Pawn Shops

In the town where I live, there is a main road that passes right through the heard of downtown, and which goes (or comes) from the eastern edge of the city to a bridge somewhere in the middle. Just east of the downtown core there is a stretch of eight or nine blocks that represents one edge of the city's low-rent district.

Boarded up businesses and strip-mall "churches" (the kind with words like "fire" and "power" on the sign) are easy to find.

I hadn't been there in a while, but had to go down that street this week. Some of the boarded-up business spaces had been re-inhabited.

By pawn shops.

On one block alone, on both sides of the street, I counted five pawn shops. At least two of them on that block were brand new. There were others further down, along with the "payday loan" companies that flourish in such environments.

There must be a lot of people out there desperate for cash. I don't know if it's related to the impending recession, but whatever it is, it has been building for a while.