Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

@JohnnyShoulder @RogerRoger I think the only cutting going on is the baking powder and cocaine. I expect when it comes to profits they take a little off the top.

@AgentCooper
I was wondering, while wandering through the town, if you lumped together all the barbers, hair salons, beauticians, nail salons etc. would they outnumber all the cafes, takeaways and coffee shops? It really seemed that two out of every three businesses on most of the main roads was in one of those categories

@AgentCooper @sorteddan Vap, betting and card shops seems to be popping up everywhere in the town I live.

I recall this coming up recently as I remember saying this, but there are 4 places where you can get your hair cut in the mini High Street round the corner where I live. 3 of them are all bunched together, with the fourth one taking over a florist that was there a bit further along.

@JohnnyShoulder @sorteddan it’s a sad state of affairs and the proprietors are always sat scrolling on their phones with nary a customer in sight. Rather more egregiously is the proliferation of estate agents, I mean how many do you need? The health and future of the high street is looking pretty bleak.

@AgentCooper @JohnnyShoulder Don’t forget about the coffee shops and café’s too! They’re everywhere!

@KAIRU My town has had two open in the last 6 months, what on earth is going on? One closed also and almost immediately another popped up in its place inventively named “the coffee and chocolate shop”

It’s hardly surprising, is it, when the high street is flooded with industry that the internet can’t compete with. Amazon hasn’t taught its drones how to hold a razor blade and pair of scissors just yet. As for shops closing and reopening, perhaps offering the same services, this can be down to landlords negotiating higher rents. Perhaps one business owner got a great rate during the pandemic, built a business and lifestyle around that rate and couldn’t afford the increase despite there still being a viable business there for somebody else. Of course, sometimes landlords are unrealistic, too, and it takes a vacant unit to bring them back down to earth where they will be more likely to accept an offer.

@kyleforrester87 Where are all the jam shops when we need them?

@JohnnyShoulder you can order jam online you div

@kyleforrester87 The thing is a drone does one parcel at a time where as a man with a van can deliver about hundred parcels of jam a day. So with all the drones buzzing about I'd recommended investing in a crossbow for free jam.

We're really lucky as our high street is mostly independent places which seem to all keep themselves going. A few come and go but they're mostly pretty nice places.

How the town manages to sustain three separate butchers on the same short stretch of road does baffle me slightly though.

It's something I've appreciated so much since moving here though, and even more so now I have a kid, is that it's great to have all of those things plus the supermarket all in walking distance. We live somewhere with loads of amazing outdoor space really close by too so for the most part I only have to use the car to commute to work for the most part.

@Falcon94 This post is Johnny Jam Approved.

@Falcon94 yeah you try eating jam with broken glass in it

@Thrillho do you get a lot of tourists?

@kyleforrester87 How did you know I shop at Lidl?

@Falcon94 just the aura you exude, I guess!

@AgentCooper It’s absolutely bonkers!

@kyleforrester87 It’s not too bad for tourists actually. The high street can get busy in peak summer but it’s easy to avoid and the highest density of people tend to be on the river for boat trips which is far enough away for me not to notice unless I take the dog that way.

The roads around Devon can get pretty bad around summer though and the local beaches almost impossible to use. I think the overflow car park at our nearest one has almost a thousand spaces (the main car park being just over 100).