Creative Corner: Hoka's Run Stop Corner Shop, a Fair Pour and gravy on a fry-up?

Welcome to another little meander into the Creative Corner.

A whole lot of ‘creative’ thinking has been going on Across The Pond this week, which has had me appreciating home, so I’ve gone all in on some creative takes on British classics. A clever twist on a traditional corner shop, putting the world to rights over a good old pint of beer and a mischievous twist on a good old fry-up.

Take a seat and tuck in.

Popping to the shop

As a kid, I was often asked by my neighbour to run down to the shop to pick up a pack of 20 Guards and pay the papers (questionable, but they were different times). Now, I’m not sure that’s where the team behind sports shoe brand Hoka got its inspiration for its latest offbeat launch, but nonetheless, if you’ve ever fancied picking up a pair of trainers alongside your pint of milk and loaf of bread, you’re in luck, as it has just launched the Run Stop Corner Shop.

Billed as an east London convenience store stocking “all the essentials you need for the new year training period, the classic take on a British corner shop, comes complete with an instore ATM which dispenses “Hokens”, allowing customers to buy everything from snacks to scratch cards…and trainers.

The Bethnal Green-based immersive pop-up also has a little Narnia-esque surprise at the back of the store, where a “hidden space” opens onto a neon-lit walkway to reveal FlyLab, an “innovation zone” that will serve as a location for future brand activities.

Anyone hot-footing it down to the store can also take part in regular runs in collaboration with some of London’s most-loved communities.

In a world of talent-led performance sports shoe marketing, this left-field take, in my opinion, deserves a gold medal as, like the newly launched version of its iconic Bondi 9 running shoe, it leaves others for dust.

Image courtesy of Hoka

How much?!

Anyone who lives in London may think that regularly paying £6-8 for a pint of beer is hardly fair but to a billionaire that is a mere drop in the amber nectar ocean. It is this inequality that is behind the notion of The Fair Pour, a London pub set up by Oxfam to offer customers a way to tackle wealth inequality by paying for their pints based on what they earn.

The pub opened its doors on January 21st to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos to highlight the growing divide between the ultra-wealthy and the rest of society. Oxfam reports that income inequalities within countries are worsening, and the Fair Pour purposefully challenges the status quo with a pricing system that reflects the stark reality of wealth disparity.

With drinks on offer from the Nepobaby Bitter, Super Rich Stout, Billionaire's Brew and Rich List Lager and cocktails including Old Money Fashioned, Highballer, The Billionaire’s Breeze and Caviar Collins, punters were asked to pay what they felt was fair for them with a minimum price of £3 and £100 for billionaires.

Comparing wealth inequality to the cost of a pint is a clever move in a country that loves its pubs and beer and one that was sure to get tongues wagging – which, judging by how many times I spotted it, worked. There are certainly worse places to debate an important yet unfortunately depressing subject in the dreariest month of the year.

Red, brown or gravy on your fry-up?

Arguably, you can’t get much more British than a good old-fashioned breakfast fry-up. Sausage, eggs, beans, bacon, a bit of fried bread and gravy.

What?! Are you mad? Gravy? What were you thinking? Brown sauce, red if you’re a heathen, but gravy? On a fry-up? Those are the exact sentiments that filled the airwaves and column inches this week as Best Western launched its year of the free breakfast offer.

A simple survey that threw up a stat that people prefer gravy to brown sauce on their breakfast masterpiece caused consternation across the nation with incredulous breakfast TV presenters seen pouring gravy on a perfectly made breakfast and radio jocks spitting feathers with their listeners at the indignation of such a thing.

The findings highlight two things firstly, that (sometimes) the simplest insight can spark a thousand words without the need for dressing and secondly, that there are people out there that really need to have a word with themselves.