I happened upon the Sun's blurb about the Credit Crunch Calendar 2010,
which you can peruse here:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2694861/Credit-crunch-calendar-is-a-hit.html

and as I paged through the 12 snaps I thought, what is so unusual?
This is Britain normally, isn't it? What has 'credit crunch' to do
with it? Shops have been closing down for years and there are many
complete eyesores in towns and cities across the country.

MM

MM wrote:
> I happened upon the Sun's blurb about the Credit Crunch Calendar 2010,
> which you can peruse here:
>
> http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2694861/Credit-crunch-calendar-is-a-hit.html
>
> and as I paged through the 12 snaps I thought, what is so unusual?
> This is Britain normally, isn't it? What has 'credit crunch' to do
> with it? Shops have been closing down for years and there are many
> complete eyesores in towns and cities across the country.

Whilst shops have indeed been closing down for years - pre-credit-crunch 
they tended to open again fairly soon with another retailer setting up in 
the vacant property. Today town centres have loads of shops just empty and 
unused.  I'm not sure that it's the credit crunch so much as changes in 
purchasing patterns. Other than clothes and groceries, I buy almost 
everything on-line now. It's cheap and it's convenient, and if it's a good 
on-line retailer, your goods usually arrive the next day or soon after.

Kev

Kev

"MM"  wrote in message 
news:mf1ue594hfddaunj9b3qo0pigs4duhbic4@4ax.com...
>I happened upon the Sun's blurb about the Credit Crunch Calendar 2010,
> which you can peruse here:
>
> http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2694861/Credit-crunch-calendar-is-a-hit.html
>
> and as I paged through the 12 snaps I thought, what is so unusual?
> This is Britain normally, isn't it? What has 'credit crunch' to do
> with it? Shops have been closing down for years and there are many
> complete eyesores in towns and cities across the country.


The sad thing is, some eyesores were built that way. The next time you make 
your way up-county to Lincoln, you'll be able to feast your eyes on our 
"60's revival architecture". Over the last few years, Lincoln's planners - 
with the help of members of RIBA (Britain's most under-cursed institute) - 
have been busy blocking out the view of our beautiful Norman cathedral with 
stark, inhuman aberrations such as the ironically titled "School of 
Architecture". See here;

http://theamazingtoad.blogspot.com/2007/04/bad-architecture-part-i.html

Since that blog post, the lunatics running Lincoln's planning asylum have 
built a vast accomodation unit for students, which an East German housing 
committee would be ashamed of, and a block of flats which so closely mirrors 
the worst of Britain's post-war architecture, that one wonders if the 
architects set out with the deliberate intention of being confrontational.

On Mon, 2 Nov 2009 17:01:14 -0000, "Ret." <xxx> wrote:

>MM wrote:
>> I happened upon the Sun's blurb about the Credit Crunch Calendar 2010,
>> which you can peruse here:
>>
>> http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2694861/Credit-crunch-calendar-is-a-hit.html
>>
>> and as I paged through the 12 snaps I thought, what is so unusual?
>> This is Britain normally, isn't it? What has 'credit crunch' to do
>> with it? Shops have been closing down for years and there are many
>> complete eyesores in towns and cities across the country.
>
>Whilst shops have indeed been closing down for years - pre-credit-crunch 
>they tended to open again fairly soon with another retailer setting up in 
>the vacant property. Today town centres have loads of shops just empty and 
>unused.  I'm not sure that it's the credit crunch so much as changes in 
>purchasing patterns. Other than clothes and groceries, I buy almost 
>everything on-line now. It's cheap and it's convenient, and if it's a good 
>on-line retailer, your goods usually arrive the next day or soon after.

It depends. If I want to buy a specific item such as a CD or DVD, then
I just go straight to Amazon. (They now do free super saver delivery
even on the cheapest items.) But the other day I toyed with the idea
of buying a steam cleaner (for the house) and I really would like to
hold various models in my hand and judge what to choose. Same with
clothes. Every week the TV mag has adverts for trousers and other
items that you send away for, but I've never bought anything like that
through mail order or online. I want to at least take the product off
its hangar in the shop and feel how it's made, perhaps try it on.

I actually buy very, very little online when I think about it.
Certainly far, far less than others on the estate, since the delivery
vans from various companies stop in our street practically every day.

MM