Sign of the times

High Street giant W.H.Smith are pulling out of the DVD market which makes for some great bargains in stores across the country. From October 2010 they will no longer stock DVD's, instead concentrating on their core market of books, newspapers and magazines. It's a sad story but I suppose inevitable and makes me wonder how long W.H.Smiths will survive now that the bulk of DVD's and books are purchased online.

I still miss my local Borders - after all, their stock of books was far greater than Smiths, and whilst I'm not a big DVD buyer I was pleased to get a box set of the first season of The Rockford Files for a mere £10. But all the same if Smiths does go it will be a great loss.

So is this the end for DVD? All indicators are pointing that way, with the industry recently reporting a fall in the sale of DVD players and now that the discs can be picked up for next to nothing it will be difficult to maintain any momentum in the market.

The online boom has been a revolution for the consumer and it's a great thing but the downside is that all these big High Street names are vanishing. Still difficult to feel too sorry for Smiths since in years gone by they had far too much control in the book market and would dictate to publishers. I remember back in the early 90's horror author, Steve Harris moaning to me that Smiths didn't stock his excellent books, claiming they were not mainstream enough. I've not spoken to Steve in many years but as far as I know he's no longer writing. Now that's a great pity as his horror novels Adventureland, Wulf, Hoodo Man and Angels were all top knotch. I may even review them here one day as part of the Forgotten Books series.

Archive predication - Smiths will be gone within five years.