By Tim Binnall
A strange shop in Scotland that served as the country's veritable headquarters for the Flat Earth movement has mysteriously closed its doors. The odd facility, for lack of a better term, was located along a commercial street in the city of Inverness and opened to considerable fanfare back in February of 2018. At the time, it was described as a proverbial pop-up shop meant to serve as a temporary enticement for people to learn more about the controversial conspiracy theory. However, according to a local media report, the site wound up sticking around for the next three years, despite seemingly not being an actual business, and became something of a neighborhood fixture until earlier this month.
Previously festooned with all manner of pamphlets detailing the Flat Earth theory as well as conspiracies involving chemtrails and the coronavirus, the storefront's windows suddenly became barren about two weeks ago and the shop has now seemingly shut down. While one might suspect neighboring businesses would be happy to see the curious destination disappear, their reaction suggests that they just might miss the headquarters and the people it drew to its doors. "At certain times in the last few years, the Flat Earth shop could be pretty busy. It attracted a lot of curious folk, tourists, or people just bemused or laughing at the notices on the window," explained one business owner, "they were never any trouble and always friendly enough on the rare occasion I spoke to them."
Another individual who lives near the location revealed that "everyone was always intrigued as to who could be paying rent for the premises, as it certainly couldn't have been cheap." Although this person observed that "up until about two weeks ago, it seemed like business as usual in the shop," the nature of the establishment as well as how exactly it managed to stay open for so long remains a mystery. To that end, the resident provided something of a glimpse as to what went on behind the doors of the 'store,' saying that "they had couches inside, and games like chess, and they had a lot of gatherings."