Woolworths and the sales charts

[violaine]

Is it true that sales of singles and/or albums at Woolworths don't contribute to the official UK charts?

[SpyWriter]

I would hope that stores like Woolworth & WH Smith don't contribute to the charts because their stock is very limited. They also have their own charts that contain singles or albums in their first week of release (how fixed is that?).

[violaine]

Yeah, it's odd how they can have a new release single in at no 1 when it hasn't even been on sale for 24 hours yet, let alone been an official No 1! It does seem like a bit of a fix, you're right.

[sft42]

Indeed it is......the chart are still compiled using data from selected stores round the country...you can tell if any given store is being used because they will scan your purchase twice...once for the till and another different machine to record it towards the chart position.....In the US it was hugely important to make sure that Wal-Mart would carry any release as they had so much clout with the sales and a very large chunk of the weekly sales would be through their shops......it has changed now and there has been at least one US hot 100 number one which was on airplay alone and never had an offical release.

[jenstar]

Don't listen to these people! Considering how many times I've heard this canard, Woolworths not contributing to the charts must qualify as an urban myth by now! In fact Woolworths is the largest contributor to the singles chart, accounting for something like a fifth of all sales. I think people have the impression that Woolworths don't contribute to the official chart because they display their own made-up chart in store, but their sales ARE counted toward the official chart.

[violaine]

OK sft42 and jenstar, thanks for clarifying that for me. :)