W H SMITH ON ITS LAST LEGS

 It's sad but not a surprise to hear that W H Smith is in trouble, and will likely vanish from the High Street - My own local store in Pontypridd vanished shortly before Christmas and to be honest has been going down hill for some considerable time. There was a time when I never came out of the store without buying something - a magazine or two, maybe a book or, and it's not that long ago, a discounted DVD box set.

Though over recent years I've boought less and less from the store - some of it is admittedly becuase I could get books cheaper on Amazon, but by far the biggest reason is that Smiths just didn't carry the variety they once did. And as for magazines - well, they were moved about so much that if you were in a rush you didn't have time to find what you wanted. Blame online shopping, blame eBooks, blame what you want but the facts are that Smiths failed to be store worth browsing in. IIt was overly expensive - particularly for stationary and well it wasn't what it once was, but then so few things are.

I can still recall the days when my local town of Pontypridd boasted not only a W H Smith but a John Menzies too -  I think Menzies went in the early 90's or thereabouts and now it looks as if good old W H Smith is going the same way.

Both were great bookshops, newsagents and sellers of all sorts of other entertainment - there was a time when they stocked LP Records, cassettes, video tapes, CD's, DVD's as well as having a varied magazine selection. Of course when Menzies went, W H Smith largely acquired their shops but now a few decades later Smiths is also going the way of Mothercare, Woolworths and the dodo. 

The High Street these days seems to be charity shops, vape stores and Kebab places.

It's sad but proper newsagents seem to have vanished - these day magazines and newspapers are sold in supermarkets, garages and corner shops but there is far less of a selection.

The death of the High Street, scream the newspaper headlines and they're not far from the mark.

RIP W H Smith...you will be missed.

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.