I always think getting hung up on these terms is a bit daft. At best they're just marketing terms.

'home made', 'hand crafted', 'artisan' etc.

Who cares? The shop or restaurant isn't strictly speaking a 'home'. I couldn't care less so long as it tastes the best, which incidentally usually requires the use of good quality ingredients.

It's funny how we decide which products we'd rather have made 'by hand'.

I really wouldn't want a new PC, smartphone or even a car 'homemade by hand' these days.

If I go to a nice restaurant for something different, it's precisely because I don't have the skills to make it at home.

I laugh when I see bikes advertised as 'hand built'. Of course they are, they have to be, even the cheapo £250 ones from China. We've yet to make it cost efficient to engineer a robot to put together the oily bits more cheaply than a human.

I say get over it, and base your ice cream decision on whichever tastes the best. Competition on the same street is good for the consumer.

Certain shopkeepers on Dartmouth Road might do well to remember that they are there to earn money from serving the man/woman in the street. Their livelihood, is no one's concern but their own. It's business.

Even UBER have muscled-in for a piece of this action!

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/07/...f=uk&ir=UK

Forget the rumble in the jungle! Forget Rocky IV! this is the big one:



Vs

Surely the wrong League of Gentlemen character there. What we need is local shops for local people...

Mr Whippy

Gotta say your posts have just had me in stitches, hat off to you 😂👍

That's just what we all need - less fussing an' a feuding & more ice cream based funnies.

I heard that somebody made a film based on the lyrics in this thread, they're calling it 'Frozen'
https://youtu.be/L0MK7qz13bU?t=1m

I think this will make the local news soon!

Is this going to get like Bugsy Malone with the two shopkeepers splurging each other with ice-cream?

Hey, that sounds like fun! Great idea, Sherwood!

It's hardly hardly ice cream 'wars' il Mirtos have the dignity to not get involved in a public slanging match. On the photo I posted earlier Pauline, you were inviting people on the forest hill Facebook page to come and visit your store for a 'home made' product. That is total misrepresentation. Yet you cite this as an excuse to sling mud at a fellow trader all because you resent the fact that that they sell a product that you do. You have contacted local councillors and trading standards based on assumptions you have made. You do not have a 'patch' and it is hardly a unique concept selling ice cream and any desire you have for exclusivity is ridiculous.
I think it is utterly vile that you seem determined to make il Mirtos first few months of trading even harder than they will already be. As for hearing a conversation as you are walking past a shop doorway, really? How slow were you walking? All this trouble you are sending his way makes me want to support his business even more.

Little Agas Deli have used the element of competition to up their game, and is much improved. Why don't you do the same? Make people want to visit your shop, do a few different things, have a few sidelines. I visit il Mirtos and little Agas for more than one item, and their fresh foods. Don't forget, people can always order some boiled sweets from one of the many web sites in just a few clicks.

Blowing out other people's candles will not make yours burn any brighter......

Went along Dartmouth Road today: no-one in Sugar Mountain on way down or way up. Several people in Il Mirto buying a variety of things. Amongst other things, I bought an ice cream - black cherry - it was delicious whatever it was made from. No sign of tins of powder. Other coffee shops also seemed busy. Farmers market also going strong, although the stall frying up sausages was making an awful smokey smell which was pretty off-putting.

Just popped in to Il Mirto for some ice cream. Really delicious and the guy was as friendly as ever. Seems as though this thread has given them some good publicity! Their olives are also lovely and cheaper than Sainsbury's.

Tried Il Mirto for the first time today (because of this thread). Lovely ice cream. As someone mentioned earlier, I think more decent shops is what that stretch of Dartmouth Rd needs to improve footfall. I think the shops for the most part compliment each other.

I also popped in to Suger Mountain and there were plenty of people in there. This thread was definitely a mistake by Pauline, but she seems a nice women and I think her shop is exactly the type of thing we need in FH.

Wow' I hadn't even checked this but it's certainly provoked some strong reaction. I am definitely not the Italian Deli in disguise, I just thought it was a great new addition to the area with some great ingredients at good prices and (dare I say it) lovely ice cream! I think forest hill really benefits from good new businesses and also really like the ones who have been here a while (I.e Sugar Mountain). Hopefully they will learn to coexist.

The point from a business point of view is that a new business helps to increase the footfall, which benefits all the existing shops/restaurants. A copy of an existing business is likely merely to take some of the existing trade.

Good morning sherwood,il merto is anything other than a copy,one is a sweet shop as its main business and the other is a deli,both sell ice cream,this is a overlap in business ,I guess the main difference in the ice cream is one is mass produced some where else and one is made freshly on the premises,

From a business point of view, strangely, similar businesses located close by can help everyone.
The area becomes known as a centre of excellence and generates more trade for everyone. (Tottenham ct Rd for Hi-Fi was the classic example).

FH is now known to have a number of good quality tea/coffee shops, so friends meeting up might come here knowing there is a choice should one be too busy.

An ice cream parlour is a very compatible business, so I really hope it works out for everyone.
But if FH is to be a successful leisure area, it needs to be more pedestrian friendly - I think I've mentioned this before...