The Thousands

I remember going to my very first sit-in during my younger teen years. The drillio? A new McDonald’s had opened up on oh-so subversive King Street and we weren’t going to take it, dagnabbit! Today, as I take a decidedly less idealistic stumble down Newtown’s main drag looking for some burgerific post-beer goodness and pass what is now an Irish pub, I realise I have nobody but myself to blame.

So, when an Inner West residing friend of mine lamented the fact that the area was being overrun with ‘faceless corporations’ thanks to the arrival of the Aesop store, it resulted in epic eye roll.**With a company ethos that advocates balancing the use of their botanically based rose body washes and wild lime hair polishes with “a healthy diet, sensible exercise and a regular intake of good books”, it strikes me as a rather benign, and pleasantly aromatic, form of commercial gentrification.

Sure beats the shit out of another Irish pub.