Things have deteriorated in the UK massively over the past week or two. Zavvi formerly Virgin Megastore has been placed into administration with the possible loss of 3,400 jobs. This is partially because of it’s main supplier Entertainment UK owned by Woolworths being placed into Administration a couple of weeks previous. To add to that; yesterday one of the Britain’s oldest brands; Waterford Wedgewood has also gone into Administration. Waterford Wedgewood, which owns the brand name Royal Doulton goes into administration after more than 250 years of operation with the possible loss of 1,900 UK jobs and another 5,800 outside of the UK if a buyer can not be found in a reasonable timescale. Today it has also been announced that Marks & Spencer are to cut 1,000 jobs across the company. I could understand if it was small firms that have gone under but the casualties have been very old and/or huge chain stores. Which just shows how serious the depression really is for the whole world right now. The only upside is that if you are in the market for buying a house then now maybe the time to buy as house prices have dropped almost 16% across the UK in the last year. But no-one has any money to spare and getting a mortgage is nigh on impossible with deposit figures of 40% being mentioned! Woolworths have closed the doors for the final time on the remaining 200 stores that remained open over the festive period. Although it’s wasn’t a very festive time for 27,000 employees that find themselves without a job! It’s scary to think that a brand like Woolworths could fail, I remember buying my first ever CD from Woolies, as I did my first DVD and fondly remember wandering around the store drooling over toys that my mother couldn’t afford when I was young and of course the legendary pick n’ mix sweet selection that I often raided while shopping!