Another Reason For Not Shopping At Tesco
In a few minutes time, I’m off to a lecture at the London Geological Society on Piccadilly.
I shall take a 38 bus all the way, as it stops virtually outside my house and the Society.
But I will leave myself plenty of time, as it is the time of day, when Tesco always seem to park their truck outside their convenience, or in this case inconvenience, store at Islington Green, which usually manages to delay the traffic by fifteen minutes or so.
I don’t deal with arrogant businesses like that!
No wonder the company, is a ripe one for breaking up by the vultures of the City!
Premier Foods
Because of the reports like this one on the BBC, I have just crossed Premier Foods off my list of preferred suppliers for my kitchen.
I didn’t like Marmite anyway!
Who’d Be A Clothes Retailer?
According to the Daily Mail, winter clothes aren’t selling as it’s still warm. Here’s the first paragraph.
Indian summer hits M&S and Next clothes sales: Stores unable to shift winter boots and coats because of warm October temperatures.
It doesn’t bother me, as I wear almost the same clothes all year round. I’m always in a short-sleeved shirt, with or without a cashmere jumper from M & S. I do swap cords for chinos if it gets too hot, but I rarely wear shorts. And for nearly eight months now, I’ve worn the same lightweight bomber jacket, as it keeps me dry and has the right format of pockets.
If I’m going somewhere smart, I might wear a 25-year-old sports jacket, which is so unstylish that it gets admired all the time. I wore it at CERN.
I am finding that I’m spending less and less money on clothes. I did think that I might get some new expensive Daks cords for the winter, but when I went to try them on, I found that trendy designers had ruined the design. The fastenings were so complicated, if you had got taken short, you wouldn’t have been able to get your trousers down quick enough. So I decided to buy another pair from M & S.
Because of this inability to buy clothes, I now tend to be ruthless in taking unwanted ones to Oxfam and then buy a replacement in probably M & S.
The only thing I spend money on are belts and bags. I’m still searching for a perfect one of the latter. The trouble is they’re not designed by real people.
Is Vince Cable Pitching For Luddite Of The Year?
I’ve just heard Vince Cable on the radio saying that he will endeavour to get Lloyds to not close the last branch in a town.
I’ve afraid traditional banking is dead. For most people and companies, cheques are no more, branches have no purpose and everything is on the Internet.
If people don’t want to go that way, then I suspect that someone will accommodate them At a price!
People always go on about how would small shops bank their cash. Here in London, they banned cash on buses and although the usual Luddites had their say, nobody seems to bother now!
Praise For Marks And Spencer In An Unlikely Place
Marks and Spencer may not be in the best of health these days, with even their boss saying the results aren’t good enough in this report on the BBC.
He might like this story.
I have a small waist, which needs a thirty-inch-belt. They are hard to find and for the last ten years or so, I’ve always bought them from Paul Smith. Usually at their flagship store in Covent Garden.
Yesterday, I went to get a new one and I found a nice one in brown. I got to talking to the stylish assistant, who came from Bordeaux. He felt I was wearing a very nice pair of chinos.
They were only from Marks and Spencer.
I did buy one of the three pairs I have in a store, but the others were from their web site and delivered to my local store at the Angel.
Their web site worked for me!
A Disastrous Year
Not my words, but those of the the Chief Executive of the Co-Operative Group, Richard Pennycock, as reported on the BBC after the groups £2.5billion loss. He went on to add this.
These results should serve as a wake-up call to anyone who doubts just how serious the challenges we face are.
“The scale of this disaster will rightly shock our members, our customers and our colleagues,
The Co-Operative Group of 2015, will be a totally different organisation to what it is now! If it still exists! \which I seriously doubt!
There is one truism in any business that always applies. Unless you are totally professional in all things, then your venture will not succeed, as those that stick to professional principles will put you out of business.
The Lack Of Left-Luggage Facilities
On the 26th of April, Ipswich are playing in Burnley, and I shall be going.
Unfortunately, the match is on Sky and starts at 12:15, which means taking the 08:30 train to Preston out of Euston, where I change for Burnley.
It is not a difficult journey and I’ve done it before.
However, this time, I think it might be a good idea to go on holiday the next week and there is an ideal flight out of Liverpool to Gdansk on the Saturday evening.
So as it is easy to get to Liverpool Airport from Burnley, via Preston, it would be ideal.
But what do I do with my case for the holiday?
Preston is a major train interchange, but in common with most mid-sized stations in the UK, it doesn’t have any left luggage facilities.
So if I do decide to go on holiday that week, I’ll have to come home to get my case and use a more expensive flight, than the good value one out of Liverpool.
It strikes me that there is an opportunity for someone to create a nationwide system to handle left luggage.
Was This What Really Annoyed The Board At The Co-op?
Prufrock in The Sunday Times looks into the trouble at the Co-op and has this interesting paragraph.
Apparently, certain senior members of the Co-op movement first decided Sutherland had to be stopped after he cut a long-standing entitlement to first class travel for the 20 board members, whose number includes a farmer, a university lecturer and a nurse. Free travel is a perk that disappeared years ago from all but the most lavish plc boards.
So I conclude that to really live well as a socialist, it has to be at the expense of others.
Will Lord Myners Get Co-Operation?
The BBC has reported on Lord Myners review of the Co-Operative Group. Here’s the start of the BBC report.
The Co-operative Group spent too much time on takeover deals that proved “breathtakingly value-destructive,” an initial review has found.
Lord Myners’ review is highly critical of the group’s takeovers of Britannia building society and supermarket chain, Somerfield.
Just up the road from me is a new Co-Operative convenience store at Dalston Junction.
The Co-Operative Store At Dalston Junction
From the outside it looks good.
I regularly come home via Dalston Junction station, from where I catch the bus home to avoid a walk, so you’d think I’d be one of their target customers.
But when I did and I was wanting a bottle of wine for dinner at my son’s, there was only one person on the tills, no self-service ones and several people in the queue.
At another time, I went in looking for a Genius loaf. They did have one, but it was like a plastic bag full of dog biscuits.
The management obviously couldn’t possibly organise a piss-up in the brewery.
I have three convenience stores from the main chains and several independent ones too, all within a short walk from my house. And if pushed, I can walk to the much bigger Sainsbury’s on Kingsland High Street!
I doubt, I’ll buy anything in that Co-Operative store in the next few years.
If that is the best they can do in a thriving retail area, no wonder they’re going down the drain.
I do hope that when they finally decide to jack it in at Dalston Junction, that this store becomes a littleWaitrose. After all, in the next couple of years, the nearby Sainsbury’s will be getting a makeover, which will put more pressure on this Co-op store.
The Anonymous Widower 