Cash Converters is an odd company, in that it is not quite sure if it is comfortable about its corporate identity. On its own various websites, there is a fair degree of fluctuation in the way this Australian franchise wishes to present itself, with considerable variation between the shades of red, maroon and purple contrasting with the yellow which they also use.
The use of yellow and purple surprises and interests me, in these days when companies are all trying to convince us how green they are. In a way, its nice that they have not jumped on the whole corporate 'green' bandwagon, but given all the choices available, their colour scheme does send, to me, a strange message about themselves. Although purple in particular is often described as a 'royal' colour, anyone who has spent much time around the mentally ill will tell its disproportionate use is a dead give-away regarding the possibility of a troubled state of mind in the wearer.
So, I ask myself what is troubling the good folk at Cash Converters? Are they ashamed of what they do? Is it the tension between trying to be a respectable buyer and seller of second hand goods - fair exchange is no robbery - when much of what ends up there is perceived as being likely to be stolen or pre-fenced goods - a nod's as good as a wink to a blind horse? It must be difficult sifting the last valuable items from the desperate from the other detritus of their lives and buying it from them so they can do God Knows What with the money. I suppose they believe what they tell themselves, that they are helping people out, but this must be hard at the same time as being a pawnbroker, cheque casher for people whose own bosses don't trust them enough to give them an advance on their salaries; a secured and unsecured lender to people who are on the very margins of their credit-worthiness, and sometimes, well over the edge of it.
I could be wrong of course. The corporate colours may not be a reflection of the unease this business has about itself (the people at Oakam, Fish Brothers, Harvey and Thompson Pawnbrokers, Bright House, By Design, Chain Reaction and Capital Gold, have apparently no such sense of moral qualm or confusion about targeting their business and exploiting these vulnerable clients). Maybe they have adopted these colours because it is a scheme these vulnerable people find themselves drawn to, like moths to a flame.
The Cash Converters franchise is an Australian import. The Queensland legislature have recently restricted interest rates to a maximum of 48%. It would be good if our Parliament were to do something similar, though I do note that Cash Converters were not too fussed by this, as they have a number of other schemes for making money out of the poor in their arsenal. Like doing it here.
Our local Cash Converter's double shop fronted premises at 12-14 St James's Street don't merely suffer from the ugliness of their ways of making money or the tawdry corporate colour scheme they have plastered all over it.
They have neglected the building they are abusing really rather grievously, as the tacky blue tarpaulin hanging out of an upstairs window demonstrates. It's a pity, because, the row of shops this is part of, has some excellent architectural details, such as cherubs to match those above Apollo Dry Cleaners and Xtreme Mobiles or the beautiful bay window with balustrade rapidly going to rack and ruin at Cash Converters' hands. The strips of torn and fading wall-paper lining paper attached to the inside of one of the upper windows do not enhance the effect, nor do the meadows growing in their guttering up on the roof. They have installed a cash machine in the wall facing St James's Street that charges a £1.78 fee, more even than at Costcutter (There are free machines over the road at the station or on the High Street outside Tagone Telcom and at the Post Office).
This is a firm which says on one of its out of place adverts on this fine building's facade that 'We buy and loan money on anything of value to us'.
I can't say what these nasty people value in life, other than profit. I do know that they don't value the appearance of the street their Walthamstow customers live in, walk down, work in, shop or socialise in. They presumably don't value their customers or the quality of the lives of the rest of our community very much either.
Cash Converters are situated on the corner of Leucha Road (one of our less well-off streets), opposite Moonlight Food Store. I can't recommend too highly that people for whom money is tight should seek advice from the Citizen's Advice Bureau and/or see if joining the local Credit Union will help them.