Opinion: An Ode To HMV And Blockbusters

Saying a tragic farewell to two of the UK's most acclaimed high street retailers.
It's a sad day for the world of British high street retail. Once, we would have seen such booming franchises as GAME, Comet, Woolworths, Zavvi and Waterstones laden on the streets of our fair cities and towns, yet now each of these same retailers lies either dead by the roadside or under increasing threat of administration as the weeks of this New Year progress. This week, we've seen the lives of both HMV and Blockbusters cut tragically short, with both retailers having announced their entrance into administration on Monday.

How does an entertainment fan living in the UK such as myself put into words the monumental loss the high street has suffered here? There was a time when 'Her Majesty's Voice' was the dominant flagship retailer for entertainment releases here in Great Britain, providing us with all the DVD, video game, music and gadget releases we could ever desire, with little but supermarket deals to challenge her. Yet now, HMV's staff live in an age where the digital market is ever-growing, luring in ex-High Street goers with its nifty dispatch price deals and digitalised entertainment downloads rather than forcing us out into the cold winds and snow currently plaguing the country. Such an appetite for online retail from the general public of the UK was perhaps inevitable right from the moment that the World Wide Web emerged on our shores; however, it's impossible to think that upon our next trip to our local shopping centre, the absence of this dying legend of high street entertainment retail won't be felt in some meaningful way. There'll no doubt be a boom in supermarket entertainment industry as a result, yet such a compensation can't ever provide true recompense in our hearts. As someone who's loved the store for every sale, every chart recommendation and just every moment of entertainment enlightment it's provided me in years gone by, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I'll sorely miss the presence of HMV here in the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, the departure of Blockbusters from local streets everywhere too surely have an additional impact in the coming weeks. Sure, Netflix, LoveFilm, Sky Anytime+ and the like provide strong online movie rental services, yet what if our internet connections succumb to the recent dowse of white rain? If that's the case, in future where we might have simply taken a trip out to our local Blockbusters to grab a film for the evening which we could sit by the fire and enjoy, and certainly for those TV owners who don't have the luxury of a Sky Digital box or a similar digital network, the choice of daytime film viewing will now be sorely limited. I would wager that perhaps we'll make do without Blockbusters a little better than the high street will fare sans HMV, but all the same, the loss of another key entertainment retail franchise here could have dire consequences for the industry as a whole in the UK in 2013.

As an avid entertainee, then, I want to extend a huge thanks to the staff and creators of both HMV and Blockbusters for all their hard work in the past century for us UK viewers. Best wishes go to every member of staff who finds themselves without employment in the midst of this tragic period, and we wish them the best of luck in the challenging days ahead. Your work will not be forgotten...