pawnbroker

It was never just about the neon, that Cubist, consumerist razzle-dazzle cantilevered over Hong Kong’s streets announcing pawnbrokers and mooncake bakers, saunas and shark’s fin soup shops.

He is the patron saint of Greece and Russia, Moscow and New York, as well as charities, children and pawnbrokers.

But since a government clampdown on payday lenders, pawnbrokers are the only route for some people to get the money they need fast.

Because of these limits, banks kept interest rates between 6 and 12 percent and didn’t do much business with the poor, who in a pinch took their valuables to the pawnbroker or the loan shark.

A dessert shop, bakery, pound store, charity shop, takeaway and pawnbrokers make up Weatherfield Precinct.