The recent profusion of cheery, pseudo-American candy stores on London's main shopping street for normal people has been noted. They replace pandemic-wrecked major retailers such as HMV and Boots, everyone thinks they're money laundering fronts, and they're heaven for shoplifting children. Diamond Geezer visited all of them, bringing a salty UK viewpoint to the sweet US treats washing up on his shore.
That's five of these shops in the short section between Marble Arch and Bond Street stations. There's no way Oxford Street needs this level of candy competition, you'd think, and yet all of these stores had customers so maybe it is what people want to browse. If you're up from the provinces with the family or on a trip abroad with your mates, a quirky sweet shop might be a lot more fun to dip into than the surrounding alternatives. Half the department stores have gone and most of the clothes shops too, so checking out Jolly Ranger candies and Jelly Belly beans does at least pass the time.
I figure the answer to the "money laundering? tax fraud?" questions is "no-one will ever know because there is no state capacity to find out" but that, too, is just another cynical guess.
