In 1894, Spillers Records, Cardiff, Wales, became the first store in the world to sell wax phonograph cylinders.  In later years, it sold phonographs and shellac phonograph discs.  Spillers today carries vinyl records alongside compact discs. Its days now appear numbered because a retail developer wants to construct a new department store and mall in downtown Cardiff.

Spillers, in the Hayes Market, is standing in the way of a £700 million property development that will bring a new department store complex to the Welsh capital.

The landlords have warned Spillers that they face a rent rise of 50 per cent. Lucrative high street chains such as Zara and Borders are expected to replace independent retailers.

Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers have joined a campaign to save the store.  An online petition has collected over 1400 signatures.  Owen John Thomas, Plaid Cymru shadow culture minister, has asked fellow members of the Welsh Assembly to support the shop’s survival.

All the verbal backing in the world will not pay the rent, however.

Nick Todd, the co-owner of Spillers, said: “The rent rise was a bombshell. We cannot sell enough records to cover that.”

It would be sad to see Spillers close but, unless Wales wants to stop retail development by declaring the shop a heritage site (or something like that), it sounds like this record’s over.