Back in 2024, I noted that the area near where I work, was seeing the final bicycle shops in the area close down. We’d gone from a surfeit of bike shops to basically none at all.

The final shop to shut was Evans, now owned by Mike Ashley (Sports Direct et al), which shut its West End branch later that year – beyond the original May date.

This week a new Evans opened less than 100m from the old store. In fact, it has opened on the site of the old Cycle Republic store which shut down during the pandemic and never reopened.

This branch is at least a little closer to the main shopping thoroughfare of Regent Street, although it’s still the “wrong side” of Oxford Circus to really attract casual shoppers. But the good news is that there is an actual bike shop, with service centre, somewhere around the West End.

Reports had suggested that Colnago, the high-end Italian brand, would be available in-store. When I visited on Thursday, I didn’t spot any of their bikes. But there were many bikes available, including their own-brand Vitus and Pinnacle bikes as well as Trek and Specialized amongst others. There were also a decent number of Bromptons on sale.

The store seemed fairly well stocked, with accessories and clothing, ranging from their own in-house DHB brand, through to Rapha. But I couldn’t find the Continental Grand Prix 4 Seasons 32mm tyres I was after. In any case, the online pricing for them was out of step with other retailers. I ended up cycling over to Condor Cycles on Grays Inn Road, where they had what I wanted.

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Unrelated, but somehow related, is the long tale of London branches of Asda Express.

Back towards the end of 2024, I noticed two separate new locations for Asda’s version of Tesco Express or Sainsbury’s Local – the high street convenience outlets of Asda, one of the UK’s “Big Four” supermarket chains (Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Aldi are the other three, with Lidl rising fast, and Morrisons having been bumped out of the top four).

Back in 2020, the US grocery giant Walmart sold a majority stake to the British billionaire Issa brothers. And when I saw the signage go up for branches on Green Lanes, Harringay, and at Finsbury Park Station (in the former Arsenal superstore), it wasn’t a surprise. Getting them open in time for Christmas seemed sensible, but the Festive Season came and went without the stores opening.

The thing was, it looked like all the expensive work had been done. Through the glass, the stores looked like they’d been fitted out, especially the Finsbury Park Station branch, with even tills in place. And the signage was up.

The way most supermarket build-outs work is that when they get on a timetable, there’s very little to stop them. They have processes in place, and fitting-out is down to an art. So to get 90% of the way there (to my eyes), then stall seemed odd. A planning issue might hold up one branch, but two?

And indeed, it hasn’t been just two. Reddit posts reveal others asking the same question in May 2025, about stores in Deptford and Greenwich.

What felt very strange is that when you’ve completed the majority of work, and put up signage, it’s not a good look when stores then fail to open. People start to wonder if there are underlying issues with the business. And surely, you’ve already invested quite a lot in build out and must surely be paying rent during this period?

When I searched for reasons earlier in the year, I found press reports suggesting that the company had chosen to slow down convenience store openings to focus funds in other parts of the business. Again, that’s a curious decision to take, when you’ve already paid rent and carried out much of the work required to get the stores in shape for opening.

Finally, last month, a press release from Asda revealed that they would “resume” expansion very soon. The two stores I’ve seen shuttered for nearly a year are on the list of 20 or so stores that will be opening from late October onwards.

I wait with bated breath!