Tackle & Guns Pollokshaws closing down

[bighit]

Aye indeed, it’s extremely sad to see yet another shop/business closing down and resulting in a lost amenity to the local folk and in the instance of airgun enthusiasts, not so local as well..


I like a bargain as much as anyone but I’ve never been at ease at ‘cashing in’ on someone else’s misfortune, ever since I bought a complete 600cc Norton Dominator 99 Cafe Racer for a tenner back in the 70’’s after it had thrown a rod and wrecked the crankcases, thereby knackering the engine.
However, by way of salving my conscience I towed him and his pillion rider up to my lockup and provided overnight accommodation and hospitality at my folks place and drove them to the station to get a train for London… and I gave him the amount he asked for. In all fairness a bike like that, in working, running condition could be had for 40 to 50 quid, at the time.

About 30 odd years ago, there were about still about half a dozen designated gun shops in Glasgow and a plethora of Ironmongers, sports shops, toy shops, cycle shops, and various others that sold a selection of airguns, pellets and accessories…. To my knowledge there is only one place left in the whole of Glasgow, a city with a population of circa half a million people. All the peripheral towns within a radius of 20 miles had Ironmongers, sports shops etc which have all disappeared, to my knowledge….

However this reduction in amenity is not only confined to airgun retailing premises. When I walked along Sauchiehall St, in Glasgow today, arguably the principal shopping and leisure facilty in the town, I was horrified to see the number of once popular and prominent, pubs, cafes etc, cinemas, music venues and department stores all boarded up and creating a depressing environment.
Sadly this demise is largely prevalent throughout the whole of the U.K also and it’s high time local authorities took a realistic look at what constitutes a fair rateable value on these premises in order to maintain a ‘high-street presence’ in the burgeoning age of online shopping which undeniably has its attractions and benefits but surely not at the expense of losing a ‘traditional, personal, shopping experience.

Aberdeen is the same. Oil capital of europe is now almost a ghost town shop wise.

Buildings are being pulled down if they are empty as the rates are higher than pulling them down.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.eve...ess-rates/amp/

There has been offices built here and never occupied due to the costs.

We have a number gun shops but spread out all over aberdeenshire. I have one 5 mins from my house but I only use him in emergencies due to his prices. He is more interested in the shotgun , centre fire and rimfire users. His secondhand prices are not far off new prices elsewhere.

I go to one near my brothers 150 miles from me to buy my shooting goods as they are a better shop.