back burner. The store is now more full with books, DVDs and Blurays, apparel, and video games than actual music CDs. Not everything is related to music anymore, leading me to suggest that His Master’s Voice should be rebranded to His Master’s Entertainment Pleasure and Other Odditiies. It’s not a bad thing, because choice is always good, but I wonder if sometimes the audiophiles are miffed as they might not be able to find what they’re looking for amidst the merchandise.
You can sometimes find a good deal on random music with many of their pink tag sales, but if you’re looking for the latest and greatest, I find their prices are always a little more than what I can find department stores. They do, however, have a few things that you might not find at other stores, like some music memorabilia, so it still might be your best bet to find that perfect gift for the music junkie in your life. But as others below have pointed out, most of the time you’re looking at a rather long wait time. As well, on the last couple of visits, they were having difficulties with their registers, and were only able to serve customers carrying cash. All you can do is keep calm and listen on. That Iron Maiden mug is worth the wait to see your dad’s surprise when he receives it.

Brittney K. is totally right — this store seems to always amass HUGE line-​ups. We’re talking twenty-​some people already waiting by the time I walked in at 3pm on a Monday. While the staff seemed to be working hard to get through it all, the situation left few employees on the store to help customers. Unlike Brittney — I couldn’t get my head around the wait this time and vowed to come back another day.
The good news is that this location carries a tremendous number of DVDs and boxsets including hard-​to-​find and older TV shows. A must-​visit for anyone with a TV-​lover in their family.

So I came here a couple of weeks ago while there was a tax-​free event going on at Mic Mac Mall. I went to buy the new Taylor Swift CD for a friend, figuring I would score a sweet deal by not paying the HST.
The lineup was huge, but I didn’t care– I had my Starbucks gingerbread latte to keep me company while I waited. After almost 30 minutes in line, when I went to check out, I learned that I would not be saving anything on my purchase– taxes still applied at this store, even when it did not elsewhere. I wouldn’t have minded that had I been notified beforehand and not had to wait in line for half an hour to find out (I’d been talking to staff before waiting to purchase the CD, and not one of them even hinted that taxes would apply). I, like many others in the store that night, felt sort of cheated by this– we came to the store expecting a sweet deal. I ended up putting back the CD and buying elsewhere.
In spite of that little incident, I really don’t have many bad things to say about the store– it has a comprehensive collection of CDs and DVDs, and the staff are helpful (they were even on the busy night I went to buy the T Swift album).
Just OK…