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?

Makes it even more maddening

do they have to pay rent on shops though

The The dodgy shops within about 100 metres from where I live have all acquired very expensive soft serve ice cream machines within weeks of each other. These retail at approximately £5k before vat

I only buy quality fuel as supermarket stuff is crap and buggers up your engine.

That has been proven to be a complete fallacy by motoring show - tested. It's fine.

There's a colonic irrigation clinic that's "opened" in my local town. Also permanently shuttered. So suspicious.

Why report them? It's not like the shops are invisible to the police.

Agree. They used to be part of the community, knew everyone, everyone knew them and like a family friend 😌

I live in a small ish Northern suburb, 20 years ago our high street had 2 independent bakeries, a toy shop, shoe shop, clothes shop, green grocers, proper newsagents and now we have 2 express nail shops, 2 tanning shops, 4 Turkish barbers and 3 vape shops!!
Thankfully one bakery remains for my fat arse...

If councils could just take actions against the shit neon signage, it would be a start. Not only do we have to have money laundering rubbed in our faces, but it comes with a generous serving of visual pollution.

Bob Shops - underage vapes anyone? Turkish Barbers and Fried Chicken shops.

Acocks Green anyone?

The police (and HMRC, councils etc) only act these days when there've been enough complaints/reports, sufficient to reach towards the top of their statistics.

Individual police constables, council officials, HMRC tax inspectors, etc aren't proactive anymore, and havn't been for 2 or 3 decades at least. They only work with what the "higher ups" tell them to do. They're quite happy to ignore most things they see themselves.

It isn't a fallacy. They all use varying amounts of recycled oil,lubricant etc. My car didn't perform well on Sainsbury's petrol and I was having to fill it up more often.

Yep - it is a fallacy. Just sayin' - it's plain old petrol that has to adhere to British Safety Standards.

unless of course you have a very fancy car with a delicately balanced engine, in which case I guess it could make a difference.

I've got a 13 year old Skoda so perhaps my car isn't posh enough to notice 😆

My car was newish, it wasn't doing many miles to the gallon. When I took it for its annual service the mechanic I mentioned this and he said that most cheaper fuel has a higher percentage of recycled oils and less efficient detergents and lubricant. My current car I'd 14 years old and diesel, I stick to BP now no issues

We’ve got a local ‘minimart’ selling fuck all really, just appears to be American sweets and a few soft drinks. I think there’s fake tobacco under the counter. I never see anyone in there. It’s on the same parade as a Morrison local and a coop. If you actually want anything you walk past them to go to the coop or Morrisons.

lots of Turkish barbers in our town. I wish they’d stop barbering and open some nice Turkish restaurants instead. There’s one in our town but it’s expensive, it could do with some competition to make it cheaper

There are three of these just on my local high street (west mids) Open 24hrs, huge stacks of water outside, never seen a customer in any of them. We also have several fast food places which have had re fits and new signage, open for a week or two and then never open again. I can't understand why the council continues to allow these places to operate. Money I suppose.

Oh the Bob Shops with their beach balls and amusement arcade type lighting!
I’m also South Birmingham, most of our local grocery type shops have gone, but there are plenty of Turkish Barbers, vape shops and chicken shops

Same here in Wolverhampton. They get busted from time to time. One got busted and find £102 K. It never closed, reckon they're run by people smugglers.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0mx99ple17o

On the BBC news at the moment, very frustrating how dishonest they are

These shops are affecting our high street, scewing rents and often, sadly make our high streets look really scruffy and tacky. We all need to be legal and pay our taxes too.

However, I feel for the genuine business owners who may appear to be from elsewhere in the world, working long hours, serving a community, who will be tied with the same assumptions as the investigation above found. Adds to more division.

I suppose a first step is to stop giving custom to shops where sales are cash only.

And customs/councils/HMRC/Companies House must crack down. ( which, if course requires tax spending).

@ThatistheWayItIs

And customs/councils/HMRC/Companies House must crack down. ( which, if course requires tax spending).

Or they could be more intelligent in what they do. I'm an accountant and just dealt with a prolonged enquiry into the tax affairs of one of my clients. It's taken a couple of years of them asking probing questions, wanting to see all the records, etc. The tax they found undeclared and due - zilch, nada, nothing! Yet it cost the client thousands in tax specialist fees to defend themselves, even though they are now proven to have done nothing wrong. The moronic tax inspector even started wanting to see supporting paperwork for stupidly small expense amounts, such as a fiver for a car wash, or a £1.12 transfer in to the business account from a long forgotten savings account last used around a decade ago! They were relentless.

Yet why not put those resources into blatantly obvious black economy, modern slavery, selling illegal goods, and probably drug dealing money laundering??

We've just had the local police and crime commissioner on our local radio. A couple of callers mentioned the clearly dodgy Turkish Barbers, ethnic convenience stores, etc. He just batted them away saying they were difficult to deal with and even if they closed on, the people behind them just opened a new one on the same street! OK then, so because it's "hard", they can't be bothered!

All the euro shops by me take card payments .
Lots of genuine corner shops,Eastern European bakeries ,ethnic grocers etc no longer trading as rents have gone through the roof.