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I used to like 'Greetings' purely because the type on their old shop sign was so bad it read 'sreetings'. It is a lovely shop and the staff a very friendly.


Dom, I think the point isn't that free markets are bad, just that another card shop is uncalled for.


Or maybe we're going the way of China and in the future ED will be known as the gift card buying capital of the UK.


Yuk etc?

I haven't really looked at this thread properly til now...


Much as I like Greetings, I don't see the problem with another card shop. Business is business, and if someone wants to open a shop because they think it'll work, then good for them!


I agree that there are plenty more exciting things that could open, but if noone wants to open them, then we'll keep on getting Estate Agents... Because they keep on making money... Much like the cards...


There have been so many comments on this forum about what people would like, and there have been some fab ideas... I personally like the idea of a music shop selling instruments and records, but I just don't think it would really work in the area... However, there are plenty of people going in to all the little gift shops and buying the little useless gifts, which is why they keep going, and more keep opening. Seems simple :-S

... but then again the little gift shop (Anterior Trading (?) on Northcross Road) has shut down as there was a rent rise and she couldn't continue selling her gifts and I understand it's now going to be a maternity wear shop (please don't start going on about three wheeled buggies in East Dulwich, in a recent survey in ED there were 14 three-wheelers and 68 four-wheelers counted)

I'm not surprised someone wants to open a card shop, they're probably not being paid enough at UBS or Credit Suisse.


In a recent survey conducted by me, all cards in Northcross road emporiums cost ?7.50.


Cost Breakdown:


?0.10 Materials, ie a small piece of thin card


?0.20 Labour


?0.05 Envelope Cost


?0.05 Supply Chain


Total Cost ?0.40


Total Gross Margin 94.66%





Cards and taps, the 2 highest margin products around.


Just dont get me started on taps.

Ralon also do those spike things for quick filing of stuff. I remember trying to buy one there and they only had the straight spikes which I always felt were an accident waiting to happen. I said that I wanted one of the ones with a curved end as I thought they were a little safer. The middle-aged Asian chap with glasses and the cut-glass accent proceeded to explain to me that the straight ones that he stocked were the ones that were currently fashionable and that they could double as an improvised weapon should someone break into your house. He then proceeded to demonstrate how one could fend off an intruder, in a manner that reminded me of Errol Flynn in an old swashbuckler. I was speechless! I would like to think it was all tongue-in-cheek but I'm rather afraid he was quite serious.

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