I spent a very happy weekend with the family in Teignmouth, Devon, a seaside town with a population of 15,000. I took this photo in the largest supermarket the Co-op. Where despite this sign there were neither CDs or DVDs. WH Smith didn't stock any CDs or DVDs either. This was a store where as a teenager I had once bought a vinyl album of the Hot Club of France - so it used to be a good general record store - not just the charts. I expect someone is going to pop out of the woodwork and refute this but I was unable to find anywhere in this holiday town which sold new music and film product. At all. I contented myself with the charity shops and the second hand music/film shop where I managed to find some Glenn Miller and Duke Ellington on 78 discs to take home. As well as CDs and DVDs I should add! 12 months ago I came here to see Muse play in their home town, but in Teignmouth now you have to go online to buy their music.
Afflicted as I am with a London centric point of view I had not noticed that Sainsburys is the only place in my home town of Hoddesdon where I can now buy CDs and DVDs. If you never see them then will you remember to buy them? I can buy online all I want. But the shops are going. My son offered to give me access to Spotify for the weekend so I could listen to all the music I wanted. And my daughter filled the gap with her ipod. Its a lot easier to spot new things arriving than things you have taken for granted disappearing. This feels like a huge hole. All the larger when they've forgotten to take the sign down.
