The General Chat Thread (2016-2022)

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Duck59 said:
Back on the subject of high streets, those in Britain's larger towns tend to be somewhat depressing - so many now look almost identical with the same shops and an entirely homogenised appearance. Reuben mentions pedestrian areas, which is very much the case these days, certainly in bigger places.

High streets in the smaller towns and villages tend to have more local shops. Our town is a case in point - only the rather small Co-op is part of a big group. There was, until a few weeks ago, a branch of the giant Ladbrokes bookmakers, but that has now closed down. We did, a few years ago, have two banks in the High Street, but both are now closed. The last one, a TSB, shut last month. They even boarded up their cash machine.

There are some worrying signs. Until recently, we had two bakers' shops in the High Street, but both of them have closed down. A new (and rather expensive) artisan bakery has appeared, though it only opens on two days a week. It's not all bad news - we have an excellent greengrocery and while we have no use for the fishmonger or butcher's shops, I am told they are also very good. We also have Grain & Sustain, a "refill" store where you can bring your own container and fill it up.

Our High Street has a plethora of cafes, hairdressers and barbers for some reason. It's hard to imagine that all of these will survive. What we have seen, though, is that those people who have put in some time and effort (and doubtless money) can do well, so there is some encouragement to be had.
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This is so interesting to read. And how many inhabitants does your town have?

Why would you say both old bakeries closed? Did people bake their own bread more in lockdowns? Or has the unemployment risen and purchase power diminished?

Grain&Sustain is excellent! I support the zero waste,or close to, approach. It is really not an easy thing to achieve.

Fascinating to see the rise of cafes and hairdressers in your town too. My thoughts were it was specific to my city.

But as you say, if they put bread on their and their coworkers' table...let it be I suppose...
 
Timenspace said:
This is so interesting to read. And how many inhabitants does your town have?

Why would you say both old bakeries closed? Did people bake their own bread more in lockdowns? Or has the unemployment risen and purchase power diminished?

Grain&Sustain is excellent! I support the zero waste,or close to, approach. It is really not an easy thing to achieve.

Fascinating to see the rise of cafes and hairdressers in your town too. My thoughts were it was specific to my city.

But as you say, if they put bread on their and their coworkers' table...let it be I suppose...
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The population is about seven to eight thousand. As for the bakeries, one wasn't very good and I was surprised that it lasted for as many years as it did. The other one is part of a local group and they have shops in several towns. I'm not entirely sure what the situation is, but it looks as though this might just be a temporary thing and that they could re-open once we have fewer restrictions. The company is still operating, but their website doesn't make it clear about their shops. Bread from the Co-op is quite decent, though.

The "refill" shop seems popular. We use it and it's very handy for buying things like lentils, rice, cereals, etc. Once you have weighed your container, you put a label with a bar code on it so you only ever need to weigh it the first time you use it. Another nice thing is that the woman who owns and runs it is very knowledgeable about craft beer, so we usually have a good chat with her if she is serving in the shop when we use it.

We used to have a post office in our high street, but that closed down (guess what - it's a cafe now). Happily, one of the local shops (a kind of small discount store that sells a lot of kitchen, bathroom and cleaning stuff with a few other odds and ends) agreed to have a post office counter at their shop. There are quite a few pensioners here and many of them get their pensions in cash, so the post office is important for them.

There is, I'm glad to say, still one newsagent in the town. There used to be three, remarkably. We get our paper delivered every day and go there once a week to pay for the delivery. The girl who delivers our paper is very reliable and we hope she's not going to leave school any time soon! We gave her some money around Christmas time because she was so efficient and she seemed very pleased.
 
caseydog said:
Okay, I just have to ask. Why posts and no rails? :scratchhead:

CD
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You'd have to ask my dad, that was his design. :laugh:

Seriously, my intent for years has been to put long, narrow plant stands between the posts, something to hold window-style planters about waist high, but:

1. I've found that I like being able to get off the deck at various places, and

2. I'm lazy with stuff like that.
 
Duck59 said:
The population is about seven to eight thousand. As for the bakeries, one wasn't very good and I was surprised that it lasted for as many years as it did. The other one is part of a local group and they have shops in several towns. I'm not entirely sure what the situation is, but it looks as though this might just be a temporary thing and that they could re-open once we have fewer restrictions. The company is still operating, but their website doesn't make it clear about their shops. Bread from the Co-op is quite decent, though.

The "refill" shop seems popular. We use it and it's very handy for buying things like lentils, rice, cereals, etc. Once you have weighed your container, you put a label with a bar code on it so you only ever need to weigh it the first time you use it. Another nice thing is that the woman who owns and runs it is very knowledgeable about craft beer, so we usually have a good chat with her if she is serving in the shop when we use it.

We used to have a post office in our high street, but that closed down (guess what - it's a cafe now). Happily, one of the local shops (a kind of small discount store that sells a lot of kitchen, bathroom and cleaning stuff with a few other odds and ends) agreed to have a post office counter at their shop. There are quite a few pensioners here and many of them get their pensions in cash, so the post office is important for them.

There is, I'm glad to say, still one newsagent in the town. There used to be three, remarkably. We get our paper delivered every day and go there once a week to pay for the delivery. The girl who delivers our paper is very reliable and we hope she's not going to leave school any time soon! We gave her some money around Christmas time because she was so efficient and she seemed very pleased.
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How lovely. I imagine anywhere between 5.000 and 30.000 inhabitants is a very pleasantly sized town to live in.

My neighbourhood within the capital has had 11.500 in 2011 by the last census, it might have closer to 15.000 nowadays...the new census is due 2021, perhaps the Govt will postpone it for Covid reasons, or try an online one, sceptical...

For the bad bakery, I feel it was pribably all right to have closed. The owners might try again with elevated quality, I'd like to think.

Bakery chains, yes, those have developed here as well, they are actually pretty good, depending on what you get...but mostly yes. Are you happy with the chain shop?

Co-op is a supermarket? Or am I mistaken...or do you refer to the chain as Co-op?

Oh how wonderful, sounds so well organized too!

I would very much love to have a "refill"shop around me. My knowledge of it has only been through youtube videos/reportages. The lady sounds so nice! Beer knowledge is amazing! Delicate process, I imagine.

My Goodness, is it not odd to have a postal office closed? It is vital! And turned into a coffee shop, they might even market it as 'once a post office"....

The shop owner who agreed to have the postal service should be awarded Citizen of the decade!

Every neighbourhood in my city has a local postal office, luckily, as the main post office is 70 min away( by public transport, i.e.tram there and back plus waiting in the line)...many pensioners pay their bills through the post here...so that helps them...

That is so sweet that you awarded the paper girl!

I am affraid my newspaper reading habits have all gone digital. As my commute takes 4 hours daily (2 in each direction), the time window to browse news is at the train, if I am seated...but I love the rustle of the paper, and those reading wooden frames that were to be found in some cafes...at some point, I think I will go back to paper...
 
TastyReuben said:
Our high street is all tattoo parlors, bail bondsmen, and gun shops! :laugh:
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Really? Like how many tattoo shops? I am not against tattoos ...but a whole street?
Gun shops? Wow...I've heard quite some discussions on how availability does not make guns more dangerous/or has impact on shooting incidents...
Bondsmen I have to google...
 
I think when we moved here 16 years ago, there were three tattoo parlors, two pawn shops, two gun shops, one combo pawn-gun shop, and something like five bail bondsmen, all within a two block radius of each other.

Bail bondsman is the polite name for bounty hunter, and it sure seemed odd when we moved here that a rural Midwestern farming town of about 13,000 people had so many, but there's been a combination of high unemployment and high drug addiction in our area in the last 20 years or so, so a lot of ne'er-do-wells get arrested and skip town, and the bounty hunter gets to go bring them back.

A lot of our high street, like so many places, is shuttered, though. We do have a nice sandwich shop, and an historic old hotel and old turn-of-the-century theatre (fun trivia...actor John Ritter's wife was from here and they were married in the theatre in town), but much of it is either closed up, or it's the type of businesses you see in an economically-depressed town (pawn shops, consignment shops, etc).

I did note one of the tattoo parlors closed a while ago because he's now operating out of a mobile truck, like a food truck.
 
TastyReuben said:
I think when we moved here 16 years ago, there were three tattoo parlors, two pawn shops, two gun shops, one combo pawn-gun shop, and something like five bail bondsmen, all within a two block radius of each other.

Bail bondsman is the polite name for bounty hunter, and it sure seemed odd when we moved here that a rural Midwestern farming town of about 13,000 people had so many, but there's been a combination of high unemployment and high drug addiction in our area in the last 20 years or so, so a lot of ne'er-do-wells get arrested and skip town, and the bounty hunter gets to go bring them back.

A lot of our high street, like so many places, is shuttered, though. We do have a nice sandwich shop, and an historic old hotel and old turn-of-the-century theatre (fun trivia...actor John Ritter's wife was from here and they were married in the theatre in town), but much of it is either closed up, or it's the type of businesses you see in an economically-depressed town (pawn shops, consignment shops, etc).

I did note one of the tattoo parlors closed a while ago because he's now operating out of a mobile truck, like a food truck.
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That is an amazing picture you portray! It is real life. Thank you.
Yes, unemployment and drugs are a bad factor...all over the world...
So the bondsmen have the money to bail the prisoners out? And the prisoners then pay them back?

Mobile truck probably is cheaper for the tattoo guy, right?

Igor has done tattoos earlier as a side job...

Soo many people have lost their jobs...recently, it really is harsh on many families...in particular if they had economic problems even before Covid hit...

Do you see people leaving your town in search for work?
 
Timenspace said:
So the bondsmen have the money to bail the prisoners out? And the prisoners then pay them back?
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Here's a good explanation of bail bondsmen:

Bail bondsman - Wikipedia

Timenspace said:
Do you see people leaving your town in search for work?
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It was bad for a while, right when we moved here. Short history: in something like 2002 or 2004, DHL (package shippers) located a major hub here (we have a former Air Force base outside of town, so huge runways). The town pretty much gave them run of everything, because it was a big catch to have them. New roads were built, etc, but in 2006 or something like that, they upped sticks with no warning, sending the town into a tailspin, with something like 50% unemployment and all that.

It was a huge story for a while. All the national news outlets were here for extended coverage, celebrities came and did things to help out (Racheal Ray - cooking show diva - was here for about a week broadcasting her show nationwide, and donated enough food to the local pantry to last a year, and paid to have our homeless shelter completely renovated top to bottom, so as annoying as she is, I won't say much against her), and there was a lot of publicity around the town. We were on 60 Minutes, for example (major national news program). For about a year, we were the "it" news story and the charity du jour for celebrities.

It was rough for about 10 years, lots of people moved away, and it seemed like every other shop was boarded up. We lost our favorite Chinese place...then our second favorite one...then the hot dog stand that was the kitschy little thing that tipped us to move to this town...then the family-owned homemade ice cream parlor that'd been here for 100 years or more...and the furniture store...and the diner...and the diner that replaced that diner...it was really depressing.

Since then, though, things have gotten better. Amazon moved in where DHL was, so we now can see jumbo cargo planes flying overhead again, they're just Amazon white-and-blue instead of DHL gold-and-red. There's still some shops closed up, but house sales here are pretty strong again. Two houses on our street sold in the last year, and they sold fast and for a premium.

It always goes in cycles, good times and bad times.
 
My wife has a small fortune in quilts. This one was made by my grandmother and given as our wedding gift (hence the pattern, double wedding ring):
59598


These are some Amish ones, bought directly from the makers, either at their houses or at an annual quilt auction held in Gordonville, PA:

59599



59600


59602



And her great-grandmother made this one:
59601
 
TastyReuben said:
Here's a good explanation of bail bondsmen:

Bail bondsman - Wikipedia


It was bad for a while, right when we moved here. Short history: in something like 2002 or 2004, DHL (package shippers) located a major hub here (we have a former Air Force base outside of town, so huge runways). The town pretty much gave them run of everything, because it was a big catch to have them. New roads were built, etc, but in 2006 or something like that, they upped sticks with no warning, sending the town into a tailspin, with something like 50% unemployment and all that.

It was a huge story for a while. All the national news outlets were here for extended coverage, celebrities came and did things to help out (Racheal Ray - cooking show diva - was here for about a week broadcasting her show nationwide, and donated enough food to the local pantry to last a year, and paid to have our homeless shelter completely renovated top to bottom, so as annoying as she is, I won't say much against her), and there was a lot of publicity around the town. We were on 60 Minutes, for example (major national news program). For about a year, we were the "it" news story and the charity du jour for celebrities.

It was rough for about 10 years, lots of people moved away, and it seemed like every other shop was boarded up. We lost our favorite Chinese place...then our second favorite one...then the hot dog stand that was the kitschy little thing that tipped us to move to this town...then the family-owned homemade ice cream parlor that'd been here for 100 years or more...and the furniture store...and the diner...and the diner that replaced that diner...it was really depressing.

Since then, though, things have gotten better. Amazon moved in where DHL was, so we now can see jumbo cargo planes flying overhead again, they're just Amazon white-and-blue instead of DHL gold-and-red. There's still some shops closed up, but house sales here are pretty strong again. Two houses on our street sold in the last year, and they sold fast and for a premium.

It always goes in cycles, good times and bad times.
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Wiki is right , was just to ask sbout Attorneys, but Wiki cleared it all out, thanks! I had previously only translated the term. Kid is cleaning her room, so I am on and off the forum when I am needed to step in😁

Wow! What a history!

Work providers are of crucial importance. I am so so glad Amazon is back in town!

Good use of the runways!!

Real estate blooming, very good indeed!

It is sad when diners close, and a favourite spot like the hot dog stand...oh wow...my impression is many restaurants will not survive here too.
Let us hope new ones will open up and things will lift off and blossom!
 
Well, my search to find a square tablecloth in-person has come to an end. After going to:

Target
Walmart
JC Penney
Kohl's
TJ Maxx
Marshall's
Bed, Bath, And Beyond
Pottery Barn
Williams-Sonoma
At Home
Probably a few I've forgotten

I've come up empty. Amazon it is, I suppose. Sigh...
 
TastyReuben said:
Well, my search to find a square tablecloth in-person has come to an end. After going to:

Target
Walmart
JC Penney
Kohl's
TJ Maxx
Marshall's
Bed, Bath, And Beyond
Pottery Barn
Williams-Sonoma
At Home
Probably a few I've forgotten

I've come up empty. Amazon it is, I suppose. Sigh...
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A partiular dimension that is not usual or?
 
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