Charlie Barnes was the owner of a newsagent in close proximity to The Kabin. In October 1974, when Len Fairclough swapped around Rita Littlewood and Mavis Riley's jobs, neither woman turned up at work in protest. Len was forced to run the shop but as the morning papers were late going out, many of their regular customers refused the papers as they'd already got them from Charlie Barnes's.
Also that day, when Len refused to sell fireworks to schoolgirl Sally Balley, the bratty girl told Len to keep his wig on and left to get some at Charlie Barnes's newsagent. Len wasn't stocking fireworks at The Kabin because of Mark Hillkirk's bonfire accident the year before.
In 1975, Charlie put his newspaper customers on fortnightly accounts and stopped delivering if they didn't settle their bills. When Mavis asked Betty Turpin for the £3.24 on her Kabin account, Betty threatened to get her papers from Charlie Barnes in future, only for Mavis to inform her that Charlie was far more strict with customers who ran up their bills.