Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Tough times for Green Lanes?
There seems to be a managed decline going on Green Lanes over the last few months with shops and restaurants with very few customers or empty shops standing idle.
When we moved here over 10 years ago there were queues outside Gokyuzu and Devran on a weekend. Now Devran has rebranded (again) with weird décor and still is mostly empty.
Umut (butchers) has a sign up saying 'under new management' - didn't it only open less than a year ago.
Costa has closed down - but way too close to the larger outlet in the shopping centre.
A barbers has stood closed with nearly all of the fittings installed opposite to Iceland.
Hanedan has been empty for almost a year.
Bucking the trend are Music and Beans, Dusty Knuckle (can they ever bake enough for the Saturday crowd), 33 Grocery Store, Stamp, and Brouhaha. And of course the Sailsbury.
Couple of musings - How do the shops / restaurants with practically no custom survive? Why is the high street not evolving? Yoga studio, vets, play cafe etc....
I know the high street has it tough but I can't believe there isn't enough demand around here for more.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth M on
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See also perpetually renovating and relaunching retail and restaurant spaces open for business for only weeks.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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You could also sit outside and see how much business they do with Uber Eats etc. I’m sure that some businesses do have a perhaps dubious financial model but like other businesses they are increasingly doing trade online or via home delivery - as the volume of motorbikes zooming up my will street testify.
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Re: How do the shops / restaurants with practically no custom survive?
Never mind them, how do all the jewelry shops with NO customers stay open and make a profit. Every time I pass them, there's no one in there, sometimes including staff. I wonder if they have a sideline to do with detergent?
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Or maybe sell online too like this one at the bottom of Duckett Road?
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Permalink Reply by Christopher Fowler on
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Oh, for goodness sake, it is absolutely obvious that all those no-customers jewellery/gold shops, and a number of other retail businesses, are not genuine businesses, but are money-laundering fronts for local gangs. That has been clear for decades. Of course, the Met Police are doing nothing about it, and won't unless it all gets violent.
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Is it the same for those boutiques and jewellers you walk past on Bond Street that never have a soul in them then? I knew someone who used to work at Garrard and a couple of purchases per day paid the rent and salaries. As I said in my comment above I’m sure some have definite dodgy dealings, but tarring them all with the same brush?
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I take your point. However, there is a big difference between the business model of a jeweller on Bond Street (where because of high mark-ups for a very wealthy clientele, they can stay in business with limited sales) and that of a jeweller on a shopping street in an ordinary part of London, where household income is around the median average for London. Especially in an area where we know there is drug-dealing and other crimes, often linked to big gangs.
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People travel here to use them. Also I would imagine the rents and other overheads in Green Lanes are substantially lower than Bond Street.
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Spot on Michael.
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Also not very culturally aware to assume that significant amounts of gold jewellery isn't bought by the local populace. Carrying some of your wealth and status in gold that you wear is pretty normal in the Middle East and Asia but that doesn't mean going into a shop to buy some every day
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I used to work in the jewellery trade and at trade shows I met some of the local jewellers. They were serious buyers of jewellery. Gold especially is no longer cheap and it doesn’t take many sales a day to make a profit. Turkish and Kurdish people love their jewellery and many goldsmiths traditionally come from Turkey.
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Exactly - shame there is no like button here on HOL as this would have got one.
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