Hooky newsagents

I see that the cops have finally raided the hooky 'newsagents' at the bottom of High Street.

How he survived for so long is beyond me. Surely a 24hr newsagents pitched right in front of the nightclubs & regular police patrols, but with barely any actual stock on display, might arouse suspicion?

All the goodies were hidden under the counter or out the back - litre bottles of dodgy vodka, Canary islands cuthroat ciggies, and Jebus knows what else.

I gave up cigs a few years back but am still partial to the odd cigar, especally when sitting on the step outside Betty Black's at 1.30am chewin' the fat with my homies. He's the only shop at that hour of the morning & I used to go over and try and buy cigars off him. I always got the same response:

Me: Can I have a packet of Hamlet?
Shopkeep: Sorry, we don't have any this week.
Me: What sort of newsagents doesn't sell cigars???
Shopkeep: I can't afford them, here try some of these instead...

So I end up buying a packet of Canaries fags for a couple of quid, smoking half of one and stubbing it out in disgust.
I brought the packet into work yesterday & couldn't give them away.

He was still open last night but i'll miss our late night cigar badinage if he goes. It became part of my post-pub routine, something of a running joke shared between us.