Crunch Creep
12:47 UK time, Friday, 1 August 2008
Strange, tangential and sometimes frankly spurious events laid at the door of the credit crunch.
- Truro Cathedral cannot get new bells. A £103,000 bequest - in the form of shares in a bank - to pay for the new bits of metal has lost two-thirds of its value in the 18 months since it was made.
- Greggs are selling more pasties and sausage rolls. The chief executive thinks the firm might be benefiting from shoppers looking for a cheaper lunch.
- There's been a 100% rise in yacht theft insurance claims since last year. One company - Charles Taylor Adjusting - wonders whether credit crunch-inspired fraud could be to blame for some of it.
- While musicals are doing brilliantly in London's West End, straight plays are not, and it could all be a question of credit crunch gloom avoidance. Nica Burns, chief executive of Nimax Theatres, which owns the Apollo and Lyric, said: "When times are hard, people are more likely to spend what little money they have on being cheered up by a musical."
- Starbucks is giving away a free cup of coffee to customers buying a hot drink as part of a plan to "engage the customer with the coffee experience".
The 
