Comet, Jessops and HMV
I don’t think in the last seven or so years, I’ve ever used any of these shops. I certainly haven’t since C died.
In fact, my last camera was bought in John Lewis, as was my last computer and most of the goods one traditionally bought at Comet.
And as I rarely listen to music these days, I don’t have a need for HMV or their on-line alternatives.
Now I know that my non-purchases didn’t push them over the edge, but we live in times, where every purchase is made with care, either for financial reasons or just for those of style and taste. Goods too, last longer.
Fatal Blow For John Lewis Store At Sprucefield
This is the headline over a report on the BBC web site. It concerns the political arguments about John Lewis opening a department store in Northern Ireland.
Personally, I think they would be very brave to do it, given the stupid fuss being created by so-called Loyalists about the flying of flags.
The article does suggest John Lewis might open in the Republic. Now that would probably be a sounder business decision, as the only organised violence there generally happens at places like Croke Park and the Aviva Stadium.
Britain’s Favourite Shopkeepers To Invade Europe
I picked up this story about John Lewis in the Sunday Times, but it’s in more detail here in the FT.
Not only are they going to have foreign language web sites, but they are talking of having stores in Europe. There first venture is Waitrose in Jersey. Hardly a risk, as most of the customers will probably speak English, but typical of the John Lewis softly-softly approach.
Getting The Blues
The tiles in my house are pretty tired. Mainly due to ten years hard wear with innumerable tenants, but also I suspect because knowing Gerry, they weren’t the best tiles to start with.
Getting The Blues
So I’ve decided to get rid of the hideous tiled skirting board and replace it with an oak one and put down a proper carpet.
This afternoon, I went to John Lewis to see what they’d got. I chose a Brinton’s carpet in a shade called Coast. Mainly because the book had been left open at that shade.
It was only after I left the shop, I realised that it might have been the same carpet, we used to have around the Chinese carpet in our house at Debach, nearly forty years ago. In that case though, we bought the blue carpet first from a shop in Woodbridge and then bought the Chinese carpet in Hong Kong.
My only problem, is was it C or the Chinese, that made someone leave the carpet book open at the page? A Chinese friend at the time, said that the carpet was a lucky design.
A Better Way To Pay By Credit Card?
There are certain things, I don’t like where money is concerned.
The first is smart-phones, as they are just status symbols, beloved of the light-fingered. So if anybody suggests that I need those to do things like buy a train ticket, a coffee or a pair of knickers, or even replace my rail ticket then I say a big no!
I don’t like too to always have to carry more than one payment card. At present, I usually carry two; my Freedom Pass for transport in London and usually my John Lewis/Waitrose credit card for purchases. I would like to be like the Queen and not carry any cash, but as I do like coffee, which is almost as good as milk for my throat, I’ve always got a few coins in my pocket. So I have a small folder with these cards, my Senior Railcard and a few of my business cards in my pocket. My wallet stays at home most of the time, when I’m in London. I did lose the folder once and within a few hours, the bus driver had phoned me saying he’d got it and I could get it from the garage.
So I was rather intrigued, when I saw in the Sunday Times, an article about Square, a payment company started by one of people who brought us Twitter. You upload your picture, a recording of your name and credit card details to a web site and then when you go into say Starbucks, their iPad app recognises you and your name recording is the password. You can get your receipt as a text message to any phone as new as a Nokia 6310i. I knew I was right about smart phones being dead end technology. Nothing will persuade me to get one. If for instance, a shop, a theatre or a train company said I must have a smart phone to purchase their product, then I will make sure that I take my business elsewhere and give them all the bad publicity they deserve.
I can’t wait to walk into Starbucks on Upper Street, say “Anonymous Widower” and get my cappuccino.
The Olympic Park From John Lewis At Eastfield
John Lewis at Eastfield have opened a viewing gallery of the Olympic Park.
These are pictures, I took today.
It certainly gives good views of the Olympic Park.
Paying Credit Cards
I have two credit cards; one with my bank and one with John Lewis. Today I paid the bills and transferred some money to each from my on-line account.
I used the bank’s faster payments system for the John Lewis account and it disappeared from my account immediately, but on past form it’ll take a few days to get to my account there.
The internal transfer hasn’t left my account yet and it hasn’t been credited to the other account, which I suppose is fair.
As I’m in all day. I’ll be updating this post during the day.
A Stationery Department Has Moved
I took this picture in John Lewis in Oxford Street yesterday.
A Stationery Department has Moved
I always felt that stationery Departments were stationary. But obviously this one isn’t!
A similar pun was used at school in a notice put on a door at school.
Stationery Department
Hasn’t Moved in Years
I think it may have been one April Fool’s Day.
Where’s the Gluten-Free Food at Eastfield?
I went to John Lewis today at Eastfield, to see if I could get some blinds. They were very helpful and I now have a good base price.
What I also wanted was a good late lunch to set me up for the weekend.
But could I find any gluten-free food? No! But then I didn’t check out all the restaurants. Surprisingly, I didn’t find a decent Indian restaurant, especially when you consider that a good proportion of the clients are of South Asian descent.
So in the end, I took the DLR to Carluccio’s at Canary Wharf and had an excellent meal there.
Tracing an IKEA Refund
In mid-September, I ordered some things using their web site from IKEA. Because they couldn’t deliver at a time convenient to me, I cancelled the order. I’ve done this in the past and usually, I get an e-mail within a few days.
But this time I haven’t, so whilst I was waiting for the football to start, I gave them a call. I did have to wait quite a time for it to get answered, but I’ve had worse delays.
They told me that the refund was on its way and would I check with my bank.
It was on my John Lewis Partnership card and I couldn’t find it. But have you ever tried to find a trabsaction on the Partnership Card website. Compared to something like Nationwide or PayPal and I suspect many others, it’s a load of old cobblers.
- Recent transactions doesn’t seem to include any payments you have made.
- You can’t look at a specific time period, like the last three months, as you can on many credit card web sites.
- You can’t select just payments in. This meant a couple of months ago, I paid the bill twice.
At least though, I’d accessed the web site recently. I think if you don’t in 60 days, you need to get a new password, through the post.
I wouldn’t keep the card, but I think it gives me extra benefits when I shop in John Lewis or Waitrose. One of those extra benefits was that I could use the QuickCheck method of shopping, but no stores near me have it and I prefer to use the delivery option. So the reasons for keeping it are quickly getting reduced to the one that I like to have both a Visa and a Mastercard. Especially as my Visa is useless on-line, as it has that awful Verified by Visa security system.
The Anonymous Widower 