OT; Expectations

[David Lang]

Text received half a hour ago;

"I've looked at your charges on the website. I need 3 wardrobes, 3 chests of drawers and 3 bedside cabinets assembled. It should only take a day. Can you do Friday this week?"

[ARW]

So drag it out into a days work then:-)

I can beat you twice on stupidity today.

1. Arrived at work to first fix a kitchen. When I asked for the kitchen plans the owner said "I have no kitchen plans - Howdens are coming next week to design the kitchen. Is that going to be a problem?"

1. Called at a bakery (supposedly the UKs largest bakery chain in the UK) on my way back from the kitchen f*ck up. The price of my food was £3 and I gave the blonde bimbo £3 in pound coins. She accidentally entered into the till that I had given her £5 and the till now said I needed £2 change.

She then asked me to wait for the manager as she did not know what to do next.

[Jethro_uk]

Oh really ? "Bakery" ?

ITYM a sandwich shop that sells a few (emphasis on "few") of the basic constituents for 1950s style sandwich.

It's an increasing irritation of mine (or a sign of advancing years) that there appear to be "shops" which are no such things.

"Greggs the *bakers*" my arse.

Back in the day, you could buy actual chemicals from a chemist. Now LLoyds, Boots et al are just retail outlets for hair/beauty "products" with a sideline in sandwiches and (buried at the back) a dispensing pharmacist (if you're lucky).

Hardware "shops" are just storefronts for flatpack and "designer" taps.

and so on.

Cookshops ? That's a laugh. Again, just storefronts for the shit the plebs have been told they need in this years bake-off, or whatever.

Thank god for Amazon and the internet where you can get what you really want - and usually at a decent price.

Things you *can't* buy "in shops" at any price (looks at last 12 months orders with Amazon)

Bin bags Sugar free syrups for coffee Pizza peel BC to screw converter Coffee tamper Coat hanging loops Milk frothing jug Milk frothing thermometer Extendible shaving mirror (which turned out to be of poor quality. However given the range in - several "stores" was *zero* I wasn't that upset) Plain cast iron pans (i.e. not "le Creuset")

Add to that the things which are way cheaper online, and stir in a dash of how shit "high-street" parking is, and the only mystery is why shops survive at all.

The final kicker is when you *do* find something you like in store (clothes usually) and it's not in your size, you get advised to order it online anyway.

here endeth the rant for today.

[Capitol]

I agree with all of it. However I have found Home Bargains to be competitive on price and to have an interesting range of products. The local one has good parking. B & M are crap locally. More expensive than Aldidl also. Like you, I find Amazon very easy to deal with even though some products are a bit over priced and also there is a discontinuation problem sometimes.

[News]

In message , David Lang writes

Heh. I assembled two flatpack bedside cabinets last week. First took 2 hours, and the second, 1 3/4 hours. I'd forgotten how long they take! Years since I've bought flatpack. I did use glue, though, on all the joints.

[Bob Eager]

We have a proper one here in East Kent (Herne Bay).

The hardware shop has:

Yes, including the little ones for 'caddies'.

Yes

Plus a load of others: recently, brick acid, brass restorer, nuts and bots of practically any size, telephones, fluorescent light fittings (long ones too), tools, paint....

Next door is an excellent clothes shop. Son bought a suit there; he has a long body and short legs, so they arranged fast alterations.

[GB]

Out of interest, how long do you reckon - best estimate, based on the minimal info supplied? Or what's the range?

[GB]

It's also quite tiring, kneeling on the floor.

[Andy Burns]

Ikea themselves will arrange a 'tradesman' for 20% of the list price plus £25 (per job?/per item?)

[The Natural Philosopher]

3-5 hours at most

[Brian Gaff]

Really, do you have a time machine then? Brian

[whisky-dave]

Is that an altar boy and priest joke ?

[Jethro_uk]

The thing is, when you simply can't buy the item (e.g. coat hook loops) in any store, price becomes immaterial.

For those coat hook loops, I actually visited a huge HobbyCraft nearby (400 sq. mtrs). They had loads of threads, cottons, ribbons, needles, and other shit, but nothing to sew into a coat to hang it by. Even the manager was taken aback.

My comment "Funny, you've a lot of stuff here" went over her head ...

Now, SOP is check Amazon/eBay first (usually turns up trumps).

[Jethro_uk]

But given the choice between moving to Kent for access to a - possibly ephemeral - shop, and using Amazon; the rainforest wins every time.

[Clive George]

As Bob has mentioned, proper shops do still exist. I'd not go to any "huge" shop to buy things like that, smaller ones often have more useful stock.

For a coat hook loop, I can think of three ways which don't involve anything special and I've seen on clothes - ribbon, sew a tube with a small piece of fabric, sew in a piece of 3mm cord. I'd probably do the middle one.

[whisky-dave]

Just along from me we have a door shop. It sells doors. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/669A+Lea+Bridge+Rd,+London+E10+6AL/@51.5773625,-0.0091757,3a,75y,1.39h,84.59t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sxwqMlpwua-lVNHDIq-0SoA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DxwqMlpwua-lVNHDIq-0SoA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D71.325821%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x48761d8d2f5e40f5:0x9629464fbb8437e9!8m2!3d51.5774718!4d-0.0092712!6m1!1e1

[Bob Eager]

Bias binding? Cotton tape?

[Bob Eager]

Well, it's been there 35 years...and shows no signs whatever of closing.

[Tim Streater]

Then there's McKay's in Cambridge (if it's still there).

[Huge]

[29 lines snipped]

I expect it'll be like the little ironmongers down the road from us when we lived in St.Albans, from which I once bought 15 amp *round* pin plugs. When the owner died, it closed and turned into (IIRC) a hairdresser.

Sadly, Jethro does have a point. These days I buy just about everything I would have got from the aforementioned ironmongers from eBay instead.