TAVISTOCK'S edge-of-town supermarket has been blamed for the demise of the town's only specialist record shop.

And Roger Dobson, owner of Red Planet Records, says the closure of his shop will have repercussions for other businesses in the town.

'There are not enough people in Tavistock buying CDs, or buying them from here anyway,' he said. 'Woolworth has always been there, but Safeway has hit us hard. They sell the top 20 records, which are our bread and butter, but to shoppers in Safeway it's just another item in the basket.'

Red Planet was set up in Market Street three years ago, but moved to its current position in Paddon's Row last year to cut overheads and to be closer to the town centre in the hope of attracting more passing custom.

Mr Dobson said he was expecting an upturn in the market having been in business for that initial three-year period, which he said was a time when a new business would be consolidating, but it never happened.

Now with the closure of his shop, his small band of loyal customers will probably be heading to Plymouth for their records.

'People are not going to be able to get their hip and trendy discs, nor their jazz and classical, anywhere else in Tavistock, they are going to have to go to Plymouth. And people going to Plymouth to buy a CD may well do their other shopping there as well — that is less money to be spent in Tavistock and those are fairly serious consequences for the town.'

Mr Dobson did not think the Internet had hit his sales yet, since once customers had added VAT, postage and packing to the Internet prices, there was little difference to shop prices.

But he admitted they may have underestimated Woolworth.

'Perhaps we were naïve and Woolies are better than we gave them credit for,' he said.

Mr Dobson is planning to set up business in Torquay as part of a chain of shops to help get regular prices down.

'But I don't think there's enough trade here in Tavistock even for that,' he said.

Mr Dobson said he may try to set up a mail-order business with a regular delivery back to Tavistock.

The sale is expected to continue for the next three weeks.