(HMV)His Masters Victory

When Zavvi Entertainment Group Ltd. went into administration on December 24 2008, leading competitor HMV quickly plugged the gap. To all intents and purpose, HMV now held, and still holds, a monopoly on multimedia entertainment in York. While speciality vinyl stores still exist scattered around the city, the market for second-hand and rare CDs now resides solely, and precariously, in charity shops.

Track Records, an independently owned and once-popular music shop previously of Goodramgate, closed its doors in summer 2007, its owner, Keith Howe, blaming the rise of internet downloading for its demise. Howe pointed to the fact that the online retailer play.com is based in the Channel Islands and its goods are therefore exempted from VAT. Likewise, Amazon.co.uk often sells through one of its preferred merchants, indigostarfish, operating from Jersey. Some might argue that the issue is moot: if products can be bought safely, cheaply and quickly online, why buy them anywhere else? The high street market in new books, especially with the recent collapse of Borders, may be cornered by Waterstones (and, for students, perhaps Blackwells), but doesn’t the internet render any loss of choice redundant?

Aesthetic concerns about a colourful city centre are largely trivial, but when the problem affects services as well as goods, one can see that the general problem is anything but. The demise of independent cinemas has pushed students (and residents) into paying extortionate prices either at the City Screen or, following a lengthy bus ride, at the Vue in Clifton Moor. Student nights are a given feature of York’s nightlife and indeed they’re necessary insofar as they provide a definite meeting point, but many students have complained that they effectively put a choker on week-to-week variety. The situation is only exacerbated by the potentially imminent closure of Tru and Gallery. One second year Goodricke student, when asked about the situation, commented, “I’d be gutted if Tru and Gallery closed. York doesn’t have a huge selection of nightclubs as it is… they might not be fantastic but they’ll definitely be missed.” It’s a rare situation, but in this case quantity is more of an issue than quality. The Internet can’t replace Trusdays.

Conversely, the city is faced with an overabundance of other services. Church Street has played host to three make-your-own milkshake shops this year alone. The York Pub Guide has reviews of over 260 pubs in the city, and admits that there may be up to 100 more. One need never walk very far to buy new clothes, as a walk down Spurriergate, Coney Street or Parliament Street will quickly prove. ‘Overabundance’ is perhaps a misleading term.

There is no doubt that there is a market for these services, and the continuity of the stores providing them is a testament to this. The recession can’t be blamed for this. ‘Pandemonium’, a shop dedicated to goth and cult clothing, closed down over 5 years ago, and has since moved all the way to Whitby. Pulse, a popular cyber shop, closed down in early 2004.