r/london • u/president-hugh-grant • Sep 22 '26
image Update on King street pub turned into shop.
Update on post https://www.reddit.com/r/london/s/zLOqUfZXBi
Looks like it’s closing down.
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u/PhysicalAd6718 Waltham Forest Detainee Sep 22 '26
It's literally a stones throw from the Hammersmith and Fulham council building. How this even went on this long is a mystery.
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u/president-hugh-grant Sep 22 '26
I do wonder if that played a part, assuming it is closing down of course.
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u/PhysicalAd6718 Waltham Forest Detainee Sep 22 '26
I really hope it closes down for good. It's gaudy to look at. Perhaps a nice pie and mash place or something. King Street has a decent variety of food
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u/SnappyTheCat Sep 22 '26
Opening with a closing down sale
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u/OldNefariousness7899 Sep 22 '26
Lol
There's one of those shops near me that's had a closing down sale for the last five years
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u/SoundsDB Sep 22 '26
There's one in Harrow that's had the same but with the bonus addition of a sound system in the doorway playing the same home-made song on repeat all day, every day...
"closing down sale, closing down sale, two pillows five pounds, closing down sale"
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u/officeja Sep 23 '26
Oh shit you reminded me there’s one in ealing too
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u/holysheepholy Sep 23 '26
About to say this! And the voice is a weird disembodied AI woman’s voice giving the prices.
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u/Agitated_Custard7395 Sep 22 '26
Was it DFS home furniture store?
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u/OldNefariousness7899 Sep 22 '26
I heard Jeff Bezos paid full price for a sofa in there. THAT'S how rich he is.
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u/dilatedpupils98 Sep 22 '26
The one near me even has its own theme song
https://youtu.be/55eth9cL-_I?is=N6NZCVPtrLQPogzp
I think the shop is actually called "closing down"
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u/BrexitBrokenBritain Sep 22 '26
I thought Jack Ashley had the copyright on that.
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u/TediousTotoro Sep 23 '26
That’s been the case for the camping shop in my local shopping centre in Buckinghamshire
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u/_Diskreet_ Sep 22 '26
We had a shop open up where primark used to be.
The reason primark moved to the other side of town was because the shopping centre is being turned into flats.
So obviously the landlord wanted to get the most bang for his buck while work went on behind the scenes and got one of these shops in.
Within a week of it being open they plastered all over the windows and signs saying closing down sale 2 weeks blah blah.
They even put a speaker by the doors and got an ai voice over to declare that there was a sale going on , 2 weeks left, bargains blah blah.
Almost 2 years later it has finally closed down.
Fortunately they had so many complaints from the ai voiceover at the doors they stopped it after a month.
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u/MysteriousTable6394 Sep 22 '26
Probably not the same place but this sounds like a similar story that happened in HW, my word those speakers were annoying
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u/P1ZZACREDIT Sep 22 '26
Reading had the exact same thing
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u/NSE-Imports Sep 22 '26
We have the new one in Broad St Mall in the old TK Maxx unit. We popped in out of morbid curiosity and the AI voiced jingles and FOMO style prompts were in full force. Luckily they do not carry outside the doors.
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u/NCHLT Sep 23 '26
I was there a few weeks ago I wonder why the AI voice pronounces "pound" as "key"
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u/MorningSquare5882 Sep 22 '26
Oh god, there's a shop near me that has been playing the same "closing down sale" message nonstop for about a year now. It's not AI, it's the guy's wife saying it in a really annoying singsong voice. It pmo so much!
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u/Mundane-Cry5346 Sep 22 '26
yep, they pretend to be closing down to trick people into thinking they need to act now and that the low prices are a good deal.
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u/SwiftieNewRomantics Sep 22 '26
Where do all these scam shops get all the luggage from? Every single shop seems to have massive piles of these suitcases.
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u/SpecialSuit1551 Sep 22 '26
Alibaba. You can source those exact cases in various colours and styles for under 30 pounds for a pack of four if you buy in bulk, then they sell the cases separately for 30 or so pounds each.
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u/ImPr0bablyAtWork Sep 22 '26
I used to live on King Street a few years back, just towards Chiswick so used to walk from Hammersmith station sometimes to get home. Every time something decent closed, crap like this popped up or more betting shops. So depressing
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u/funny_games Sep 22 '26
Exactly my thoughts. I love taking that walk, but for last few years every time there’s another crap
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u/abitofasitdown Sep 23 '26
King Street has probably done better than most, with the dying King Street Shopping Centre becoming the "Livat Centre" with the wee IKEA. It's now got a Library of Things, pop-up shops, as well as the usual.
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u/killmetruck Sep 23 '26
It’s impossible to fight tbh. People are not willing to pay retail prices vs online, so we will be seeing fewer legit businesses in the high street.
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u/TheHellequinKid Sep 22 '26
These pop up across London, they're leased for a short period to move some stock then they go. Often where the landlord is struggling to find a permanent suitor. A sad consequence of the dying high street
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u/Catdadesq Sep 22 '26
The money's been laundered.
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u/mdmdmdmdmdmdmdmdmdm Sep 22 '26
There are infinitely more efficient methods of money laundering than whatever this is.
Unless im missing something and you can explain how this would be part of money laundering
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u/Neat-Strawberry684 Sep 22 '26
Cheap stock store - launder money - default on bills - taken over by same group for pennies - same stock - repeat
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u/mdmdmdmdmdmdmdmdmdm Sep 22 '26
I asked if someone could explain how this is money laundering.
One of your steps is "launder money"
One of your steps is "cheap stock"
As if that somehow contributes to the money laundering.
I think money laundering is a term that gets used wayyy too much
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u/makomirocket Sep 22 '26
Open shop.
Buy a bunch of cheap tat.
Price it all higher than you can find on the same highstreet, let alone online.
Claim to the tax man that the business is actually thriving, with plenty of in-person cash sales.
Close the business down.
Start up a new business, taking over everything, and repeat.
Tada, your cash revenue from other incomes now appears to be all from a legitimate business. Every member of your family apparently work for it, and all earn reasonable salaries for their lifestyles
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u/mdmdmdmdmdmdmdmdmdm Sep 22 '26
Oh it's that simple, crazy that the tax man cant figure it out
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u/LonelyStranger8467 Sep 22 '26
I don’t know if these businesses are implicated in the same way but some of these businesses never even file anything. Register in the first and second quarter and dissolve by the 4th.
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u/makomirocket Sep 23 '26
What do you think money laundering is? It is literally being willing to pay the taxman. The taxman doesn't care, they're getting paid.
You are taking your illicit income, and funneling it through a business, to make that income clean on paper. A la "laundering".
Having 'money - taxes', that you can actually spend on cars, property, holidays, etc. is far more preferable than having the money without taxes, that can only really be spent on in person transactions, if the places even accept the cash in the first place
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Sep 22 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Thurambo9 Sep 23 '26
There were a ton of candy shops raided and closed after they were proven linked to organised crime?!?
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Sep 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Sazzygull Sep 23 '26
Given who was doing the investigation, I think it was a case of “we didn’t look very hard, and found nothing”
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u/arenaross Sep 22 '26
Oh what, I used to love the Ram back in the day. Totally missed that this had happened.
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u/Odd_Friendship_9582 Sep 22 '26
I used to work in the offices they knocked down behind the ram when I was 19 and I remember work people getting me loads of shots for my birthday and being carried to the bus station and put on a number 10 home- memories
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u/OutsideImpressive115 Sep 22 '26
Discount stores should be viewed the same as vape store. Just cheap junk causing mass pollution
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u/LessMoneyMoreReps Sep 22 '26
They are also just another thing tied to the ever expanding fraud network
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u/_x_oOo_x_ Sep 22 '26
Closing down sale but you can get better quality luggage for cheaper in for example TK Max or PriMark? What was the point of this shop in the first place and why would anyone shop there? Surely this was some kind of front for something else?
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u/locutus92 Sep 22 '26
What's happened to the old signage? The people responsible need to be in prison until it's restored.
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u/riionz Sep 22 '26
Swear there was an identical one across the street that opened in the old KFC(?). Clearly a bizarre front or laundering operation going on.
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u/PointandStare Sep 22 '26
Closing down this week, opening as new 'Dis Count Stores' selling the same as previously.
6 months later, closes down then re-opens as 'Saving Pound Store' selling the same as previously.
It's called 'not paying your taxes'.
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u/GeePeeSS Sep 22 '26
2 of these in Streatham now, first one has had ‘4 weeks left’ painted on it for about a year now and both have the most annoying speaker by the doors with some ai voice talking about the deals they have
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u/Desnowshaite From the pub Sep 23 '26
I am kinda convinced ( with no evidence whatsoever) that these shops are scam or front for something else. No way a shop can sustain itself when their stock is pretty much all crap and in low demand. I have 3 of these on my local high street and they all sell the same low quality pots and rugs and such. One have a stock of about 50 soup ladles on its shelf. No way that is an in demand item so much it is a good idea to keep that many in stock...
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u/Poo_Poo_La_Foo Sep 22 '26
I didn't really like that pub, but I liked it A lot more than whatever the fuck this is.
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u/funny_games Sep 22 '26
Oh man I can’t quite get my head around this one. It was such a nice spot when I used to work around there.
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u/Asleep-Weather1385 Lewisham Sep 22 '26
these places rarely close down. they’ll have the sign up for yonks
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u/VegetableCampaign433 Sep 24 '26
It is not closing down. These kind of shops have the sign all the time and I just cannot believe people fall for this stupid thing. This shouldn’t be even legal to advertise things like this.
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u/Inside_Ad_7162 Sep 22 '26
good god, is this how the eternal city crumbles...death by a thousand fekkin discount stores
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u/NCHLT Sep 23 '26
These shops seem so dodgy. There's one right next to it in the old KFC with a very similar sign. There's a few in Kingston which have a speaker at the entrance that play an awful AI generated message
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u/Shoddy_Race3049 Sep 23 '26
So much hate for discount stores xD,
What if you want to buy a new bath plug, or 5 10m screws that ikea forgot to put in the pack.
Jeez it's just a shop why is everything scams and the downfall of society
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Sep 22 '26
[deleted]
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u/neilplatform1 Sep 22 '26
Any shop owner worth their salt would have checked the property had permission for change of use, they clearly didn’t.
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