In the last seven years, I have seen the growing number of pawn shops around my neighborhood. I remembered that there was just one pawn shop in the past, but now, I am seeing at least three of them. And also on the local TV channels, I have seen a lot of advertisements on pawn shops recently. I don’t recall seeing such advertisement seven year ago.
I understand that the purpose for pawn-broking is to help people tide over urgent times. And that explain the existence of the pawn shop. My question now is why is there an increase in the number of pawn shops? Am I right to say that there are more people in need of money urgently now as compared to years ago?
5 comments:
One word can explain it all - Casinos.
more people gambling in stock market?
Pawn shops are extremely lucrative business. I had some insights into how it operated. Basically after a certain period of time, the pawnshop owner will have to auction off the items that goes by the ticket, if the person did not reclaim it by then. Usually there's a lot of underhand dealings, such that they can get back valuable items at a very very cheap cost.
That's why a lot of main stream companies, like singpost, are also dabbing their feet into this area. It's just money.
1) Population growth! Bigger pie.
2) More people living on knife's edge - earn 1,000; spend 999.....
a) Some by lifestyle choice. High income earners.
b) Some due to salary not keeping up with inflation... Low income earners.
There is an article in our papers about "business men" rather go to the pawnshops than the banks for temporary business cash flow problems. They say by the time the banks approve their loans, their business may have failed or the temporary business cash flow has passed. Kaput also.
There can be 1001 reasons if you want to or need to go the pawnshop.
But I say if you still have "something" to pawn, it means you are still not too bad. You still have a chance.
Post a Comment