Sex Shop Window Haunts Florist

A florist received an unwelcome surprise when the windows of her store misted up and revealed its past as a licensed sex shop. Every morning, large letters spelling out the store's previous function are clearly visible to passers by in Reigate, Surrey. Clare Ross, who owns Willows flower shop with her mum, Shirley, said: "We have done everything we can to get rid of it but it just won't go. "Every day it's back. I knew this place had been a sex shop but it was completely empty when we took it over. There were no signs of its past at all.
"Then suddenly these huge letters appeared in the morning condensation saying licensed sex shop above our Interflora sign." She sponged it away every morning only for it to come back the next day. She said: "I was worried it would put our customers off. There was a big hoo-haa when the sex shop opened because it's not that kind of town and it is very residential round here. "We are trying to sell love and romance, not sex." The Pillow Talk sex shop, part of a national chain, opened in the quiet street near the railway station, where dozens of children get the train to school every day, in 2004, despite a 289-signature petition and 173 letters of objection. The windows were blacked out with red film to hide the blue DVDs, sex toys and kinky clothes on sale inside.
Ms Ross, 40, said: "We did everything we could to get rid of the ghostly letters that came back to haunt us. We had a professional cleaner in, tried lighter fluid, petrol, scouring pads. Nothing worked. The glue from the sticky lettering has seeped right into the glass and the history is locked away there. "The only way to get rid of it would be to replace the whole window. But now everyone has got used to it, it's become a bit of a talking point. People come in to ask us if we realise there is sex shop emblazoned on our window and end up buying flowers, so maybe we'll keep it."

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Perhaps they should try some "Rain-x" or other hydrophobic coating - this sometimes hides the ghosting - or perhaps the shop is happy with the publicity it's enjoying?