COV-19 Isn’t Good For Chuggers
Outside Marks & Spencer on Dalston Kingsland Road this morning, I was accosted by a chugger.
I told him that because of the coronavirus, that I wouldn’t be stopping.
He gave a knowing look and allowed me to walk on!
He didn’t look pleased and I suspect, I wasn’t the first to give him that excuse.
Better Than Chugging
I saw this sign outside Oxfam in Islington.
Better Than Chugging
It’s so much better than annoying people with chuggers.
The Chuggers Are Getting Desperate
As I came out of Dalston Junction station to get the bus home, I was surprised to see a team of chuggers inside the station.
Whilst waiting for the bus, I didn’t see them accost anybody successfully, so I suspect they weren’t doing very well. But then I suspect many who pass through the station, probably need every penny they can keep.
But then, were the chuggers inside the station as it was so wet outside?
The Shops Are Closing
There are a lot of empty shops in the UK with m ore closing, according to various reports like this.
They’ve just had a town centre manager giving his views on BBC Breakfast.
No wonder shops are closing with this view from a real dinosaur in Bury. It was all about anchor tenants, large chains and advertising bringing in the punters.
Shopping must be exciting and fun and you don’t get that in chains!
It should also be chugger and smoke-free, with good public transport.
Yesterday, I needed to get a few food items, so I went to Finsbury Pavement in the City. I got a bus to outside the large Marks and Spencer there, did my shopping, then crossed the road to get my return bus from the other side of the road.
Now that is what I call convenience shopping! I could have had a coffee and visited any one of about thirty other shops in the area.
There are a few chains there, but they are ones I use like Maplins, Boots, Gap and O2 in addition to the excellent Marks.
I’ve never seen a chugger there either and smokers aren’t that common.
The only problem is that there isn’t a good gluten-free cafe, except Starbucks or by walking through to the Barbican or Spitalfields. But at least the Starbucks doesn’t masquerade as a public toilet.
An Early Morning Raid On Waitrose
This morning I needed the usual Saturday morning shopping and as I’m going to Wolverhampton later this morning to see Ipswich play, I went to Waitrose early.
Or should I say two Waitroses, as due to their stocking policy, neither stocks all of my favourite gluten-free brands. First it was a visit to the littleWaitrose at Highbury Corner.
Highbury Corner littleWaitrose
All I bought was a Genius brown loaf, as my previous one was past my view of an eat-by date. It was then on a 43 bus to the Angel.
A 43 Bus To The Angel
And a walk round the corner to one of the smallest proper Waitroses in the country.
Waitrose At The Angel
I got the rest of my shopping here.
Just One Bag And A Loaf
It was just one small bag and a loaf, when I got home.
I suppose I could go to another bigger Waitrose, but then I’d have the problem of finding things in an unfamiliar store. And the Genius brown bread, seems to only be in the littleWaitroses. and decent gluten-free sausages don’t seem to be in any shop in London.
I think the bread and sausage problem is the same. Waitrose believes it’s own brands are good. They are very very wrong!
At least today, I didn’t have to get any EatNatural cereal, as you can only get the vinefruit flavour in Sainsburys. At least it’s at the Angel next to the Waitrose.
The chuggers were also still in their beds.
Where Are The Chuggers?
Or at least they hadn’t arrived yet!
A Public Vote On Chuggers
I know it’s only a newspaper poll on this page in Her Majesty’s Daily Telegraph, but it does give a definite result. On the subject of chuggers, where 641 have voted, 621 voted to say that a crackdown on chuggers was necessary and only 20, has said their tactics were sometimes necessary. This means that 96.88% are in favour of a crackdown.
So I think that this animosity, doesn’t do charities any good!
As I’ve said before, I never support any charity that I see chugging.
These days too, I usually have a few pound coins in my pocket for coffee, good buskers and worthy tins waved in front of me
Julian Knight Hits Two Targets With One Stone
I have a trawl looking for peer-to-peer lending stories and it picked up this article in the Independent by Julian Knight.
He starts by giving an excellent review of peer-to-peer lending and the broadening of financial services in general, saying it is broader in the United States. He concludes by saying.
This, I’d argue, is one of the reasons why in the US they are more entrepreneurial and start-ups get a chance to, well, start up.
He then goes on to talk about some of my least favourite people; chuggers. This his concluding paragraph.
The town of Shrewsbury blazed a trail by banning these individuals last year and now we seem finally to be consigning chuggers to the same place as the likes of the squeegee merchants.
Incidentally, a chugger at the Angel last week, virtually chased me into the road. If there’d been a policeman about, I’d have made a complaint. On the other hand, life is too short.
I shall follow Julian in future.
The Angel Was Like A Morgue
I went up to the Angel as I usually do and it was like a morgue. There was only myself and one other in the queue in Starbucks and I got my preferred window seat. I didn’t see anything worth photographing for the blog.
Waitrose was empty too and I think the staff were lonely, as many talked to me, whilst they were stacking shelves and looking for items.
There weren’t any chuggers or smokers outside the shopping centre!
And of course the bus was virtually empty coming home.
Perhaps, some big event has finished and everybody has left. The bus doing press-ups has gone too!
Wot No Chuggers
I took this picture of a desolate Angel in Islington today.
Wot No Chuggers
You will notice that the pavement is without the dreaded chuggers.
Any ideas?
A Course In Chugging?
They’ve just had a guy on the radio, who runs a course at South Bank University on charity fundraising. How to chug properly is a substantial part.
Surely, we can think of more worthwhile University courses?
Incidentally, they were chugging for Save The Tiger in Islington last week. It would be better if they did this outside the Chinese Embassy!
After all we’ll only save the tiger, if we convince the Chinese to change their ways. I wonder if the Chinese are keen on saving pandas, is that they have no culinary or medicinal use for them!
There is a big piece in The Telegraph today about how the Local Government Association is getting a bit fed up with them and is calling for a clean up of legislation. A spokesman is quoted as saying.
“Government needs to remove the double standard which means volunteers collecting coins for a local hospice need a licence, but agency workers seeking pledges for national charities do not.”
I would agree as a local hospice is much more important than a big national charity. I think though that methods of donation like Just Giving are better. I regularly see an ad and send a small amount. The trouble is some ads are on the Underground and mobile phones don’t work down there.
The Anonymous Widower 