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I have written a series of articles this year under the headline ‘Should we cry over…Jessops, Comet, HMV, Atari etc” as household names bit the dust. Yesterday Axminster carpets finally appointed administrators with 300 of the 400 staff losing their jobs.
You may ask ‘What on earth has Axminster carpets got to do with tech?” Many of the failures we have seen recently have little to do with the recession – which most media seems to think is to blame. It has all to do with changing fashion. Consumers moving from the High Street to the internet. From physical to digital. From dumbphone to smartphone etc.
Axminster’s failure is due to the same changes in consumer fashion as everyone moves from fitted carpets to hard wood flooring.
I well remember my old mother in the 1950s yearning to have the luxury of fitted carpets to replace the rugs and floorboards in her house. By the 1980s she was in heaven with her Axminster carpets. 15 years back we decided to throw out most of our fitted carpets to be replaced by rugs and wood floors! I wonder what my grandson will choose to have on his floors when he sets up home in 20 years time?
