Completely out of the blue , popped in to Cambridge yesterday to have a word with my two good friend Duncan and mike perkins from digital village and to my shock after 25 years the Cambridge branch has been shut . Absolutely gutted ."Times are a changing ". No more personal assistance or demoing for me , they have moved everything to a central location in Romford Essex .
Ive been speaking to a manager in the Romford branch and both mike and Duncan are no longer working for DV24/7 ,So I asked them to close my account and told them if I wanted to but from a super store it would be from Thomanns in Germany as they can deliver quicker . One word described how I feel … GUTTED 
Yep sad indeed!
Apparently they ceased trading as the parent company ‘white rabbit records’ around may 13th and a german company called ‘music shop’ so i believe, purchased the romford branch and are now using it as a showroom and call centre for mail order with all the stock being shipped from their new warehouse in germany…
i ordered a few things last week before i realised what had actually happened, but i think i will also not be buying from them in future now i know the complete story…
Yes it’s very sad indeed Mat I saw the article on the “white rabbit records” but must admit didn’t really take any notice of it . I don’t mind things being shipped in from Germany , my Zoar desk came from Germany and it was delivered within 3 days and £75 cheaper than any company in England could offer but as far as the personal touch goes we are running out of places .
Mike and Duncan had run the Cambridge branch from the start which was about 1991 I believe and to have finally been booted out after that amount of time is rather annoying to say the least .
Oh well looks like im stuck with Andertons music in Guildford , even thou they have a great range of products your still just a number there …Sad times for the personal service 
sorry Mat it’s "music store " I believe 
I always used the Brum branch and yeah after around fifteen years of buying from them you did get the personal touch… i always found paul, nic and chad to be REALLY helpful…
It seems absolute have taken on paul and chad from the brum branch and a few others from the other branches… think i’m going with absolute and funky junk from now on…
funny you mention “absolute” im waiting for halion 4 to turn up from there today , great service I must say
ETA 1.38pm lol and let the games commence 
While it has little to do with the specialty you are talking about, these are the same series of events that occur in the states when giant chain retailers overrun local shops. There have been many major battles to prevent these large discounters from locating in some of these towns. Eventually they win and local service changes whether, music, electronics, a gallon of paint or fishing gear. Just another brick in the wall…so to speak
I think consumers in N America and Europe have overwhelmingly spoken on this and have sent the message to retailers that they’ll take price over service any day. Retailers are just having to deal with this by cutting back on personnel and consumers will have to adjust their expectations. A friend of mine has a music store on Haight St here in San Francisco and he,s been able to survive over the years but just barely as the squeeze from Guitar Center and online retailers is tremendous.
Going forward personal service will only be available to the wealthy or big spenders
Sad but true.
{‘-’}