I recently decided to purchase a new bicycle, and set myself a budget of £250. My old one had served me well for 8 years and I was looking for a similar "work horse". However, having visited 2 local independent (ie the sort I wished to buy from) shops, neither seemed particularly enthusiastic about my custom, and one was positively discouraging.
In the event, I purchased a Universal Mystique from Woolworths for £69.99, and had this assembled by a local cycle maintenance shop (Lewis's). Lewis's, as it happens, is one of the oldest businesses in Worcester and conveniently resides in a railway arch adjacent to the entrance of Worcester City Council's Planning Department. How's that for integrated transport !
I'm not sure the "Mystique" will last as well as my old Phantom, which in turn was assembled from foreign parts (mainly Chinese ?) by Witcombe Cycles of Deptford, South East London, but you never know. The Mystique was "Hand Built" in Sri Lanka, a country which , I realised recently, appears to be the source of most of my hard wearing Marks & Spencer "wardrobe".
Thus I was surprised to read in The Observer Magazine a few weeks ago that Sri Lanka is one of the world's worst "conflict zones", due to fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger militia, increasingly associated with suicide bombers. The escalation of the conflict has obviously impacted upon the country's economy, particularly tourism.
However, Sri Lanka, it would seem, remains an important source of products for British High Street retailers catering for the cost/quality-conscious customer (of whom I count myself one), and, quite possibly, for other sections of the retail market. People like me may well hanker after independent retailers and locally made goods, but you can't always get what you want !
But if you try, sometimes, you can get what you need....and hope that others can too !
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