The demise of Wilko's in 2023 vs the demise of Woolworth's in 2008

[Lencoboy]

HMV was gone for years, except online, before resurfacing on Princes Street opposite Waverley Bridge. There had been a branch at Ocean Terminal too, but it's probably not there anymore. It's all being rebuilt.

I presume you're referring to Edinburgh.

Yes, it's wonderful that said outlet appears to be undergoing something of a revival of late, but as to how sustainable it might be is another question, especially in our increasingly fickle economy and our tendency to complacency as a society.

Having said that, I recall quite a few people dismissing the vinyl revival as a 'passing fad' back in the late 2000s and early 2010s, and how wrong they turned out to be.

In fact, I even remember being told I was mad for never straying from the format back in the 90s, though I did use CDs as well, especially as new releases on vinyl dried up dramatically as said decade wore on.

[Peter A]

My OCD kicked in and I now want to start a top 40 horror collection from HMV, Amazon, etc.

Boredom is a sin, I guess.

[Lencoboy]

Yesterday when me and my dad were intending to go to B & Q, the roads in our area leading to the retail park were absolutely chocker which made my dad change his mind, and then I said to him 'Talk about media reports of people tightening their belts and retailers struggling once again this year', and he said that he's never really got the perennial obsession with the festive retail market, plus he went on to say that he reckons a lot of it's to do with being undercut by the online market, especially over the past 20 years or so, and believes a lot of people's minds are stuck in the past.

I said I agree in many ways, plus I remember from about 2003 or so onwards people panicking about conventional retail sales reportedly starting to decline (which also coincided with the start of the explosion in the online retail market), even though it predated the start of the Global Financial Crisis by about 4-5 years and our overall economy was still in a fairly healthy state at that time.

Of course the GFC and the Covid pandemic just over a decade later both most certainly exacerbated the decline of the high street as we used to know it, but neither are solely to blame for the decline of conventional retail stores in the first place.

Like it or not, and for better or worse, those heady days of the high street in the 80s, 90s and the very early 2000s are long gone and unlikely to come back any time soon, which also applies to many other 'institutions'; e.g, pubs, clubs and the entertainment/leisure industry in general; many of which in turn have been largely eroded by the growth of the online world over the past 2 decades, which also predates the smoking ban, the GFC, Covid, etc.