His Master's Voice no longer.

So HMV has gone under. I guessed as much a couple of weeks ago when the little branch at Victoria Station didn’t open after Christmas, and it’s no real surprise.

I haven’t bought anything in HMV for years. The Hubby has occasionally succumbed to their ‘three DVDs for £20’ offers but even they weren’t a bargain, usually being rubbish straight to DVD movies or box office flops which no one in their right mind would pay full price for. The simple facts are that HMV were too expensive, and failed to notice changing consumer habits.

They have been undercut by the supermarkets and by online retailers such as Amazon for years. Why on earth would you pay £15.99 for a DVD on new release when you could pre-order it online with free delivery (and often it arrives before the official release date) or nip into a supermarket and get it for a tenner or less? Why would you pay the same £15.99 for a CD when you can download it for £7.99 or again, buy it for about 33% less in the supermarket? The law of evolution clearly also applies to retailers – adapt or face extinction!

I remain convinced there is a place for high street music chain, but not in the old format. There will always be a market for ‘hard copy’ music (like there will always be a market for nice books), even stretching back to the old fashioned vinyl for classic albums (I don’t think videos will ever make a come back though).  Sell them alongside electronics such as CD players and MP3s, together with other music or entertainment associated products, and you might survive. Reasonable pricing is also important, no one will pay more than they have to for a non essential product, particularly in these straitened times.

HMV is, of course, only the latest in a long line of high street failures and it won’t be the last. The worry is that as the small companies, or those which have been poorly managed or have insufficient capital fail, then the larger ones become more dominant and take advantage of their increasing market share by exploiting consumers. There must be a real danger that companies such as Tesco or Amazon, both fast becoming leviathans of the retail sector, start to create a virtual monopoly and slowly but surely increase their prices for the benefit of their shareholders but to the detriment of the consumer.

Recently Jessops also folded, a shop where I have bought cameras and used their expertise a number of times and have never had poor service from. Now, if you want a camera of any sort, you have to go either to Currys and ask a spotty youth for their advice (never to be relied upon) or buy online and take your chances.

It wasn’t before time that the high streets had a shake up and retailers that took advantage or gave poor service probably deserve to go. But they must be replaced by something that has quality and service at its heart and not purely profit (although profit is necessary of course, not only as an incentive to do business but to improve). To encourage that, restrictions on both lending requirements to small businesses and health and safety bureaucracy must be removed or loosened to allow those with an entrepreneurial spirit to not only start up in business in the first place, but to grow once there.

A high street full of Tesco and the Pound Shop will do none of us any favours.