The Junk Trade in Hastings

[Richard]

I see quite a lot of everyday folk in Hastings going about their activities.
Many interesting characters with a tale to tell and of course the scroungers, who will never better themselves, trying to get pennies by offering up questionable items to second-hand shops.
I see the 'Bill Sykes' the 'Fagin's' the dim-wits, playing a part, helping the 'Dell-Boy' dodgy-dealers who rake up junk and sell it off at a small profit to people with questionable tastes.
But some people will buy what others would only throw away because they have imaginative and creative minds and the skills to see a way of turning junk into art forms.
Shops also sell items from auctions and house-clearance to local dealers, who make bigger profits by selling such 'gear' to London outlets and the operation expands and contracts according to market forces.
Profits from direct or indirect London sales will often cover the costs of local shop rental and other running costs and sometimes people come down from London to look for bargains in person.
Hastings is a great junk re-cycling centre, selling to the public as well as the dealers and Queens Road is expanding in that regard and giving 'the old town' some competition.
The business barely 'ticks over' on local public sales but mainly takes off on the London-based connection.
Local department stores, clothes shops, hairdressers, food outlets and the rest do not have as many connections or opportunities and their business model is on a different footing.