More Retail Shops

Two or three years ago there was a trend in opening up teahouses, followed by outdoor cafes, and now it seems like the new trend is retail shops.

The good thing about retail shops is that they are usually located on the first floor of residential buildings which usually means the chances of these buildings and perhaps their entrances being cleaned up are pretty good. So the mayor doesn't care (unless there are forthcoming local elections and so he replaces residential building entrance doors and paints the walls of only the first floors in these buildings which are located ONLY on main streets), but it's good to see retail shops doing it anyway. What's also a bonus is that they usually don't have anything to do with cutting down trees like our cafes.

I'm sure most of you have realized how much attention I turn to what new physical changes I see in this city ...

Today I was driving on Hanrapetutyan Street and an official Bang & Olufsen franchise caught my eye, along with an Armenian-Italian joint venture pastry shop/cafe and a Home Deco interior design store.

I was thinking about something today ... we love to ask, "It's not fair, why is it that they have one and we don't?" Opening up all these actual franchise shops because of this type of 'hivandutyun' will somewhat decrease the common complaint of not having certain things in Armenia. Don't ever be surprised if one day you see an Eiffel Tower in Armenia or even a pyramid ... oh wait, we actually have one just north of Yerevan. I'm not sure if it's completed, but I think the inside will accommodate a casino ... surprise surprise!