Are corner shops and convenience stores the new Turkish Barbers?

[tighterthanaducksarse]

I've noticed over the past say 15 tears that corner shops are no longer the community hubs they once were. Often run by people of South Asian descent and were usually well stocked with food items and incidentals like fuses and sewing needles etc, you get my drift.
About 90% of the local convenience stores closed,citing ridiculous rises in rents, like more than doubled so we're no longer financially viable.
But...they've been replaced with new tenants,fitted out with high end interiors, neon lighting 24/7,open all hours. They only seem to stock pop and crisps plus fancy air fresheners. They don't stock alcohol, tobacco( only under the counter stuff) I seldom see anyone in them.
I'm in the West Midlands. Anyone else in the uk noticed this trend?

We've just got a new "hardware" shop opened. Mediocre stock, shite service, SW London. Very expensive rent.

Thanks for the links..off to report several shops now!

We are overrun with vape shops, convenience stores and “aesthetics “ salons…in supposedly a naice town

Nail bars and Turkish barbers here! Not really a place for many corner shops although there are a couple my teens used to love as they served underage!

Nothing here.

My home town, last time I visited, customs &excise, border force and police visiting shops and taking people away.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3677xzk56no
I know Shrewsbury quite well and I'd say that the situation in my hone town has a much bigger problem with money laundering shops. As mentioned in this article, money laundering isn't a victimless crime.

Where is this?

I live off rookery rd its full.of barbers Turkish shops nothing else

There was a shop opposite rookery road dentist was done for fake baccy clothes u name it lara on rookery rd open 24 hour sells designer clothes bags hidden. In the coke machine lol

It's like soho rd how many saree shops do we need

We've had a 3d baby scan type place open near us. I pass there regularly on the way to work at varying times and have never seen it open in 3 months. So suspicious!

Predominantly Asion population in the part of Birmingham. We have dozens of sari shops in Wolverhampton although not nearly as many as sat 20 years ago

That's insane, those places are very profitable,

North Yorkshire market town and a larger North East town.

We've got it all where I live..Vape shops, mobile phone shops, convenience shops, Turkish barbers, several American sweets hoops. All occupying prime town centre positions.

Aside from that, in the not so prime spots, we do have some busy, excellent, proper Asian food shops where we buy spices and coconut milk and flat breads made in front of you. And some post office/convenient shops run by Indian families where you can drop off parcels at any time and buy very size battery you might need.

It's so obvious to the public which shops are a front for criminal gangs. Recently I saw jobs advertised with HMRC which were intelligence type trading standard roles. I'm hoping they are recruiting to come down hard on these types of places.

I live in what is a predominantly Asiam community and I love been able to but spices etc at a fraction of the cost of supermarkets. We also have West Indian, African and middle Eastern shops. These fake convenience stores don't even try to blend in or stock anything you would want to but. The Roma use them for pop,crisps and dodgy fags but it hardy amounts to a decent income.

A new open 24 hrs shop selling crisps, prime, vapes, cans of pop etc opened on our high street last year.
I can see no way at all that it can make a legitimate profit with how high the high street rents are, the cost of 24 hour staff and the low footfall. There is a Sainsbury's local open until 10 opposite and less than 5 minute walk to an Asda garage open until 11.
I'll be interested to look at the links and suggestions above.

https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-samsung-ss&sca_esv=05f7f9216b2ed83f&sxsrf=AE3TifNwAIG_azI8A-eaK52JEKakTLIw4g%3A1752500928275&kgmid=%2Fg%2F11y8g2p8ft&q=U%20Shop&shndl=30&shem=lccpsc%2Clstuoe3%2Csdl1p&source=sh%2Fx%2Floc%2Fact%2Fm4%2F2#ebo=0
Like this? It's actually a units wide and there is a shop one opposite sides that is just used for storage, te s of thousands of bottles of water

We have more barber shops in our local market town than you can shake a stick out - SE

Several Turkish barbers too where I am - i was with a male friend about 30yo and we walked into the doorway together for him to ask about booking and 2 big men in leather jackets and came out of the door at the back of the shop and looked at us as soon as we entered. We obviously looked harmless (I was about 50 and friend def not an alpha male) so they just disappeared again. It was very odd.

Our local high street is completely over run with dodgy enterprises!
6 Turkish barbers, 5 dodgy mini supermarkets of various sizes & so many beautician/nail bars. A few are busy some literally have 1 customer a day. The rents are high so most of them don’t add up.
What use to be a really good busy restaurant, got taken over by what looked liked the mafia. No customer for months just dodgy men huddled together drinking coffee. It’s been closed for 9 months since it got raided and a lot of drugs were seized.

Im in the south.
It makes it a pretty grim place to go shopping now.

Please expand on this! I've googled all 3 terms and no luck other than one article about illegal vapes being found in a shop.
I presume they are a front for dealers and organised crime.

Convenience stores and organised crime:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3677xzk56no.amp

Nope, in the midlands and not seen any of those. We have a couple of corner shops near us but they all sell alcohol, scratch cards, sweets and tobacco (and not much else of any use)

Boss man shops is making me laugh. Aaarightt boss.