Pawnshops

Glamourise the unglam. This is what pawnshops are doing.

One has even open a branch at Orchard Road, where no man has ventured.



Pawn shops date back to ancient times. The rise of popularity of pawn shops is due to the public needs to borrow small sums of money that banks are not willing to provide.

The pawn business is almost always inherited.

There is no other business like the pawn business which is somewhat recession-proof.

Every time an item is pawned, the pawnshop owner knows that it could be on his shelf for sale.



So how did pawnshops actually started?

In Italy two monks saw the poor needed material help first and spiritual comfort afterward. They started a pawnbrokering business and never look back.

Some say the earliest recorded lending institutions started in ancient China more than 3,000 years ago.