store – BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking

January 24th – Passing through Brownhills High Street, I noticed that the former Blockbuster store – empty for a few years since the chain went busy – seems to be having some kind of refit. But what snagged my attention was the logo of the scaffolding company.

Black Country Scaffolding features the ‘official’ Black Country flag, a symbol created a couple of years ago to promote the area, and it wasn’t intended as a commercial thing at all.

It would be interesting to know if they had permission to use that.

January 11th – The former Focus DIY store continues to fall prey to flytipping, antisocial behaviour and vandalism. Empty for a number of years now since the chain of shops went bust, there was an application back in the summer to turn this into a B&M discount store, which seems like a good idea to me. On the planning system at Walsall Council, the application is still listed and ‘no decision’ – wonder what the holdup is?

October 20th – Oh my goodness this is clever, but I’ve given up trying to think of a way to explain it – it’s just best to take a look yourselves.

The Co-operative store at Streets Corner in Walsall Wood seems very popular, and the new build has been a generally welcome addition to the local amenities. In the same building, there are two other retail units, still to be occupied. They looked blank for a while, then some time ago, so clever person came up with this.

Behind the windows, images of the inside of a store have been arranged at angles and flat on, to look like aisles in a store. Because of the angles, as you move past, they give a remarkable convincing three-dimension effect.

A reader pointed this out to me ages ago and I’ve struggled to find a way to represent it. It’s a really neat optical illusion, and works best at night.

I take my hat off to the designer…

September 16th – There’s a shop opened up in the former bank in Darlaston, just on the Walsall Road at the lights. I say shop, it’s more of an… emporium.

It’s called something like Beer Bank, and I’ve not really taken much notice, as I thought it was purely an off-licence, but it’s far more than that. Told about it by mates, I popped in on my way through Darlaston this afternoon. It’s incredible.

The owner of this place sells all manner of British, Asian, Carribean and Eastern European groceries. From fresh fruit and veg to cosmetics, from pickled cabbage to spiced soda, I think I’m going to have fun exploring the products here.

There’s clearly a fierce entrepreneurial spirit at work – every square foot of floorspace is piled high with a whole load of diverse stuff. I loved to see the krela (bitter gourd), okra, chillies and ginger. I’ve no idea what the pumpkin-like green things are. The range of pickles also looks fun.

I love the free bag of onions when you spend £20, too. This is what I love about the Black Country; something unexpected around every corner.

March 28th – I stopped at the lights at the Spring Cottage junction in Shelfield this morning, and noticed some poor sod dressed as an animal, dancing whilst wearing an advertising board for a local pet store.

There were more of these characters at other junctions into Walsall, and they were still there, dancing in the rain at 6:30pm when I returned.

How I felt for them – how desperate do you have to be to do that for money? They ones on my return were soaked to the skin, advertising a pet shop that had shut for the day.

Welcome to modern Britain. It filled me with sadness at the thought of it. I doubt I’ll shop there again.

November 23rd – I haven’t been over Streets Corner for a few weeks. Returning that way this evening, I noticed the boards were down from around the new Co-op store that has been built on the former car sales lot on the lights. It’s looking good – a little odd at first, but it quickly grew on me. It’s a lot larger than I expected. I like the Co-op – and it’ll be nice for the Tesco Express over the road to have some competition. It’s good to see Walsall Wood getting something new for a change.

Wonder when it’ll be opening?

September 21st – The madness of crowds. On my way through Brum, I’d heard there was an event for cyclists up in Victoria Square. Sadly, I was too late for the free pastries, but I did meet a nice fellow cyclist or two, which was rather nice. Heading back down through the city centre I was bemused by the huge queue snaking its way up New Street from out of the Bullring Shopping Centre. Then I twigged: It was iPhone launch day. I’m an Apple nerd myself, but I’d draw the line at that.
I can remember waiting on launch day for the iPhone in Lichfield, but there were five of us. I did that for the experience, and never again. I guess many of these folk are hoping to pick up a couple of units to sell on. Strange days indeed.

August 19th – It’s too late now, it’s gone. The Pear Tree Inn, on the corner of Pear Tree Lane, Albutts Road and Hednesford Road in Brownhills West will be fondly remembered by many, me included. At various times in its life this pub was a fine house; I drank here several Christmas lunchtimes and often took a walk up from town to get a decent pint. Derelict for 4 or 5 years now, the owners sought permission to demolish, citing the building as being beyond repair. An application to build a store here has been refused, but rumours abound of a new express-style store opening.

It’s sad the pub could not live on. Another part of my past gone under the bulldozer’s tracks.

May 18th – Some things are changing, though. Up at Streets Corner, for example, work is well underway on the new Co-op store where Saturn Motor Sales had their yard. Although work has been ongoing for a while, signs have only just gone up, proclaiming the development to be complete by late 2012. This is great news for the Wood, and I look forward to having another store to compete with the Tesco Express over the road. However, with a new store up the road in Shelfield and branches opening all over the place, I do wonder if the Co-op can maintain this period of aggressive expansion.