I just don't get this (cereal cafe content)

Standing up with a TV on their backs, if you can’t make your point without smashing windows and stealing stuff before burning down random businesses including those that did loads for the local community then you probably shouldn’t bother.

I’m no fan of looting either, but even as right wing a person has Peter Hitchens has said that some of the jail sentences handed out were way over the top. The political class is heavily invested in all things London and this was reflected in the sentences, one poor chap got 9 years just for nicking a telly!

Sauce ?

one poor chap got 9 years just for nicking a telly!

Ahh. Poor bloke. & I bet he needed that telly so that he could feed his kids.

Better be careful, badnewz:

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/aug/16/uk-riots-four-years-disorder-facebook

Ah, can always rely on the Mash….

slightly annoying thing

As far as I’m concerned, British Anarchy is an idiots solution to an intellectual problem.

Scaffy faux-anti-establishment scum puddles.

but then again the show-of-force during the London riots and incredibly harsh jail sentences probably put most people off standing up for themselves.

You’re right, what we need to really sort out society for the better is more cereal cafes trashed by thieving scum….

London’s economy will get ruined if we don’t get on top of the price of houses and rents – this kind of shop is just emblematic of those with money pushing everyone else out to the detriment of local communities and the city as a whole – and all the jobs and taxes it produces..
The implications are really serious – we appear to already be losing ambulance drivers, teachers and potentially doctors as living costs push above earnings.
Brixton Cycles is getting pushed out of their premises to be replaced by luxury flats for e.g. There goes a well-established business providing jobs… they should get a new site but it’s really not a great strategy to deprioritise successful local businesses like this.
The super-rich have pushed everyone else out of central London into zones 2 and 3 which is now pushing the less-well paid out of London entirely. Even well-paid professionals are pretty much priced out. let alone the low paid.
The long term outlook for the London economy is not healthy…
I don’t support violence but I can understand the sentiment and desire to protest… same as the smashing in of Foxtons in Brixton earlier this year…
Most people I know in London want this situation to change – born and bred Londoners, home-owners with and without kids, renters – we all understand the damage being done… and we’d all rather have lower living costs than chi-chi shops like this.
Anyway – niche shops like that only have a finite lifetime and market – there’s not enough people with the money and will to buy premium food over the long term – and with another downturn/bust(?) on the way and a lot of people in London having to spend so much on accommodation, I suspect a lot of these chi-chi shops will be gone in 2-3 years…

this kind of shop is just emblematic of those with money pushing everyone else out to the detriment of local communities and the city as a whole – and all the jobs and taxes it produces..

Rubbish. They don’t own the shop, just rent.

They pay market rate for the shop and take a big personal risk starting a new business. If they guess the market right, they’ll make a profit and if not they’ll go bust, just like any other shop.

Harassing independent traders doesn’t even come close to addressing housing problems in London.

this kind of shop is just emblematic of those with money pushing everyone else out

Not actually true though is it? It isn’t rich people who frequent places like this – it’s trendy young people who are probably as skint as everyone else!

As mentioned the protestors are just cowardly bullies venting their anger on the easiest target.

Harassing independent traders doesn’t even come close to addressing housing problems in London.

this. As one of the cereal guys pointed out, there’s also a Pret A Manger on the street. A multinational chain that turns over half a billion a year.

Which, it would seem, is perfectly fine with the protesters…

Cereal cafes and the like are a symptom of gentrification. They don’t own property, they don’t set the rent, and as has been pointed out, if no-one wants to spend £4 on a bowl of foreign cereal they’ll be gone within months.

They might just have a thing about beards? Maybe on hygiene grounds?

Anyone one unhappy with gentrification , please can you send the people trying to improve your area my way? I will replace them 2 for 1 with chav scum trying to drive area on a continual downward spiral.

They might just have a thing about beards?

Now that I can understand (or tattoos).

Whose up for lynching the local tattoo parlour as a direct way of complaining about government economic policy over the last 20 years?

Whilst I can see the issues with property price inflation in London, I can’t see the mentality that would lead people to do this.

Squatting? All moving somewhere cheaper in line with free market ideals and seeing how the super rich cope with no one to clean their bogs/cook their food/staff their hospitals and schools? Opening up a rival business to milk the rich and feeble minded? All would work. This just makes people look silly.

Not actually true though is it? It isn’t rich people who frequent places like this – it’s trendy young people who are probably as skint as everyone else!

Dunno about that, but I suspect it’s not frequented by the local people who are using food banks.

They pay market rate for the shop and take a big personal risk starting a new business. If they guess the market right, they’ll make a profit and if not they’ll go bust, just like any other shop.

Paying a market rent just means you have to have money in the first place to start a business, there is no evidence that they have taken any kind of risk. In fact few business launchers really take much of a risk, they just have the means to do it. For most with the means starting a business is less risk than changing jobs for the average employee.

All moving somewhere cheaper in line with free market ideals and seeing how the super rich cope with no one to clean their bogs/cook their food/staff their hospitals and schools?

You’re joking, right? How is that working so far? Mostly with people suffering increasingly impossible commutes and their places being taken by even more desperate immigrants. But hey, the “free market” can’t be wrong, can it?

In fact few business launchers really take much of a risk, they just have the means to do it. For most with the means starting a business is less risk than changing jobs for the average employee.

Rubbish. Most small businesses entail a large financial outlay by the owners, all of which they lose if they go bust. In the case of the cereal shop, they will have most likely taken out a loan (probably guaranteed by equity in a house), to cover:

1. Shop rental contract (min 1 year) – probably something like £30k
2. Shop refit costs (say £10k)
3. Running costs (rates, leccy, heat, supplies) say £4-5k a month (rates will be £2-3k)

All of which they have to pay up regardless of whether the sell a single bowl of cereal.

If they flopped, they’d be down about £50k minimum.

In fact few business launchers really take much of a risk, they just have the means to do it.

Absolutely, that’s why so few fail- only about 50% close within the first 5 years.

Whose up for lynching the local tattoo parlour as a direct way of complaining about government economic policy over the last 20 years?

In preparation for the hipster anti-degentrification protests is there a market for a pop-up shop selling hand-fired bricks, organically coloured bottles and responsibly sourced, fair- trade petrol?

Shame they only arrested one of them, should have thrown them all in jail for a few weeks…

“Read all about it, read all about it. Cereal vandal serves porridge”

If they flopped, they’d be down about £50k minimum.

Not much of a risk for someone with a few hundred k in the bank.

Absolutely, that’s why so few fail- only about 50% close within the first 5 years.

The level of risk has nothing to do with their competence or if it is a good idea.

Dunno about that, but I suspect it’s not frequented by the local people who are using food banks.

You’re right probably not, but the cereal cafe isn’t the cause of inequality, in fact absolutely nothing to do with it. They spotted a gap in the market, took a punt and seem to be doing OK.

The reason we have massive inequality in the UK is because people keep voting for political parties which champion inequality. Blaming a cereal shop is just moronic beyond comprehension.

I don’t understand this either.

Everyone other town is full of an identical range of shops, Next, Debenhams, McDonalds, Nandos, they all look the same.

These huge chains with large amounts of money behind them are surely a far bigger barrier to social mobility because they buy up prime land, pay the minimum wage to their employees (which gets topped up with benefits) and make it very difficult for small businesses to compete. It’s even worse when they start to evade corporation tax too (didn’t Vodafone do this?)

Not much of a risk for someone with a few hundred k in the bank.

I very much doubt the owners do have a few hundred k in the bank, most small shop owners don’t.

Everyone other town is full of an identical range of shops, Next, Debenhams, McDonalds, Nandos, they all look the same.

I’m guessing it’s the beards and tattoos which make them stand out a bit more. The irony is, if they really wanted to complain about inequality they should head to Downing Street, not pick on someone selling coco-pops…

The reason we have massive inequality in the UK is because people keep voting for political parties which champion inequality. Blaming a cereal shop is just moronic beyond comprehension.

I agree with that somewhat, but I’m not sure people are blaming them as the CAUSE of the inequality, but rather as people who are happy to benefit from it, and to play a part in perpetuating it.

I very much doubt the owners do have a few hundred k in the bank, most small shop owners don’t.

Traditionally not, but with current property prices and rentals, most new launchers will have considerable finances. That is what is happening with the “gentrification”, It isn’t the hard working and the ideas people who are setting up these shops, it is the people with existing wealth.

Traditionally not, but with current property prices and rentals, most new launchers will have considerable finances.

Not at all.

The people who benefit from property prices and rentals are the landlords who can up the rates every year. The shop owners don’t see any benefit from this and have to keep upping prices to break even.

most new launchers will have considerable finances

Nope, mainly debt. If they read the market wrong, they lose everything and / or end up bankrupt.

but I’m not sure people are blaming them as the CAUSE of the inequality, but rather as people who are happy to benefit from it, and to play a part in perpetuating it.

That’s just nonsense. They’re just running a small business, like any other. They provide a service, pay salaries, buy materials, consume local services i.e. circulate money in the local economy. They’re not benefiting from inequality any more than any one else. They’re as much victim as anyone else, their rent and rates will have gone up as well as labour costs. The only person who really benefits is the landlord.

I think it helps to understand if you’ve ever lived in the area. For years and years Brick Lane and Spitalfields have been very poor, very working class, and actually rammed full of immigrants – Huguenots, Jews and recently Bangladesh. Bethnal Green was the territory of the Krays.

It’s basically been taken over/invaded by the middle-classes over the last 10 years. I should know, I used to live there! Spitalfields was the fruit and veg market for years – a crucial part of the local economy, providing jobs in a poor part of town. That was regenerated in the early noughties and Brick Lane followed. Yes, the areas are far nicer, less crime, cleaner etc, but the indigenous local communities who used to live and work there and had their roots there have been pushed out by ‘outsiders’ – the middle classes and the corporates – the area is rammed full of chi chi shops – coffee bars, bars, bakeries etc etc. The Brick Lane Bagel Bakery is one of the few local businesses which seems to have survived this influx of money.

So as I said above, I don’t support violence but it’s worth reflecting on how the local, established population might feel about how it feels to be pushed out of their homes. When you speak to local businesspeople about these things, you realise how much damage it’s doing.

This is happening at a wider scale across London, to the detriment of jobs and the cost of living which is already having an impact on essential services like ambulance drivers, doctors and teachers.

A bit of chi chi and regeneration is not a bad thing for some, but it is for others…

Blaming a cereal shop is just moronic beyond comprehension.

Still, it’s generated two pages of debate among 39 people on a mtb forum. I don’t know if everyone else in the world has completely ignored the story and the issues it’s raised but assuming that perhaps they haven’t, the publicity it’s raised doesn’t seem a bad result for something which is moronic beyond comprehension.

That is what is happening with the “gentrification”, It isn’t the hard working and the ideas people who are setting up these shops, it is the people with existing wealth.

If you were talking about Hedge Funds or Private Equity expanding a £100m chain like Pret or Pizza Express then yes, you might have a point. But a a pair of independent cereal shops run by a couple of tattooed hippies?

The Tories have really worked their magic on you. They can completely screw over society and yet have people blaming each other for it.

the publicity it’s raised doesn’t seem a bad result for something which is moronic beyond comprehension.

Although sadly the conclusion appears to be that inequality is all the fault of hipsters and if we just lynch them we can end world poverty.

So, I’m not too hopeful.

The Tories have really worked their magic on you. They can completely screw over society and yet have people blaming each other for it.

LOL

It seems a bizarre thing to go picking on. A £3.20 bowl of cereal sounds a lot, but it’s something I, as someone who earns below the average national salary and flipping loves cereal, wouldn’t begrudge paying as a treat. In the same way people will go out for a meal as at treat. Or buy a cake as a treat. I suspect there are restaurants and bakeries across Camden that are also a little expensive- it doesn’t mean they are directly responsible for Camden becoming unaffordable because the prices are going up and the wages aren’t.

I’ve been very generous and googled the address of where they ought to have gone protesting, at a place where the blame for a lack of growth, low wages and rising property prices thanks to the wallets of foreign millionaires and tax breaks for wealthy friends can squarely be pointed.

http://www.hampsteadandkilburn.org/contact-us

Oh, and has that area actually been gentrified? I visited it a couple of years ago and it was absolutely horrible. Dirty, a bit scary, ugly and busy. Why don’t the protesters come up to the north, live in a nicer house and vote Corbyn like most decent people? I’d be pretty grateful to be priced out of Camden and end up living in Yorkshire.

Pointless trying to justify the action of the protesters.

The hipsters should just install Alien Sentry Guns … 😮

The living cost in all mega cities is expensive so whether the protesters like it or not they cannot prevent it forever. Trying to turn a corner of London into a slump dwelling will simply not happen as the land/property price is just too good for profit.

I’d be pretty grateful to be priced out of Camden and end up living in Yorkshire.

Me too except
1) my job is close to Camden and a long way from Yorkshire
2) pricing people out by putting up the rent is not actually much of a favour

Although sadly the conclusion appears to be that inequality is all the fault of hipsters and if we just lynch them we can end world poverty.

Can you not see why this particular cafe might, to some, seem like an emblem* of the crass, middle-class consumerism which they see as damaging their community? It possibly doesn’t help that the owners have been in the news before being dismissive of the concerns of residents.

*Not necessarily the worst offender in the world but an eyecatching and galvanising one.

There is a shake chain in Newcastle, was down the west end, and metro centre, where they charge to put various chocolate bars or snacks into a blender with milk.

Nobody has protested against them, and they make lovely shakes but cost a fortune in comparison to buying a pint of milk, and chewing up a mars bar while drinking.

Same idea as buying cereal but without the protests.

I don’t really get it, if you don’t want to buy the service or product don;’t. Saying that, being off your tits at 6am and being able to buy a bowl of easily stomachable cereal is a great idea.