A woman has criticised the “tacky” shopkeepers in a beautiful UK seaside town for allegedly treating tourists with “absolute hatred”. Cornishwoman Katharine Piper launched an attack on the shopkeepers of Looe.
Writing on CornwallLive, Ms Piper, 41, wrote about how polluted the water used to be when she was a child.
She wrote: “Today I found the strength within me to brave a visit to Looe. As a child I remember wading through crisp packets, nappies and other unspeakables, wrapping around your legs as you waded in, suffocating your face as you resurfaced from a dive.
“The wretched brown water would try and force itself down your throat and you did everything to keep your mouth as tightly shut as possible. The water is clearer and there is less rubbish than in the Eighties.”
Although the water had changed in the 30 years since Ms Piper had visited the town, she said the behaviour of shopkeepers had changed a lot.
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She said: “I do not remember the shopkeepers being so miserable and treating you with absolute hatred and contempt. Perhaps they did but I was an oblivious youth.
“Some hate tourists, presume that you are one, just want your money. It would soften the blow if these tacky tourist shops that plague beautiful Cornwall would at least pretend to have some fondness for you.
“But they don’t, they hate you, they just want your money. If they’re nice it’s probably insincere.”
Ms Piper added while there were some exceptions the experience was “not isolated to Looe, it’s the whole of Cornwall”.
Ms Piper wrote she’d had to park “twenty miles away to avoid the extortionate parking fees” and that she felt like she’d “been done over by a highwayman, all for a raspberry slushy and an insipid machine coffee”.
Alongside her criticism of Looe, Ms Piper provided three tips on how to get through a holiday in Cornwall.
She said: “Arrive everywhere early, earlier than you think early is…you have to arrive at your planned destination before 9.30am at the latest or forget it, your day is ruined.”
Ms Piper added that people shouldn’t feel pressured by family or business owners to part with their money. She said: “We’re fleecing you because you’re a dreaded tourist, an evil necessity. You’re paying this much but really it only costs X amount and that’s for ‘local people’.”
Ms Piper’s final tip applied to parents and advised them to keep a close eye on their children. She wrote: “The third tip is to watch your small children more closely.
“I’m always surprised at how confident parents are allowing their two-year-old to teeter on the edge of a deep pool of water while they’re half a mile down the beach. Ultimately the key to enjoying Cornwall lies in its natural beauty and avoiding the inhabitant’s greedy claws.
“I completed my day out today feeling embarrassed that Cornwall is being partly represented to the outsider by this miserable batch. They’re not always local themselves, some have moved here, taken root, and started sapping.”
Ms Pipers’ comments come just days after another seaside town was accused of being “hell on earth”. Writing a review on TripAdvisor, one user complained that St Ives’ beach had the “wrong sort of sand”.
Another user wrote that the town was “overcrowded, noisy, covered in litter. Why would anyone with any sense want to go to this place which is hell on earth?”.
