Gilby’s, Pete’s, and Diversity

It seems that Gilby’s on Sandy High Street is to close and turn into a restaurant (via planning notice on a lampost opposite Gilby’s). This is a shame. Although a bizarre and mildly rubbish shop, I will sadly miss it. For those of us without a car it is the only accessible place in Sandy to get common things like hammers, screws, primer without an epic trek to Homebase in Biggleswade, an inconvenient hike to B&Q in Hitchin, or a lunchtime trip to that excellent place down Goodge Street in London. This is all especially sad since the aptly-named Really Useful Shop closed down.

There seem to be certain shops that follow abstract rules that determine what they have in stock. For Gilby’s, if you expected them to stock something, they wouldn’t; if you thought there was no chance, they would have it. Another interesting example is Pete’s, the off-licence at the end of our road: if you keep looking, you will find it, unless you ask at the counter, in which case they will not have it in. I have looked for hours for obscure things in there and been rewarded; I’ve asked at the counter for something like beer and been told they don’t stock it.

The other dimension is that they are going to open a new restaurant, which is brave to say the least, especially after the demise of the the Indian that wasn’t the Gandhi Sandy. Although this is not nearly as brave as the sad lamented Diversity, which opened last year as a trendy/chav menswear shop opposite the Gandhi. You could tell the writing was on the wall by the speed they did indeed diversify into womenswear (of which there are already two shops in Sandy, although none of them sell gypsy skirts (as I believe they’re called)). Needless to say, Diversity left town a few weeks ago without me ever having the chance to go in. Maybe they knew about this.