Pearsons Is Still There
When C and I were children, if our parents wanted anything for the home or perhaps some school uniform, we would take the 107 bus from Oakwood and East Barnet respectively and go to Enfield to shop at Pearsons, which was the local department store.
Pearsons Is Still There
It still is, as the picture shows. Although, it is now part of a larger group.
All those days ago, Pearsons was a shop with a central Accounts Department. So if you bought anything, the bill and your money was sent by a system of overhead wires and little trolleys by the assistant and then the change was returned. Later it was replaced by a pneumatic system, which was similar to the one, that Libertys were using into the 1970s.
There’s more in Wikipedia under cash carriers.
Following The Horsemeat
The horsemeat in food saga goes on and on, with Findus lasagne, the latest product to be cheval-rich, according to this article on the BBC.
In all of the problems reported, there doesn’t seem to have been one, which has occurred with a gluten-free product.
It is also reported that a drug called bute is found in some of the meat. This led to some wag on the radio, saying that these products will be good for your gout.
It will be interesting to see, if we’ve changed our eating habits in a couple of months.
I haven’t! But then, I never knowingly buy or eat food from the bottom of the pile and I doubt most of the restaurants I visit, source their meat in that area too!
A Real Joke Fest
The number of jokes after the horse-meat got into the supermarket burgers has been enormous.
The Guardian has even created a summary of all the best.
Or should that be worst!
This photo is priceless.
Waitrose’s Fish Pies
I find them very confusing and I’ve written to the company.
I am a coeliac and some of your pies have gluten and some don’t. I of course must have the gluten-free ones.
This means that when I want a fish pie, I have to turn it upside down to check. The only ones I can eat are the Fish Pie for One in, I think, the Essentials range.
Perhaps a gluten-free symbol on the front would be the best solution.
In fact your ready meals puzzle me, as some that when I cook a similar dish from scratch don’t have gluten. But yours do!
I have been looked at rather strangely by some of your staff, as I go through all the meals looking for the gluten-free ones.
I shall be interested to see what they say.
Get Your Horseburgers From The Supermarket
This story is not really about how horse and pig meat ended up in beefburgers. It’s probably more about the rubbish that gets put into cheap meat products, to keep the price acceptable to the supermarkets. After all, we may not generally eat horses, but they are generally well looked after and are unliely to give you any disease, which might not be true of some of the rubbish.
I rarely buy meat and meat products, where the provenance is not obvious. That doesn’t necessarily mean I always buy organic, although I often do, but I would always by a product, that was fully described. I wouldn’t buy a meat pie or something similar, if it was too cheap, as then the profit will be the same, so the quality will have suffered.
Robert Peston On HMV
Robert Peston has an interesting take on HMV’s demise in this article. He asks these two questions.
Will it go the way of Jessops and Comet? Will all 239 stores be closed, with the loss of all 4,000 jobs?
And is there a rising incidence of corporate insolvencies which could actually be a good thing, in the widest possible sense (please bear with me; I haven’t taken leave of my senses or transmogrified into some kind of insane company necrophiliac)?
It is his answer to the second that is most interesting. Here’s part of it.
The evidence of past recessions is that economic growth doesn’t resume at any great velocity until unviable and inefficient businesses are put of their misery and excess capacity in various industries is eliminated.
Now, although there has been a fair old number of retailing collapses in the past year or so (according to FRP Advisory, HMV is the 32nd significant retail chain to go into administration in just over a year), there have been many fewer corporate collapses since the financial crisis of 2008 than was predictable on the basis of past economic experience.
I think he could be right.
When you clear out the living dead companies you create lots of niche markets, where those with ideas and money move in to create jobs and revenue.
I think we’ll see a very different way of selling music evolve on the High Street. What it will be like, I do not know and I won’t even guess!
Living With British Products Only
A family called Bradshaw have decided that they are going to live using only British products. Their story is here on Kent On-Line and their web site is here.
The BBC also flagged up a web site called Make It British.
Their piece also showed that you can buy tea from Cornwall. Now that is truly a British cup of tea!
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.
The Tyranny Of The Cards
I don’t carry any loyalty cards, as I have tried to cut the useless junk out of my wallet.
But every time I buy something in Boots or Sainsburys, they ask me for the loyalty card and I just say that I don’t carry one.
How many seconds a year, do I waste, whilst we discuss my non-existent loyalty cards?
Made In Greece
I actually bought something in Boots in Eastfield, that was made in Greece.
It was some T/Gel shampoo.
The Anonymous Widower 