Abingdon Town Centre shops have had a spate of broken windows over the last few weeks. The vandalism looks random but keeps happening. Each time it is a big cost to businesses even after insurance.
Work has also begun renovating the charity shop in Bath Street destroyed by fire a couple of years ago.
The first closure at the Fairacres retail park happened two or three weeks back. AHF closed in preparation for the creation of more modern sales units.
Vineys will close in four days time on Sunday.
The Homebase closing down sale started over three months ago. Reductions are currently 30% off everything, and up to 70% off some things. The garden centre is now nearly empty
There is 60% off tinsel, baubels, inflatable Father Christmas’ and other things for Christmas.
Homebase and Topps Tiles will both close in August. Topps Tiles are moving to Unit 2 Colwell Drive.
In April 2019 Ladbrokes announced they were closing up to 1,000 branches as new gambling laws came into operation, limiting the amount customers can place on gambling machines with fixed-odds to £2 down from £100. Ladbrokes have now consolidated their Abingdon business by closing the Stert Street branch, and directed customers to the Bath Street branch.
The government policy on gambling machines was intended to help people with gambling addictions. Online gambling addiction is more difficult.
Michael sent me a picture of The Magic Wok now there is a brand new sign. He mentioned some time back that they needed to replace the older faded sign with something new.
The name Magic Wok can be found on a lots of Chinese Restaurants worldwide but I don’t know its origin.
There was once a TV show called The Magic Wok, and a recipe book based on the show. The magic could be how versatile the wok is for cooking stir fries. Woks are recent imports to the UK.
Or perhaps there is a Fairy Story about a a young lady whose Mother’s restaurant is failing and about how she is given an old wok for being kind. Then one day the Prince comes to dine at the restaurant. On that day they need all their usual woks, and even use that old wok to cook the stir fried rice. Tasting the stir fried rice the Prince is enchanted. He marries the young lady and they live happily until the day she looses the old wok.