I’ve got a question, which has puzzled me ever since I moved up here n 1988: as you drive north out of Manchester on the A56 Bury New Road, you pass the old site of the Boddies brewery then you enter an area of cheap clothing outlets and showrooms, before the road widens up at Strangeways prison.

Hanging around outside the shops are always a bunch of scruffy guys who look Turkish or Pakistani. Who are they and what are they waiting for? Do they work in the shops? Are they waiting to be picked for casual work?

They let you in the shops or are look outs for trading standards

I’ve wondered this also, but a team of casual workers waiting for a pickup is quite likely, to what I don’t know

I think they all make s&m hosiery.

They are all telling you about the “genuine” fakes they have down stairs/up stairs or through the back door of a closed shop.
It’s the fake clothing capital of the north.
Makes me laugh when i drive through, you see more monclair jackets walking about that you do in Cheshire.
Trading standards make a token effort of taking away a bit ever few months but it seems to just get bigger.
It used to be just wholesale rag trade 20 years ago, Sunday 6am till 12 was crazy busy, now it’s people buying fake crap and attempting to re sell on e bay/Facebook Market place