Nav Johal outside the Tech Exchange

VIDEO games, flat screen televisions and guitars – along with more unusual items like figurines and coins – line the shelves of a modern day pawn shop in Chapel Market.

And Tech Exchange’s manager says the number of people coming in gets bigger every day.

“You see more people needing money recently with what’s happening, with cost-of-living and energy bills going up,” said Nav Johal, who said “more people that you haven’t seen before” are coming through his doors in recent months.

Often, these are people in work, trying to make ends meet between pay days.

Mr Johal said: “You do see people like that now who have got jobs and what they’re earning is not enough – regular people who’ve got jobs, who need a little boost to their income, a little boost to pay their bills and a boost to pay for food.”

Customers are able to borrow relatively large sums of money without credit checks on the basis of the market value of the items they pledge.

Pawnbrokers will offer short-term loans worth up to 70 per cent of item’s value.

Customers then have a four-week period to buy back, or redeem, the items they have pawned, with a repurchase rate of 32.5 per cent. The industry is regulated in the UK and pawnbrokers are only allowed to sell an item if it has not been redeemed within six months. When the pawnbroker decides to sell the item, they must ask for its market value, and if an item sells for above its asking price, the customer is given the difference.

Mr Johal estimates he’s seen an increase of 50 per cent in people coming in to pawn their belongings in the last year.

At the same time, he’s noticed a dramatic drop in those coming into buy items.

“The people we want to sell to – that side of it has declined big time. We’re getting more stuff coming in stock wise,” he said.

“But then to sell it on… it’s hard.”

Mr Johal has run his pawnbroking business in Chapel Market for the last 15 years, initially opening as part of the Cash Converters franchise just before the 2008 financial crash.

“I remember the last time we had a crash, we were busy. Everyone needed money,” he said.

As the recession deepens, Mr Johal is not ruling out the return of similar queues.

“We’ll see,” he said. “It might happen again.”