C-store’s bong for a song sparks row

The key to running a successful c-store is knowing your clientele. But a Costcutter in the leafy Berkshire town of Reading has got into hot water for addressing its shoppers' needs a bit too directly.

Much to the chagrin of the local fun police though not yet the actual police the store has been stocking paraphernalia meant for smoking the old wacky baccy, like weed grinders and bongs. (In case you went to a rather better sixth-form college than Blogof, you may not know bongs are those day-glow plastic contraptions that look a bit like a lava lamps, which you use to chug vast lungfuls of ganja in one go instead of puffing lazily on a blunt you've rolled yourself.)

"I can understand the concerns of residents, but we were told there was a lot of demand for them as people otherwise have to go all the way into town for them," store manager Sukhwinder Grover told the Reading Chronicle.

He's got a point. Folks who spend their days in a haze of marijuana smoke are unlikely to fancy the 15-minute trek from Whitley, Reading's answer to downtown Beirut and site of the Costcutter, to the town centre. That's why it's called a convenience store, dummy!