I put it in quotes because it isn't technically the Hastings we all know and love, though it is directly inspired by the chain of entertainment super stores. This Hastings is Hastings Toys and More. The guy who is opening it said in a recent news story that he worked at Hastings Entertainment Superstore and wants to bring back the same vibe. You can check out the website for his store here. Also, it should be noted that as of now the only store is in Ardmore, OK.
So you'll have a bit of a road trip ahead of you if you're wanting to relive all of those Hastings memories. Still, hearing this immediately made me think about all of the time I spent at Hastings here.
I spent hours sifting through records, books, comics, cds, and checking out the video game rentals. Hi Rene - sorry to ruin your day!! Hope you can find someplace else that's cool on your next road trip! I always go to Hastings on road trips and this was the site i landed on when planning this weekend's trip. I didnt realize they were all closed. I'll miss Gohastings. I only found the site about five years ago but have purchased roughly dvd, blu-ray and cds from them during the time.
They had become my go to store for all used and once in awhile new media. They'll be sorely missed. Hi steppph - thanks for stopping by my page and sharing your cool story.
I'm sure it was bittersweet visiting your Hastings store one final time. I was randomly thinking about Hastings and found this article. I grew up in Albuquerque and would go here at least twice a week with my parents--CDs, magazines, comics, books and especially the VHS rentals were always combed through.
It's where I discovered my first comic books that weren't Archies and would sneak into the horror section to read the back covers and imagine what the movies would be like based on the poster art.
We moved away when I was 16, and I only went back when they were liquidating--the road trip to ABQ was already planned, and hitting that store was a big part of it. I was afraid it'd be gone, but we got there in early October just in time.
The store was gigantic they supersized it since it was my local video store but it still meant a lot to go one more time--AND get some great deals on Blu-rays. I never got to work there I had a total "Empire Records" fantasy as a kid! Hi Joe - I feel your pain! I have yet to find another cheap-CD source that's as reliable as GoHastings was. I feel like I've lost a friend. Me and my wife miss hastings so much that I just googled Hi Brook - I'm glad that this piece brought back some good memories for you, and I thank you for your service with GoHastings - I ordered so many CDs from them over the past five years that I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of them had passed through your hands!
Haha :. This will make you smile I hope, but I was employed by Hastings for a year from October to October One of the jobs I did while I was working there was serving as a "GoShip" employee, meaning that I pulled items from the shelves that people like you ordered from the website, packed them, and shipped them directly to the customers.
I always enjoyed the idea that I was responsible for filling orders for customers across the country. Your post made me smile because now I know how much enjoyment I provided. Seeing the posts today, a few days after the last stores closed, has made me miss those days, Thanks for helping me to remember the great parts of that job.
Hi Mike - I feel your pain, man! By the end of October the entire chain will be history, or so I'm told. I worked for Hastings for a couple of years about a decade ago, right during the launch of goHastings. At the time, they fed that website straight out of the stores. I noticed these items were often obscure titles that had been sitting on my store's shelf for years. It was so cool to see these things going to a good home.
I had just moved back to the mountain West and Hastings was one of the things I was looking forward to having Hastings back. Sadly, less than a year later they are going out of business. It was an awful company to work for although simultaneously a great place to work- it attracted a lot of really awesome people but all the same I am very sorry to see it go. Funny how Hastings claimed Amazon killed them, yet they were a third-party seller on Amazon, I bought a ton of stuff from them through Amazon, so if anything Amazon helped them survive for longer then they otherwise would have.
Still it's not all bad, at least in the midwest there's still Family Video the largest independently owned video store chain and there's one other video store called People's Choice which is pretty good aside from the background noise from the Family Fun Center on the other side of the building.
Hi Anna - I have heard of Half Price Books, like Hastings they don't have any store locations in my area but it can't hurt to check them out online. Thanks for the tip. Have you heard of Half Price Books? They have a similar venue to hastings, and I have started using them. They may not be as cheap as hastings was, but you can still get used cd's cheap.
They have books, comics, records, and even toys much like hastings, they just focus on books more. You know what I miss most about brick and mortar stores? I can't begin to list the number of obscure bands I found that way at various chain stores.
Sure you can now listen to practically any band on the interwebs but you have to know they even exist first. I used to love walking into a Camelot or Streetside Records store, heading straight for the employee picks posts and discovering bands on independent labels or even their own labels. And then buying the CD and spreading the word about said band to my friends. Learning to Play. Playing in a Band. Musical Instruments. Sound Equipment. Studio Equipment. Related Articles.
In , however, Hastings increased the breadth of its cross-merchandising approach, adding video rentals to the books and music it retailed. The first store to offer the three product categories, touted as the company's first "triple combo" unit, opened in in Amarillo's Wolfin Village Shopping Center.
Equally as important as the foray into videos was a change in the company's pricing strategy, an alteration that underscored the chain's similarity to Wal-Mart. In , searching for ways to beat back mounting competition, Hastings began discounting its merchandise. The experiment worked wonders, driving sales upward and convincing the Marmadukes that Hastings's future lay as a discount chain. By the end of the s, the company's strategy was firmly set. The larger, all-media discount units the company was operating were realizing greater profits and sales.
In response, the Marmadukes turned away from adding any more mall-based stores. Mall store leases were allowed to expire, directing management's focus on Hastings's blueprint for the s: discount, triple combo, superstores. With a prototype for future expansion established, the company pursued physical growth in its unique way. The prevailing characteristic of the chain was the location of its stores, nearly all of which were situated in small towns with populations ranging between 10, and 50, The company's niche was in towns such as Warrensburg, Missouri, Marshalltown, Iowa, and Stephenville, Texas, communities where competition was limited and residents often were delighted to have the opportunity to purchase a broad selection of books, music, and videos close to home.
From a practical standpoint, the intent was simple, effective, and profitable: "We want to sell mysteries to people who come in and buy music, and we want to sell music to people who come in to by mysteries," explained John Marmaduke. Although Hastings operated a number of stores in larger metropolitan areas with populations in excess of ,, the majority of the chain's stores were in small towns, which represented the basis of the company's strategy for expansion. The company used this approach to expand rapidly during the s, a decade that began with Hastings's sister company, Western Merchandisers, falling under the control of another company.
Although separate companies, Hastings and Western Merchandisers were woven closely together, with the fate of one company having an equal effect on the other. Accordingly, when Wal-Mart acquired Western Merchandising in , the corporate life of Hastings was affected as well. Following Wal-Mart's acquisition of its primary wholesaler, Hastings remained under the ownership of its founder and chairman, Sam Marmaduke, but both companies shared the same president and chief executive officer, John Marmaduke.
Western Merchandisers and Hastings also shared overhead, distribution services, and headquarter support, and held their annual conventions together.
Under this arrangement, the two companies prospered in the shadow of the sprawling Wal-Mart chain, but the close-knit relationship between Western Merchandisers and Hastings did not last. The numerous ties connecting the two companies were strained not from poor performance by either company, but from the success of each.
Under the agreement reached with Wal-Mart in , John Marmaduke was supposed to divide his time evenly between Western Merchandisers and Hastings. As Wal-Mart expanded its operations vigorously during the early s, however, Western Merchandisers was forced to keep pace with the distribution demands of a fast-growing retail chain, which required an increasing amount of Marmaduke's attention. He was spending two-thirds of his time matching the gallop of Wal-Mart, leaving Hastings, whose all-media superstore concept was demonstrating encouraging success, without the full attention it required.
By the end of , several months after Sam Marmaduke died of a massive heart attack, John Marmaduke decided not to renew his contract with Western Merchandisers and Wal-Mart. For the first time in its history, Hastings was going to be a truly independent entity.
The divestiture was completed in August , giving Hastings the freedom to pursue its own path. The chain, at this critical juncture in its history, comprised 95 stores spread throughout 13 states in the Southwest and the Rockies. With all his attention focused on this enterprise for the first time in years, Marmaduke faced a fundamental, pressing problem as he severed ties with Western Merchandisers renamed Anderson Merchandisers.
0コメント