Dec 14 2008
The Death of Retail?
Ever since the start of the .com boom, analysts have been proclaiming the death of the high street. I don’t think that will ever happen - after all there is a convenience to cash, and being able to have something in your hands ‘right now’, that online just doesn’t have. Some things - clothes, food, toys, etc, will always be in demand, and being able to touch, them, try them on, or just buy on a whim is too handy.
That said, something is happening in the UK. Woolworths, the highstreet institution of England, is closing down, and has massive debts. They’re doing a firesale at the moment, and everything, video games included, is going for massive discounts.
Regular games retailers can’t match those discounts, and some of the smaller, independant places are suffering because of this.
I have a feeling that as time goes on we will see even more effects from this. If the small retailers have a bad festive season and close down, some of the indie people they support will end up closing too. One of my local places has some indie games by their point of sale terminals - they’re cheap, they’re interesting, and they probably only sell a couple of copies, but I bet the guys who made them are really happy to sell any copies at all - and they couldn’t get that shelf space in a big retailer like Game or Gamestation.
So what will the little developers do? Sell online? Possibly, but they’re probably already doing that, but enjoy the benefit of impulse purchases. Set up stalls in markets? Who knows, but I hope they keep on making games.
It will be interesting to see how some of the bigger names cope too. The credit crunch is only just kicking in.
