Retail Randoms

CARRY ON KOREA

Eating garlic has long been known to be good for you, helping to combat high blood pressure for one thing.

But now it’s having the opposite effect in South Korea, with a garlic-promoting video getting the nation’s collective blood boiling.

The 30-second clip –showcasing garlic grown in the country’s Hongseong County – has been floating about on YouTube for a couple years now but recently came to wider public attention when it aired on electronic billboards in capital city Seoul.

In a scene reminiscent of a Carry On film, the video shows an excited woman stroking a man’s thigh and saying things like “very thick” and “hard”. Ooh err missus. It should be pointed out that the chap has a massive bulb of garlic for a head and his companion’s descriptions apparently refer to the quality of Hongseong’s fine produce.

In a joint statement the Korean Peasants League and the Korean Women Peasants Association said: “The video offended the people who watched it” and “sexually objectified” garlic.

Oddly enough, Carry On star Kenneth Williams couldn’t stand innuendo. If he ever saw some in a script, his first instinct was to whip it out immediately.

GULL-TY AS CHARGED

New ONS data reveals shoplifting has soared by more than 20% yearon-year. The cost-of-living crisis is blamed for this sharp rise, although The Week In Retail has uncovered another reason: seagulls.

More specifically, a one-bird crime wave that is plaguing the Late Stop 24 store in the Welsh seaside city of Bangor.

Named Steven by the store’s staff, presumably after 90s action movie star Steven Seagal (see what they did there?), the bigbeaked blagger was caught on camera twice in one day last week pilfering from the premises.

Footage reveals Steven brazenly ignoring a ‘Thieves beware’ sign as he marches in to pinch what other media outlets have described as a croissant, before hot-webbedfooting it back out the door. Steven remains at large but once apprehended authorities say the gull faces a lengthy spell of in-tern-ment.