Based on theories of retail change, explains the failure of High Street retailers.A Comet case studyThe recent financial meltdown starting in 2008 has had a huge impact on businesses and has impacted economies around the world. The adversities of the economic crisis have been felt by a plethora of economic sectors. Starting from the financial sector, the contagion then moved to the automotive sector, before infecting a series of downstream industries that owed their commercial vitality to the easy access to low-cost credit that characterized the pre-crisis macroeconomic environment of the developed world . When the world finally began to remember what had happened, hardly a sector was spared the negative effects of the global financial crisis. The end of easy access to credit as a consequence of the crisis acted on two levels. First, it limited small and medium-sized businesses' access to bank loans. The resulting slowdown in business activity for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has affected the overall level of trade and commerce within the economy. Secondly, the purchasing power of end consumers has been significantly reduced. What now appears to be “over-indebtedness” of individual borrowers was in hindsight an essentially normal level of debt burden in the pre-crisis period. Indeed, before 2008, consumer credit was touted as a major driver of economic activity and growth. However, as disposable incomes have contracted in the post-crisis period, consumers have made changes to their spending behavior (The Economist, 2013). No other industry has been more impacted by this change than retail. Within the broader retail/FMCG sector, the hardest hit sub-class was the high street retail segment (Ruddick and Blackden, 2012)....... middle of paper. ..... 2014]The Economist, 2013. fights back. [online] Available at: http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21581755-retailers-rich-world-are-suffering-people-buy-more-things-online-they-are-finding [ Accessed April 1, 2014] UK Department of Trade and Industry, 2000. Click and Mortar: The New Store Fronts. London: Department of Trade and Industry.Wood, Z., Kollewe, J. and Schimroszik, N., 2012. Comet sees website crash and suppliers seize stock, The Guardian [online] Available at: < http:/ /www.theguardian .com/business/2012/nov/01/comet-website-crash> [Accessed 31 March 2014] Yorkshire Post, 2008. From the first wireless TV to hi-tech TV, Comet leaves a trail of success [online] Available at : [Accessed April 1, 2014]