It
is probably nothing to be proud of but I derive a small amount of satisfaction
from the fact that I almost never go shopping in Bexleyheath. It doesn’t make sense to pay for
car parking and risk a fine for misjudging a yellow box junction when it is so
simple and convenient to go on line and click a button. However on Friday I made an exception.
The watch strap which was originally fitted in H. Samuel’s was about to break and the only
local shop I used to occasionally browse and possibly make an impulse purchase
is back in town. The HMV record store has reopened. Not that it has much to
do with Nipper the Dog any more, it is a Canadian company.
With the watch strap repaired for 70% more money than five years ago I went into
HMV fully expecting to come out £20 poorer, but I didn’t.
The UHD blu-ray display cabinet was small but
reasonably wide-ranging. However the discs
were stacked from floor level to rather less than chest height with only their
spines on display. There was no way I was going to get down on
my knees or crawl on the floor head on one side to look for an interesting title. And to find
three discs in their three for £30 offer would have required me to remove every single one!
Vinyl disc enthusiasts didn’t have to suffer this indignity; the discs were
stacked in the traditional flip over way. I may possibly return on big
issue release days but Top Gun Maverick is already ordered - from hmv.com.
Note: Shop Talk was a BBC Radio 4 programme which was
abandoned a dozen or more years ago. It was produced weekly by my daughter.