American Candy Shops

GinAg (39)

GinAg (39)

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Is anyone else getting SICK of these GARISH SHIT HOLES, popping up EVERYWHERE?

There's at least half a dozen locally and I was quite shocked by the amount in the West End (not that shocked, that part of London was always QUITE TRASHY).

They seem to specialise in hideously coloured sugary confectionery, throwaway vapes and lowest common denominationer cultural phenomenon Prime.

I'm sure I read somewhere they're a front for something mildly sinister.

I know they're not FOR ME, but I say this with HATE - FUCK OFF.

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Yeah it's happening here as well although it has a different name. They're so BRIGHT and COLORFUL.
 
It's blatant money laundering. Hasn't it been said somewhere semi- officially?

Round here it's coffee shops. So many run by SHADY EASTERN EUROPEANS that seem to do NO BUSINESS but survive somehow.
 
All the recent raids of those places just identified counterfeit items, didn’t they? I’m sure they’re a front for money laundering because I e never see anyone actually in them.

I’m always confused how they get continuously granted a lease on these commercial spaces? Surely the local councils or the freeholders have a right to refuse?

In my local area it’s BUBBLE TEA shops where no one ever goes in them, but four of them have popped up on my High Street in a matter of months.
 
In my childhood there was one in the local shopping centre which sold genuine imported items, pre-internet shopping, and it was an incredibly overpriced novelty (no, my parents wouldn't let me go :disco:). Not for me, but it was a cool anomaly in the shopping centre and as far as I know, all legit and interesting stuff. It wasn't JUST american candy either.

These are a whole 'nother thing though aren't they? Cheap, mass produced tat - and like you've all just said a definite money laundering front.
 
Oh they are TERRIBLE. My son seems to have grown out of the disgusting PRIME trend, and also the American candy shop trend THANK GOD. They have been around here for quite some time and I remember him coming home with a bag of Jolly Ranchers a few years back and confessing he paid £15 for the privilege. Who spends £15 on Jolly Ranchers? :goodgrief:
 
I’ve never felt more patriotic than when I saw that display of all the different flavors of Oreos, poptarts, and pringles
 
Tisch said:
In my childhood there was one in the local shopping centre which sold genuine imported items, pre-internet shopping, and it was an incredibly overpriced novelty (no, my parents wouldn't let me go :disco:). Not for me, but it was a cool anomaly in the shopping centre and as far as I know, all legit and interesting stuff. It wasn't JUST american candy either.

These are a whole 'nother thing though aren't they? Cheap, mass produced tat - and like you've all just said a definite money laundering front.
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There's been American candy stuff here and there for years, which wasn't a problem. As you a novelty.

No-one seems to go in them!
 
Those and bubble teas are aimed at teens who do unfortunately go in and pay £5 for a can of prime, or £7 for a bar of Hershey’s. Well they certainly do around here.
 
The fact that the pointless and crap M&Ms store (three storeys I think!) in Leicester Square always has a massive queue outside but they haven’t even bothered to stock the US only pretzel and peanut butter ranges is ridiculous.

It’s an official store and tourists want to go in there to buy cuddly toys, pencil cases and bags themed based on a non-British and quite medium quality chocolate - WHY?
 
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Westminster Council were putting out press releases about CRACKING DOWN on candy shops recently so maybe they'll turn a corner.

Can't wait for them to be replaced with VAPE SHOPS :disco:
 
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Money laundering fronts, often cash only and with items incredibly marked-up (usually to prey on tourists).

WC seems determined to drove them out on Oxford Street.
 
I think a lot of it is to do with the business rates system, rather than money laundering. Landlords have a perverse incentive to make sure their properties aren’t left long-term empty, and once occupied, the liability falls on the ultimate occupier (whomever they are) and never the landlord or any intermediate sublessors. The local authority is left with the problem of working out who is liable.
 
I wonder if Pumpkin is a similar scam
 
It's also happening here :D There's one a few blocks away from my place :disco: I think I've only ever bought a box of chocolate Lucky Charms and that was it.
 
We have the KINGDOM OF SWEETS which sells overpriced American tat and confectionery. The local news rag did a HARD HITTING "how much can you buy for £10" EXPOSÉ and this was the result:


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Pipo said:
Prime does wonders for a hangover but the fuck am I going to pay 5 bucks for sugary water
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My 17 year old son would surely know nothing about that when he got me to spend a small fortune on gym equipment a year ago so he could get fit for his football aspirations but then only used the equipment a handful of times and burnt out his X Box. SURELY!
 
I, however could have been doing with that little nugget of information on Sunday when I was like DEATH WARMED UP.
 
Although it took me 5 hours to summon up the strength to walk 2 minutes to the shop on Sunday to bu a lucozade.
 
Lucille said:
Although it took me 5 hours to summon up the strength to walk 2 minutes to the shop on Sunday to bu a lucozade.
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I don’t think they are as hard to come by now since they started stocking it in more shops. One of Diarmuids friends worked in the local Spar and used to fill them in on when they would be coming in to the shop then the novelty soon ran out.
 
I love an ORIGINAL RECIPE IRN-BRU for a hangover. Nothing hits the spot quite like it.
 
Sheena said:
Round here it's coffee shops. So many run by SHADY EASTERN EUROPEANS that seem to do NO BUSINESS but survive somehow.
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I suspect it's barbers around here. I'm sure part of the reason it seems there are so many is because practically every other type of shop has little high street presence at all any more, but I don't understand why they seem to have proliferated, when the majority only seem to be busy one day a week.

And like coffee shops, they are the kind of places where nobody really pays much attention if people are hanging around for hours.
 
We have loads of Turkish barbers too. Most of them empty for most of the day. Mine pre-dated most the others and remains astonishingly popular. I've waited two hours before and have rarely cheated on them. Although they do offer a spiffing service.

Anyway yes they've surely reached saturation point. I suspect nail bars have reached a peak here.

We have a lot of coffee shops too, but they all seem well used and the only Eastern European run one I'm aware of is a really charming one, done up like a Victorian living room.
 
There’s a barbers here that blatantly runs drugs. Lots of people seem to go to a back room for an appointment and appear 5 minutes later with nothing different. :D
 
There are loads of “bakeries” that are a front for drugs. One of my friends used to live by one that mostly sold what looked like pre-made cakes from Costco, and oddly had booming business from delivery drivers lining up outside on Friday and Saturday nights. All of the staff were young men in their 20s.
 
There's something about the Cake Box chain which doesn't strike me as quite right
 
lolly said:
There's something about the Cake Box chain which doesn't strike me as quite right
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Is that the weird one that sells egg free cakes but nothing vegan?

(I checked- it is)

JUST FUCKING WEIRD. We have one in a really odd area and I’ve never seen a single person in it. I presumed it did well catering or something.
 
I guess the fact that it is a big chain means it's less likely to be a front though, doesn't it? I tend to associate that more with little scruffy places than a bright sparkling national chain.

It's the fact that the shops ARE so bright, sparkling (in a garish kind of Stepford Wives way) which seems odd though - and never mind ALWAYS EMPTY which seems really strange. Where did this demand for egg free cakes suddenly come from? And particularly like you say, when they aren't vegan, so that demographic won't be interested.

And if it was just from catering, why do they need retail shops? Although similarly here, their locations are odd and probably relatively cheap in terms of rent.
 
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