Scott McFly

A live final on Christmas Day would not do well at all. People would watch it, but then all the production staff, other crew, audience, judges and the contestants would have to give up their Christmas Day to be there. Not gonna happen, although I would welcome the move away from releasing the winning single on Christmas chart week.

More importantly, who are these 21 people that like KITN but haven't bought it?! Come on! :P

Yes, even although the minimum royalty cost to be eligible is 40p per track, Amazon sell some at a loss (29p) in order to drum up sales. But they are eligible, so you can get RATM from there if that's what you're asking for lol

Exactly, all we can do is keep encouraging our friends to buy and I'm not sure if that live version counts directly too but I'd sure like to have that in my collection as well.... If it's worth doing, do it right and keep going til the end! If chart history has taught us anything it's that anything can happen.

The original upload of that has been removed due to a copyright claim by the BPI... Here's a reupload:

Well, Joe's song is Simon Cowell's song so there's not much we can do to save Joe from the mix, this would've happened if it was Olly or Stacey winning too. I'm sick of answering the "they're both on Sony!" question, see Tom Morello's answer in the video for the horses' mouth answer. :P And yeah, poor Joe's worked so hard... over the past 4 months singing other people's songs when it's all planned out for him on a weekly TV show with millions and millions watching. Not like those Rage Against The Machine guys who got their careers handed to them on a plate. Oh wait...

Right, I don't post here often but I feel I have to say something here. I'm sick of hearing that this is some sort of Sony-orchestrated campaign, I've never heard such rubbish. I think you're being the cynical one here (in the words of Mr. Cowell). Yes, they are on the Sony label, so what? The song was chosen for the reasons it was (and I'll go over them if you want) regardless of what label the act is signed to. It is the complete antithesis of everything the X Factor stands for, why would Sony risk losing the Xmas number one spot and therefore a tonne of credibility for someone who needs that slot and will doubtless make them a lot more cash in the future than RATM will, and in the process highlighting and giving a voice to the hundreds of thousands of people who clearly detest the X Factor and everything that goes with it? Do you think they like their brand new, fresh off the factory line jewel in their crown being potentially (and hopefully) beaten to the Xmas no. 1 spot he should've been a shoe-in for by a song from 1992 that only peaked at 25 originally and has absolutely nowhere near the mass market appeal that Joe has?

A lot of these though are just singles put onto later albums to sway a few more people to buy it though. Heck, didn't Scooter stick their entire back catalogue on Jumping All Over The World?

I'm guessing that was the biggest profile CD they had left so they probably just wanted to display it so people would see it. But wow did we get a delivery today (no idea if other stores got something similar). CDs we got in that we've been sold out of for ages or didn't get in in the first place: Take That Killers Guns N Roses Girls Aloud N-Dubz Duffy (deluxe ed) Stereophonics Enrique Iglasias Only Men Aloud Mamma Mia Soundtrack Clubland 14 Pop Party 6 Salvation Army R&B Collection and probably some I'm forgetting. Still 10% off the CDs, think most single albums (bar Duffy @ £12.97) were coming in at £10.97, so that works out at £9.87 and the compilations are £14.97 which is £13.47. And we've still got our stock of Britney, Same Difference, Rhydian, Pink, Priests etc. Chances are your local store might not have had a chance to put them into their charts (which are probably non-existent right now), so check at the counter and you could find they've had a similar delivery.

Since I work there I have to say that's a ridiculous thing to say. Of course it's going to be a mess - only last Friday they announced a massive sale and yesterday they started the closing down sale. All stores have been absolutely MOBBED, we've got little money to spend on wages for overtime to spend on people coming in after hours to try and clean everything up, not to mention most staff have to be in on the tills during the day to help serve, bag, whatever. Customers are just leaving things lying absolutely anywhere and everywhere, which helps absolutely nobody. We on entertainment have to try and take off display cases for anything that sells out (which you can imagine is a lot just now). I was working a few hours last night after we closed and the amount of stuff which was just dumped was insane. There light bulbs in the DVDs, napkins next to Guitar Hero etc. We are trying our best, but we're being stretched to the absolute limit here. My store only have one working pricing gun, so we have to write out most prices manually and we've had to go out and actually buy black bags ourselves because we've only got the tiny Woolies bags left. Not to mention this "closing down sale" is clearly just something the administrators have said to get customers in (and it worked nonetheless) since it's only marginally different from the sale that was already ongoing. There was only a couple of departments that went from 20% off to 30% off, that was it as far as I could see.

To clarify, yes the sale is everything has up to 50% off excluding lottery, newspapers and magazines. CDs, DVDs and games are all 10% off and while most of them are sold out or selling out by the minute we are starting to get deliveries back in again. So our branch got a big delivery of albums yesterday morning with plenty of Britney, Rhydian, Pink, Leona etc. Because we were so busy though (and I do mean HEAVING. I was serving all day with 2 other people and saw the end of the queue twice!) we barely had time to set them up properly and I suspect other branches will be the same. So as I say, if you're after something then ask at the entertainment desk if there's someone available, but since money is tight and we're so busy you might find you'll have to just wait in the queue to ask them when you get to the front. The 50% off items are greetings cards, Christmas giftshop and schoolwear.

Well apparently we've got a MASSIVE sale starting tomorrow - there's people in on night shift setting everything up. Not sure what CD's, DVD's etc. will be in it, but even though I'm not working tomorrow I'll be taking a trip up to see if I can get some bargain Christmas presents. And maybe some bargain stuff for myself. :P

See my previous post: if a CD is sold out in that store they'll have taken it off and replaced it with either a sale CD or a chart dropout. The chart is there, and when we start getting CD deliveries in again (hopefully this week or next) then titles will start reappearing where they should be. For example, in my Edinburgh store we only got 2 copies of The Killers' CD and that didn't even last until the end of the first day. In the meantime, if you ask at the counter they'll be able to tell you if they have anything specific you're looking for. :)

Funnily enough, it's an Edinburgh branch that I work at. The CD charts this week in Woolies will look very strange because they've pushed albums they have plenty of stock for to the top (Alesha Dixon, Pink) and the albums they're short on (Killers, GnR etc) have been moved lower down temporarily until we can get a steady replenishment for it, which I hear could be happening sometime this week or next. And there's also a whole load of the sale £5 ones been moved in lower down the chart to make up the numbers, so things like Mika, Take That (Best Of & Beautiful World), Will Young (Keep On), Mark Ronson, Akon and a good few others I'm forgetting will be in our charts now. And if we sell out of something then we have to take it off and infill it with one from a list of sale titles, so if you see something ridiculous at number 2 for example, it doesn't mean we're completely screwed and having to put 2 year old sale albums high up the chart, it just means that store will have sold out of Pink CDs and that one is just to go in its place until they get more in. And deltaofdreams is right, people think we're having some sort of massive closing down sale, which just isn't true at all. Most items are priced pretty much in line with what everyone else is selling them at, and there are many things that are more expensive. But that's because everyone does that this time of year because they know people will pay it. Games-wise things are a bit sparse for the Wii and DS, but my store certainly still has plenty of PS3 and Xbox 360 titles and some of them have had their prices lowered this week in order to remain competitive (at least that what it said on the communication...). The main ones I noticed were Gears Of War 2 (360) for £34.99, Lego Batman (360) for £29.99, Pro Evo 2009 (360) for £29.99, Fallout 3 (360) for £34.99. Can't remember any of the PS3 ones to be honest since I don't have one. :P But chances are we will have items behind the counter that may not be out on the shelf as all chart dropouts haven't been sent back for the past few weeks (for obvious reasons), so if you're after a specific title then just ask at the counter and they'll tell you the price if they have it. You may get a good deal as I know Lego Batman wasn't in our 360 chart this week but has had the price reduced.

Where the heck did you read that? The ones I listed are £5 special deals that were in place before things turned ugly and the large majority of chart CDs are still £10-£12. And you'd be doing well to read it online because the website is offline just now and has been for a couple of days now. But I'm with Dave on this one, the press are completely trying to cause mass panic by completely exaggerating everything. Customers are asking absolutely ridiculous questions and commenting on things they've seen and heard, and even though we're not supposed to be talking to them about it, it's very difficult not to when the press is putting things in people's heads.

If I remember rightly the only chart ones just now are Boyzone, Leon Jackson, Oasis, Only Men Aloud and The Smiths. There's a whole load of CDs not in the chart for £5 though, stuff like One Night Only, Black Kids, Oasis (Stop The Clocks), Cascada and a good few others that escape me just now. But yes, the website and in-store ordering are both offline until further notice. And the 3 for 2 chocs has finished, but I think all the Xmas accessories and gifts are still on it. Although if they are going to be doing a clearance sale then who knows what'll be on that. As mentioned, EUK does turn a profit as it is so there may not be any need to discount CDs etc. but this is obviously a pretty unique situation. I believe as from now you won't see any "out of stock" CDs, DVDs or games on the shelves as we'll be taking them off and filling the gaps with either sale items or recent chart dropouts. Basically anything we can sell.

As I say, I wouldn't want to say too much myself just now from what I know since we're essentially supposed to be "gagged", but EUK will be providing the other retailers they have a contract with as a priority over Woolies since we're part of the same umbrella (Woolworths Group PLC) and any breach of contract there won't result in EUK getting in more hot water. But I'm not even sure what stock EUK will be able to get in as a wholesaler in order to supply anyone with as things stand. 2Entertain is a joint venture between BBC and Woolworths Group PLC who own 60% and 40% respectively. They generally publish all the DVDs of BBC programmes such as Doctor Who etc. They are not in any immediate danger since they're not part of the Woolworths retail arm, but I believe Woolworths Group are trying to sell their 40% share to the BBC in order to help out the retail section. Whether such a deal will happen is another thing though. Camelot have also stopped business with us, so we're not able to sell lottery tickets or scratchcards, which I'm actually kind of chuffed about as the queues were always being held up with people wanting some convoluted, long list of different lottery lucky dips and whatever. So hopefully with that out of the equation just now we'll be able to serve people quicker and hopefully get a bit of income for the company, since this is the most profitable time of year. On the plus side, we have been absolutely 100% assured that any hours that we do work we will be paid for. And yes, Only Men Aloud. I knew that. :P And thanks for the support everyone, hopefully there'll be light at the end of the tunnel. But it would certainly help if everyone popped along to their local branch and did a bit of the old Christmas shopping there. As I say, there's plenty of good stuff to be found, as well as the Same Difference single. :lol:

There's no plans for any substantial price cuts just now as far as I'm aware, but a lot of older stock has been reduced (as normally happens this time of year anyway) such as CD towers, DVD racks, packs of blank CD's, DVD's etc. We've got wooden CD towers for £1 and DVD-R 5 packs for 50p, but obviously not all stores will have older stock. But as of right now the plan is just to get everything out for sale that we can as incoming stock is pretty limited due to it coming from EUK who are in the same situation... So if anyone's hoping for the X Factor winner's single when it's released or any new albums then you may be out of luck. But there's a whole load of pretty new albums going for £5 just now (and were such before all this happened, so it's not the start of all the albums being this price), such as Leon Jackson, Boyzone's new greatest hits, the new Oasis album, the new Smiths greatest hits and one called All Men Allowed (or something like that!). So it's certainly worth a visit to see what you can get on the music side of things, and all the Xmas wrapping and chocolates are 3 for 2 just now (buy 3 and get the cheapest one free).

Hi all, I don't post here but I do check most days for the midweek sales and any general chat that's going on. And yes... I work at Woolies on the entertainment counter. To answer a few questions: CD Singles - we only get the odd few in that are deemed to be "big" releases, eg. Anything X Factor related pretty much at the moment, and are now in the CD Cheap Chart since there's no singles chart. The CD display cases - the reason they're used is to ensure that there's always something on the shelf even if we're sold out of it in-store (generally lots of titles this time of year, so the shelves would be half empty) as we're able to order CD's through the tills in much the same way you'd order off the website. These are generally marked with a purple "sold out, order me" tag. It's also to avoid putting real cases out there, where they'll get damaged, stolen and we'd have to masterbag (take out the CD itself and file it in a slipcase) 1 of each chart title which risks damage to the CD and would take forever. The reason some CD's behind the counter are damaged is they'll either get damaged in transit or (in our store certainly) the drawers are god-awful and are prone to damaging them. We do have replacement cases we can use or we can swap the case with another one, which I always do if I noticed it's damaged. Back catalogue CD's are always masterbagged and because customers tend to treat the cases like c**p on the shelves, they'll inevitably end up damaged too. As for the stock lying everywhere and uncleaned cases... the simple reason is that we're just horribly understaffed due to lack of wage budget. There's no spare time to clean the cases, and they can't afford to have more than a couple of people on outside opening hours to stock the shelves so it has to be done when we're open. Especially at this time of year, the shop takes a right battering throughout the day with customers picking things up and then leaving them on another shelf 2 aisles away, kids picking up and trying out any old toy, and us doing our best to help customers out and keeping things aside for them for when they're able to get in. Again, we try to tidy at the end of the day, but there's generally nobody to do that along with everything else that needs to be done. I'm working this afternoon so we'll hopefully get more information then, but as of yesterday we're still accepting gift vouchers, but are not selling any so you'll get change in cash. Obviously I'd still advise you to use them if you have any. And we've also been warned not to discuss the ongoing situation with customers or anyone else, so that's really all I can say at the moment. But all stores will be open until Christmas we have been told.