Sign of the times?

[Twinky]

In a little neighborhood area near me there is a small collection of shops: a couple of food stores, a wine bar, a pub, a chemist, fruiterers, and quite a number of other shops. It's not a big area, but there are maybe two or three dozen shops. The area is full of very big houses, expensive to buy, but as they are so big, some have been turned into student lodgings and flatlets. An odd sort of mix, really.

One of the shops, surprisingly, was a betting shop. It always seemed to me to be somewhat out of place, but it's not a business I know a lot about. As the shopfront had frosted windows and is not the sort of place I frequent, I had no idea how busy or otherwise it might be.

A while ago I noticed in the betting shop window a sign - "Charity shop opening here soon." And today when I drove past there are rails of clothing, stepladders, storage boxes, etc, all strewn around in the former betting shop.

It seemed so ironic that the get-rich-quick betting shop, that may have taken money from households that could ill afford it, now has its place taken by a charity shop selling clothing and other cheap stuff to perhaps keep those very households going.