A Disappointing Trip to Eastfield
The Waitrose at Westfield Stratford City is the only place I’ve found the delicious Genius gluten-free fruit bread.
As I needed one or two other things and also a prescription dispensed, I took the train to Stratford and walked to the centre.
But I didn’t get anything I wanted, except for the drugs.
- Waitrose were out of the gluten-free fruit bread and also the normal Genius bread as well.
- Marks didn’t have any gluten-free bread either, but they did have three gluten-free ham sandwiches. So at least they must be stocking them now!
So I left a few minutes after I got there and returned home.
I think though, I can recommend the Boots pharmacy there. I got everything I wanted without waiting, as obviously, the store isn’t the place where people would normally go for their prescriptions. It’s lovely to shop without queues.
One thing that annoys me about the centre, is that to get between the main entrance and Marks at the front and Waitrose and John Lewis at the back, means that I have to run the gauntlet of a crowded corridor and lot of shops with the exception of Starbucks and PC World, I never have visited and never will. It would be much better if the two end escalators were round the other way and I could walk across at first floor level, descending as required. There is also no direct link between John Lewis and Waitrose inside the store, which puts me off visiting both on the same visit. I should say I don’t buy much in Waitrose on most days, as I’m only getting my supper. For a big shop I go to Waitrose in Islington and get them to do the carrying.
First Impressions of Eastfield
As Bill Turnbull has used the colloquial term for London’s newest cathedral of shopping, I feel free to use it now and in future, as so many do.
So what is it like?
These pictures show that it is glitzy and it was very busy today.
Here are a few more detailed points.
The Marks and Spencer is enormous and I was actually able to find some trousers for the winter in my size of a 30 waist and a 29 leg. I joked with the assistant, that all the small sizes get bougt by the staff and he didn’t disagree.
The food hall is also large and there was both good and bad news. There was no gluten-free sandwiches, but the manager, told me she’d had that question several times in the day. So perhaps Marks will sort that one out.
John Lewis was its usual self and probably almost as large as Oxford Street.
But it was the next door Waitrose that was impressive. I’ve not seen a bigger one, that wasn’t a food shop with a mini-John Lewis attached like the one near Higham Ferrers. It seemed that they were trialing a few new products, including some Genius fruit bread, that I’d not seen before. This Waitrose will probably become the shop where I’ll go for special food shopping instead of Canary Wharf or Jones Brothers, but I’ll still do general grocery shopping at Upper Street, as they deliver. Eastfield doesn’t deliver as far as me.
The restaurants I saw, were not my sort of places, as they were typically fast food, burgers and non-gluten-free. But this doesn’t matter, as after the Olympics, it’ll be next to one of the biggest parks in Europe, so you’ll go to Marks or Waitrose and buy a picnic.
There were a few teething problems, one of which was the lack of signs to the trains in the centre, but it is infinitely better than the rather tired Lakeside and Oxford Street.
I was impressed too, that the General Manager of London Underground was there talking to travellers. Bosses should do this more often.
A Use for a Cheque
I got a cheque today to settle my problem with National Express East Anglia. I’m not a lover of cheques, but this must be one use for them, as they didn’t have my bank details and probably the credit card details weren’t stored either, as it was a transaction in a station.
Incidentally john Lewis give out gift vouchers for small payments and another rail company gave me compensation for a late train in a Rail Travel Voucher. For me neither is a problem, as I go to Waitrose a couple of times a week and I suspect that the Rail Voucher will be used on a trip to see Ipswich Town.
I wonder how long before Universal Gift Vouchers or something similar become commonplace. These would be bar coded and possibly issued to a particular person, very much like the vouchers I buy for The Times. I think some companies already use M & S vouchers in this way.
When I paid the cheque into my account at a branch of Nationwide in Upper Street, the counter was empty, and I joked with the cashier about writing few cheques these days. He agreed that he didn’t either and judging by his expression, he’d done little business that day. Admittedly, it was lunchtime, but all this seems to say that counter service will soon be gone.
We just need to replace the cheque.
A Too Good Delivery System Causes Problems
This may seem a rather cntroversial title for a post, as most would envisage, that any delivery from a mail order site can’t be too good.
On Thursday, I ordered a new television from John Lewis. Incidentally, I had wanted to order it a few weeks ago, but they didn’t have the model I wanted in stock, so I asked them to e-mail me when it arrived in stock. That e-mail arrived on the Thursday and I ordered it there and then.
In the ordering process, I could have got it delivered on a specific day or morning for a charge, but let’s face it as I’d waited a few weeks, I thought that to wait for the normal five days wiouldn’t be a problem.
I then got an e-mail on the Saturday saying that John Lewis had dispatched it and giving me a link to the delivery company. On checking with them, I found it was going to be delivered on the Saturday. So as I reasoned that van drivers stop work at midday on Saturday (Don’t they?), I decided to stay in and wait. Even though the web ste clearly stated that if I wasn’t in, I could arrange a redelivery on line.
I almost gave up, as I wanted to get my paper and some shopping. But the parcel turned up just before one!
In other words they got the parcel on the day they said they would, but I wouldn’t have minded waiting a few days. But then when did you get a five day delivery in forty-eight hours?
Actually, we might be back to the ASAP scheduling problem, I highlighted in the post on NHS waiting times. Take say the problem of ordering goods, just before you go away for a holiday. You might like to delay them until after you return. With John Lewis you can specify a delivery date, but perhaps you might like to specify a not before date, or say a day of the week.
I think we’ll see increasingly sophisticated on-line delivery systems and that will be better for the consumer and more efficient. and hence more profitable, for the shops and the delivery companies.
Olympic Tat
I want to get some Olympic towels for my guests. Especially, as some have a rather cynical view of the Games.
As I was going to john Lewis, I had a look in their official Olympic Shop. The towels were twice the price of the ones I use from John Lewis and not at all good.
But then very little of what was on offer seemed to be worth buying.
The IKEA Obstacle Race
I need some stuff from IKEA and want it to be delivered, as that way I don’t have to carry it all the way on a bus. The total was of around £300 and was a total of 10 pieces.
The order went through efficiently from the web site and they said delivery would be around the 16th of July. I do take IKEA a bit sceptically about delivery dates, as some of the items I have ordered in the past, have arrived a few days after the originally quoted delivery date. But as someone who understands scheduling very well, I know that you can’t meet all the quoted dates, but I would have been quite happy to wait a few more days.
However, yesterday they phoned me and the courier firm said that the earliest they could do deliveries would be the 4th of August, which is quite a way into the future and four weeks later than I was originally quoted.
So this morning, I cacelled the order. I still want the goods, but they are just a bit much to bring home on the bus. And one of the pieces wouldn’t fit in my son’s old Mini.
Why is it that other companies like John Lewis, Dixons and Marks and Spencer, seem to get the last delivery right, but others, like IKEA just cause more and more hassle?
Incidentally, in this case, I would have paid a few extra pounds to get the item delivered on a day convenient to myself.
Getting The Interface Between Real and Internet Shopping Right!
I recently bought some towels from John Lewis, as most of mine are rather tatty and frayed. I also wanted all of them to be the same dark blue colour. C had bought numerous ones over the years and we had purples, reds, green and yellows to name but four colours.
I needed to buy some more to match my new ones, but they don’t have any serial number on the tag, so that I can order the right ones. The only way to do it, is to keep the packaging or take the towel back to the store. I can’t even login to my John Lewis account and get the details that way.
In this instance it isn’t that serious, but it does mean I’ll have to take one of my towels back, so that I can get the same colour. If it was properly tagged with a stock number or this was available on-line from my account, it would mean that all I would need to do is repeat the order on-line.
Other shops like IKEA and I think a few others have a consistent internet and real shopping numbering system that works. Surely getting it right would mean they got more repeat sales. I know ranges change, but I suspect that a lot of the stuff stocked in John Lewis hasn’t changed at all in years.
London Is Heaving
There must be something going on in London later in the week.
I was trying to locate some lights for my hall, so I decided to take the Underground to Warren Street and then walk to Selfridges by way of Habitat, Heals, John Lewis and Marks and Spencer.
A couple of years ago I bought some bedside lights from John Lewis, that are touch on and touch off. I would show you a link to their web site, but they are not there, although they were in the Oxford Street store. Here’s a picture of the bedside light.
John Lewis Touchable Table Lamp
They work well and what I want is three tall ones, so that I can place them at strategic points in my hall. And as I walk past in the dark, they will automatically switch on, when I touch them.
In fact, you can play lots of games with this type of concept. Perhaps, when you are out or it is pitch dark, they should switch on and they could text my mobile phone to say that someone was about.
The possibilities of this sort of technology are endless. The text message facility could even be used to locate where you have put your mobile phone. I once had an e-mail from a friend, asking to call his mobile phone, as he’d left it somewhere in his house and couldn’t find it. Like many these days he didn’t have a landline. He does now!
I finally found an elegant tall lamp in Selfridges, but why are there so few?
I can’t be the only person, who when they enter their house in the dark, doesn’t have a light in the hall, that is close to hand. But I have a space between the door and the wall, where I could put such a light.
A Space for a Tall Lamp
Ideally it would be touchable, but a foot switch would be an alternative. Note the switches on the wall. They are for the outside lights, or at least I can’t get them to work any others. At least, I’ve got a suitable powerpoint, but note the cracked plaster above it. Jerry’s electrician didn’t have a clue.
You might argue, why I don’t have a light in the hall? Jerry didn’t put one in to save money and to put one in would mean trunking all over the place as the ceiling is a concrete slab. Wall lights are so naff! And yes, I’ve got lots of really hideous ones, probably bought in some bastion of good design like Fred’s El-Cheapo Lighting Emporium in Dalston Market. Don’t knock that market, as I think, Lord Sugar started his business careeer there.
The trip wasn’t helped by the fact that London seemed to have many more people about than normal. To make matters worse there were lots of smokers lining up outside the shops having a cough and a drag. Some were even sitting on the floor, creating more unseen hazards for people with limited vision. I did think about deliberately falling over a particular well-upholstered couple dragging away with one hand and eating a burger with the other but I decided against it, as I would have hated to have contact with such an awful pair of individuals.
Let’s hope that London gets a little bit less busy as the week goes on. I have a lot of shopping to do!
The Blind Saga Ends
I posted earlier that Juhn Lewis mucked me about with the blinds for my house. In the end a few weeks ago, I did get the blinds for my bedroom on March 14th. And very nice they are too! They work as intended and couldn’t be better.
One thing that was rather annoying was that they’d originally charged me for the two larger blinds for the living room and the one for the bedroom was cheaper. This wouldn’t have mattered too much, as they refunded the difference. But because of all the messing about, the refund didn’t go through on the same statement, so I ended up with having to pay interest of £29 on my credit card account. I did get a few extra points, but their mistake in making up the wrong blinds cost me money as well as the embarrassment of being without bedroom blinds for several weeks.
Now that I’m happy with the bedroom blinds and as I’ve replaced the two broken panes in the living room, I felt a week or so, ago, that at the right price, the blinds might do for the living room, as I know the style and quality.
In fact, when they delivered the wrong blinds, I was asked if I would accept them for a consideration. I said no, as at the time the windows needed replacing in the living room and my glazier preferred to do this before the blinds were fitted.
So I wrote to John Lewis, saying that if the right consideration was on offer, I might accept the blinds for the living room, that were now sitting in their store.
Yesterday, I got a phone call on my mobile from John Lewis asking if I wanted the blinds. As I had told them before to call on my landline and I was busy at the time, I asked them to phone back in the afternoon.
But as in a couple of cases before, they didn’t.
So today, I took the bull by the horns and went to the Oxford Street store and saw someone in person, to whom I told the whole story. He said he needed to talk to the departmental manager and he would be a few minutes.
Whilst he was away, I looked at several other blinds on offer and felt that as I had signed nothing to say I wanted the blinds they had made in error, there might be something that was better and possibly cheaper. You also have to take into account, that I’ve firmed up on the chocolate colour scheme highlighted by brass, since I had the room measured for the blinds. So perhaps they need to be different anyway.
The consideration that I was offered was not in my ball park, so I politely declined the offer and left.
So this morning was a complete waste of time.
What I will be doing I do not know, but I think my days of dealing with the accident-prone curtain and blinds department in John Lewis are over.
What they do with the blinds they accidentally made for me is totally up to them!
Google is as Useless as Oxford Street
My kitchen isn’t the best from a layout point of view.
A Useless Bin and Vegetable Rack
Note the bin, which deserves to be shot and the rather dainty vegetable rack, placed in the only space I have for them in my kitchen.
To show that I’m not being vindictive, I will start by detailing all of the faults.
- The bin doesn’t take standard plsstic bags from the major supermarkets.
- The lid doesn’t stay up, so when I fish a tea-bag out from a cup, I have to balance the bag all the way across the kitchen to dispose of it. Look at the tea stains on the floor in the picture.
- Every time I take one of the plastic inserts out of the bin, I catch my fingers. Ladies would break their nails regularly. I just trap fingers, which is not good if you’re on Warfarin.
- The vegetable rack has all the stability of a blancmange.
- The rack is too wide for the kitchen and effectively blocks the drawers. That’s my fault and I shouldn’t have bought it. But it was the only one I could find!
I’m working on the bin, but surely what is needed is a simple wall-mounted rack for the vegetables.
So yesterday, I started up one end of Oxford Street and walked to the other looking for a better rubbish bin and vegetable rack. It was just more of the same bad designs.
This morning I’ve typed “wall-mounted vegetable rack” into Google and the search finds lot of entries, but none are wall-mounted vegetable racks. Ty it, if you want a laugh! One entry from Trovit Homes, says that I can buy a wall-mounted vegetable rack from £229950. To put it mildly, the Internet is being ruined by charlatan companies, who get you high positions in the search results.
In fact, I did get one good idea. The shopping baskets in the food hall of John Lewis would make an ideal vegetable basket for my kitchen. I didn’t even bother to ask if I could buy them, as I suspect they have no mechanism to sell me one. I tried to buy one of IKEA’s in-house bins once and they said no.
The Anonymous Widower 