Moley I think he's been on the dodgy stuff!

HMV couldn't compete with its online competitors, not just because consumer behaviour has changed - not just because they have the overheads of physical stores - but because they also have the troublesome overhead of paying UK tax. Something the likes of Amazon are adept at avoiding. I'm surprised media commentators haven't made more of this considering the current interest in the topic.

Big chains like Comet, Jessops and HMV failing is the endgame - it has been coming for a while. Both landlords and local councils have viewed shops as cash cows for quite a while now. Rents are high, and business rates are extortionate as well. A Business wants rubbish collected - pay extra. You want to be able to make a delivery and park a truck outside - pay extra. You want a business parking permit - pay extra, the list goes on

The small traders went first - they had to pay all this crap with real earned money they depleted their savings until they could see it was pointless and couldn't be turned round and got out. The chains came in because they could pay it with funny money borrowed from banks who were only too willing to lend based on what now appears to be worthless branding. However the underlying truth remained - the stores are barely profitable. Eventually it catches up, and the chain goes down.

Take a typical Blockbuster in London.

I've had a glance at rental and rates costs. If you want to be some where decent (centre of town), you're looking at £40K rent + service charge and £30K business rates. Somewhere like Hayes 50 - 75% of that although the Hayes store is a large one and business rates are calculated on size and trading placement. They need to employ 2 people (long opening hours) - that probably costs them £20+ K a head once you include all the tax., even if they are paying min wage.

So a central london store needs to make 120K of profit on whatever it sells before it can clear its expenses. I have no idea how much block buster makes "per video", but I'd guess two quid. So 60,000 rentals, just to cover the operational costs. That's 1000 rentals a week - which is a hell of a lot, particularly in the digital age when there are so many alternatives.

No wonder they are all going bust. It is my personal opinion that high street property, and by implication local councils, are heading for a disaster. The chickens have been flying for years and now they are all coming home to roost.

Hayes Blockbuster closed down about 2 years now !! It was replaced by a £2 store ... I've just been past there and now that has closed as well .... things must be bad

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I do not suffer fools !!!!!

£2 !

That's a rip off

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Lets be careful out there !

Hehe .... well it was nice to have one upper class shop here Obviously with the economy being what it is .... everyone prefers the 99p store

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I do not suffer fools !!!!!

well I suppose the economic situation of the Country as a whole, Councils, along with commercial outlets need to pass on to whoever they can, any extra expense, now it dont take a college education to work out who that will be, its the petrol sales syndrome, when it goes up it go's up quick! when it comes down, is seen as a period to make a killing, and comes down, eventually after a while.

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Its not always the biggest and the bestest, its them that make the least mistakes.

Just read that 'Game' have put in a bid for some of the HMV shops. I thought Game were in administration last year themselves.

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Lets be careful out there !