Targetting Businesses that Avoid Tax
If you read this blog regularly, you’ll see that I tend to shop and purchase with I hope an ethical dimension. Other things come into it like good service and convenience.
So if I need something quickly here, I’ll tend to use local shops or the two small Sainsbury stores within walking distance. As one has a good Free From section and sells Green’s beer, I use it a couple of times a week.
As I said in a previous post, I never use Tesco, except when it is totally to my advantage, as the store’s attitude gets up my nose in so many ways. But I am a free man and can have my own prejudices towards business.
So when it comes to the protests against the likes of Vodafone and Arcadia, because of tax avoidance, I have a certain sympathy with the protesters. But these two companies have been on my don’t buy list for years, as I don’t like their attitude. My cheaper clothes usually end up being purchased in such as Gap and Marks & Spencer, if possible. But lately, it’s been Gap, as they have a small size that isn’t made for the obese. Fit is important to me.
So if these protests cost Philip Green some money, I’m not bothered, especially, as I never use his shops because they don’t have what I want. I’m also annoyed with British Home Stores for effectively cutting out the dry way of getting from Oxford Street tube to John Lewis, by reorganising their store. But that doesn’t bother me now, as I can take a 73 bus to right outside John Lewis.
I tend to use John Lewis a lot, as I get service and goods that last at a good price. But then could the service be so good because John Lewis is a partnership with everybody’s bonus on the line?
The Organised Shopper
I am one of that rare breed, a man who actually likes shopping. But then so did my father! Especially, when he had money. He didn’t always.
As a 10-year-old, I used to trail my mother’s wicker trolley round perhaps a kilometre to Williams Brothers on Cockfosters Road to get the weekly shop. The only item I can remember with a price is a leg of New Zealand lamb at 15 shillings. In those days the shop paid a reward in fake money, which was a bit like a Co-op divi or the reward points offered by most supemarkets these days in one form or another.
When I lived in Suffolk, I always used a store with their Quick Check facility, so that I could be in and out as fast as possible. I also packed the bags so that everything came out in an order, that meant putting things away quicer too. My nightmare was having a recheck as this meant that nothing was in the right place and putting things away took twice the time.
Now that I am in London I have easy access to two Waitrose branches; Angel, Islington and Jones Brothers. I’m afraid that corner site on the Holloway Road will always be Jones Brothers to me, as it was one of first department stores I encountered as a child, along with Pearsons in Enfield. Pearsons had one of those central tills, with wires and cash carriers leading to all the service desks. Well-behaved children were allowed to send the money on its way, by pulling the chain.
But neither of these Waitrose branches has Quick Check, which means I have to endure the queues at the checkout. Yesterday, I was told to go to the checkout in order by one of the store’s staff, only to find, that some oick about thirty-five buying bottles of expensive booze had taken my space. He then accused me of queue jumping. I’ve never done that deliberately and now after the stroke, I always wait to make sure I don’t do it inadvertently. I ended up delaying the whole queue, as it took me a couple of minutes to organise everything.
So you can see why I want a Quick Check store, as not only do I get everything packed up as I go, but I can take my time properly to fulfil the list, I’ve written. There is a small point here, in that I like a trolley with a list holder, as I only have one 100% hand, with the left at about eighty on a good day.
So this morning, I’ve been on Waitrose’s web site, to try to find a branch nearby or on one of the seven or so bus routes that stop within a hundred metres of my house, that has Quick Check. Waitrose’s branch search is bad and won’t even show me which branches are close to my post code. So you have to bring up all the individual London branches and see if they have the facility. There is a link which says it will find those branches with Quick Check, but it just points you to the main search page, which gets me back to the proverbial and useless square one.
There is also one other thing I want from a supermarket. And that is a map of the store, showing what is in each of aisles. Not in great detail, but sufficient so that I casn logically progress round the store without being ambushed, if I write what I need on it. It’s one of the reasons, I only use Tesco, when they are only place I can get something. Every store is disorganised deliberately, so you end up passing many things you don’t need or even want. And to make it worse finding the Free From section in Tescos usually means checking the whole store. I never ask, as that wastes my time.
These maps could be available for printing off the Internet, so that all the shopping is organised before I leave home.
I suppose I could shop on line, but then I don’t get to choose the fish or vegetables I want.
I’m also looking for a square back-pack, so that I can carry things home easier.
Rear Window
I took this picture, through the rear window of a 277 bus yesterday.
Through the Rear Window of a 277 Bus
I then walked round Highbury Corner and had lunch in Carluccio’s in Upper Street, before getting my provisions in Waitrose at the Angel.
Snow in Upper Street
Home was just a walk to Upper Street, with my backpack loaded with veetables and the other heavy stuff and one of Waitrose’s Quick Check carriers with all the other stuff. Once on Upper Street, a 38 bus took me to within a hundred metres of home.
It was all so easy. And yet there were people still driving around looking for parking spaces.
My Road in the Snow
I suppose I’ve lived in London off and on for about half my life.
But I can only remember it snowing like this twice in London before.
Once when I was a child about eleven and then one Christmas when we lived in St. John’s Wood, I can remember driving to East Barnet to bring my mother-in-law to Christmas lunch through the snow in a borrowed Vauxhall Cresta.
But this is my road tonight.
Snow in my Road
Dissappointed with the Virgins
I say virgins, as all of the services are not really up to scratch. Or at least what I expect.
- The broadband has now failed five times and I have to switch off the modem and reboot every time. As it improved when I undid all the connections and reconnected them, I think it’s all down to a bad joint. But it’s annoying.
- They still haven’t transferred my previous landline number to the new connection.
- But the biggest problem is the design of the box that provides television. I give it about four out of ten, whereas I’d give my previous Sky-Plus nine. The reason it would only get that, is that it lacks the back button, which the virgin has.
- I’m also paying for ESPN and it’s not being delivered.
They will be getting an ear-wigging today.
Living with Pubs
In all the places C and I lived we never had a pub within walking distance, except when we lived in St. John’s Wood and the Barbican. But in those cases we could not either not afford to go out for a drink, or pay for a reliable baby sitter.
Here though, I have four pubs, two restaurants, a deli with a cafe and several other cafes within two minutes walk. I actually have a pub on the corner, but it doesn’t serve my type of drink; proper cider. I’;ve only been there once and although it looks nice, it just isn’t my type of pub.
Last night, I walked two minutes away and found a real pub with what looked like decent drink and food. The building was also in the style of many London pubs, that have been immortalised in East Enders, but it had a rather nice courtyard around it, that will be a nce place to drink in warmer weather.
I had a decent half of Addlestone‘s cider, talked to the chef about gluten-free food and then walked home. I shall try some of the food in the next week or so.
So as I had a nice snack lunch with a friend in one of the other pubs, that makes two that will satisfy my taste within walking distance.
02030265001
I used to get about three calls a day from this number on my old landline in Suffolk. It say’s I’ve won a cruise in the Caribbean or Florida or some other place I’m not keen on visiting. As it was an American voice, I usually just cut them off, if I didn’t spot the number before I picked up the phone.
I’m transferring the Suffolk number to my London house, so that I don’t have to change how people phone me. But in the meantime, I’ve got it diverted to my mobile and you guessed it, I got one on that today, after being diverted.
What is going to be fun, is when Virgin complete the transfer of the number, will they be able to stop these nuisance calls?
By the way don’t ever do anything with this number except cut it off immediately. Remember if they do it three times it’s harrassment! It would be rather good if someone actually tried to use the Harrassment Act against these idiots. But there are much better things to do, like slag off these people down the pub to warn everybody not to fall a victim. It might get you a free drink!
One interesting result of this scam might be, that it actually puts people off taking a cruise with one of the reputable American cruise companies. I hope one of them or their trade organisation has put the Feds on the case!
Why I Love John Lewis!
This may be a personal view, but then John Lewis is one of Britain’s most respected brands.
I went to Oxford Street today for two reasons; to have lunch in Carluccio’s and buy some storage and other goods for my house.
I arrived about two thirty and made for the television department, as I wanted a double swivel wall bracket for my lrge-screen television. Some have said that I should have a bigger one, but then I think 32 inches is big enough for me, especially as my eyesight isn’t perfect. But I do want to be able to view it either from my kitchen and both ends of my living space at various times. So I was sold a bracket, that would do all the swivelling, but would also take a larger screen if I decided to upgrade. So that probably saved me the cost of a second bracket, which is about £100.
I then bought some underbed storage boxes, a dual-compartment waste bin and a vegetable rack on wheels in the basement. Three people offered to carry them for me to the till and eventually after I’d paid for them, one even took the storage boxes to the customer collection department, where after a few minutes I was united with the rubbish bin.
But that wasn’t the end of it, as not even a Chinese pole juggler could have carried all of my parcels, even taking account of the fact that the TV bracket was in my backpack. So the guy behind the desk in Customer Collection came out and carried one parcel to the taxi rank at the back of the shop.
The taxi home did cost me £25, but it was the rush hour and the driver got out of the cab and helped me get the parcels into the house.
Isn’t John Lewis and London wonderful?
New Power for an Old Friend
One thing that got temporarily lost in the move was the charger for my Nokia 6310i. It will probably be found, but I thought that it would be prudent to have a spare, as I do have a spare phone and a spare battery.
I found a new one for just £5 at a stall in Chapel Market.
A New Charger for My 6310i
So now I have a fully-charged phone again.
Am I Bothered?
Look at this picture of a Congestion Charge sign.
Congestion Charge Sign
And this parking ticket machine.
Parking Ticket Machine
But then look at this picture of the traffic as I approached the West End on one of the few means of transport still available to me, my feet.
Traffic in the West End
So am I bothered? Not in the least, as I can still walk, use buses, the Underground and other trains and where it is more convenient or a cost saving, I can even use a black cab!
