Nostalgia isn’t what we used to be

So WH Smith, purveyor of an increasingly short shelf of magazines and periodicals along with a load of cap that you don’t really want has bitten the dust. It remains profitable, insists its former owner, it’s just not a profit it wants to have to work so hard to make.

And cue much hand wringing today in the press about the disappearance of WH Smith newsagents from the high street and what a sad day it is for us all. It's going the way of Woolworths, Rumbelows, C&A, Dixons, BHS. Indeed, when I was young I got all of my back to school essentials in long dead establishments – shoes from Dolcis, coat from Allders, glasses from Dollond and Aitchison. 

I will say that I hadn't even realised that Topshop, Thorntons and Debenhams weren't around anymore either. Which brings me to my main thought – if a name disappears on the high street and there's no one there to see it... You see, we're told we need to be sad about these things dying off, and it plays into a deep set nostalgia that things used to be better.

But if we really cared about the like of WH Smith, Woolworths and Blockbuster we'd actually have gone to shop there, wouldn't we? It's a dog eat dog world out there, and there's always someone trying to sell you a better dog for the job.