The Pawn Industry.

It isn't a spelling mistake when you read the title and I am not going to talk about the other industry beginning with a P. A boom business in the UK the Pawn Industry has led to an influx of Money Shops and Pawnbrokers Shops on our high streets.

To me this highlights one thing in particular and that is that the bad times in recession are still not over. Popping up all over the place are Money Lenders who operate services such as Cheque Cashing along with Payday Loans.

The industry is having a bumper time as people struggle along on low wages, some having not had a pay increase for a number of years. Rising fuel prices, not to mention food prices as in a previous article of mine, we all search out the bargains in shops not wanting to spend a penny more than we feel we have to.

They will boom at this time of year as Christmas looms ever faster and people with very little cash in reserve look to offload their unwanted items and jewellery realising their cash value.

Money Shops at the time of writing have over 500 stores in the UK. There are multiple shops in some towns and cities and if you go out and about in Peterborough or out and about in Leeds you will find at least 3 stores within a very small radius. They are also usually situated close to areas of deprivation it would seem, as well as been in City centres and busy high streets.

This has got to be a business for all climates. A recession proof business if ever I saw one.

Now, you may think that this article is no more than an advert for The Money Shop, but I can assure you it isn't. It was as a result of me taking a walk around Peterborough City centre today that I realised that so many of these shops were cropping up and there were three that I knew of locally.

Whilst I know the recession has had a detrimental effect on our high streets and a walk in a town centre in the UK will prove this with the number of empty shop units where stores have gone out of business and have been forced to close their doors. Pawn Brokers shops are cashing in, in more ways than one on the situation. Obviously they are providing a necessary service as there is a demand for the services they provide but I can't help thinking that they are exploiting the situation and will no doubt have a tendency at times to rip unsuspecting people off.

As can be seen from the photographs above there are a many people who share my views that it is just possible that vulnerable people in our society are more at risk of being ripped off legally.

It seems that there is a general consensus of opinion that numbers of these shops should be regulated.

It is the fact that they charge such high interest on products like payday loans and can often be in the region of 1000% in some cases. Are they a rip off, or is it just me ?

Whilst it looks like I have singled out the company in this article I would like to point out that there are other high street loan shops available and a quick Google of 'money shops' will show you what I mean.

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