The collapse of Woolworths and MFI is being depicted as the first retail victims of the credit crunch. This is not true. Two dying retail chains, the credit crunch has merely delivered the final death blow.

Woolies lost its way years ago. Clothes: Matalan, Primark, Peacocks, George range in Asda. Household and gardening: Wilkinsons. Books and CDs: Tesco, Asda and Morrisons. What was left?

My local Woolies is a dirty grubby place with ignorant shop assistants. In the local retail pecking order it ranks below the pound shops and charity shops.

If anyone buys Woolies, it will be to asset strip their property portfolio and that will be worth less than half of what it was a year ago and any fire sale will drop the value still further.

MFI has been the but of jokes for years because of the crap it sells. Stuff ordered doesn't arrive on time, and when it does arrive, half is missing. When you open it up, the assembly instructions appear to have been written in Martian for the sense they make.

Customers who have ordered using credit cards are protected by the Consumer Credit Act (1974).

What is hitting all retailers hard, especially small independent retailers, is the extortionate rents being charged by greedy property developers. Greedy property developers who refuse to face up to reality and drop their rents and seem to prefer instead to see empty retail units than charge a realistic rent. For most small retailers it is a mugs game, serfdom to the banks and property developers.

One of the worst is St Modwen. Not known for nothing known as the The Developer from Hell, they specialise in destroying town centres, driving out small retailers. Hatfield town centre consists of boarded-up shops, Farnborough one huge demolition site. Bognor Regis, Walthamstow, Queens Market are all earmarked for the same treatment.

 http://www.friendsofqueensmarket.org.uk/
 http://www.fighttheheight.co.uk/

St Modwen claim to have large numbers of retailers poised to move into Farnborough. We had a glimpse of these retailers in the summer when they erected hoardings next to the now bankrupt Woolworths, fake shops with fake names.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/04/396016.html?c=on
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/04/397548.html

Nearby Camberley has built a brand new shopping centre. All this has done is move around the existing retailers, and emptied the main square. In Farnborough retailers are pulling out. Woolworths is yet another to add to the list. The best St Modwen has managed to bring in is a shop selling cheap tat for Christmas.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/11/413437.html

If retailers were people, St Modwen would be accused of ethnic cleansing. St Modwen may go the same way as its victims.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/10/411503.html

The next retail chains to collapse will be Computer World (incl Dixons and Curry's) and W H Smith.

Why buy from PC World, Dixons or Curry's when you can buy cheaper off the net? If you want some advice and support, not the blind leading the blind, buy from an independent like Campus Computers (aka Moh Computers) on Surrey University Campus in Guildford.

 http://www.heureka.clara.net/surrey-hants/gu-dir.htm#computers

W H Smith, like Woolies, has lost its way. It is not a proper bookshop. If you want books you are better off going to a good independent bookshop or a chain like Waterstone's or Borders. For CDs and DVDs, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons. For paper and envelopes there is Partners. And for newspapers and magazines you can pick these up at the corner shop or the supermarket.

Websites

 http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/
 http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/

reference and background

David Clifford, Farnborough Town Centre rising from the dust, 20 November 2008
 http://cllrclifford.blogspot.com/2008/11/farnborough-town-centre-rising-from.html

Tom Geoghegan, What is the point of Woolworths?, BBC news on-line, 26 November 2008
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7741199.stm

Administrators review MFI orders, BBC News on-line, 27 November 2008

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7752356.stm

Keith Parkins, Curitiba – Designing a sustainable city, April 2006
 http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/curitiba.htm

Keith Parkins, Transition towns, Indymedia UK, 9 October 2008
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/10/410292.html?c=on

Keith Parkins, St Modwen financial meltdown, Indymedia UK, 24 October 2008
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/10/411503.html

Keith Parkins, St Modwen claim Farnborough redevelopment complete by Christmas, Indymedia UK, 24 November 2008
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/11/413437.html

Ian Pollock, What will the administrators do?, BBC news on-line, 27 November 2008
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7752065.stm