Annoyance

[Bert Coules]

My current DIY task has ground to a halt for want of something I wish I'd had the good fortune to buy before the current situation took hold. I'm surprised to see that Wickes is operating a click-and-collect scheme (with pickup in the open and distancing safeguards in place) and I'm tempted - but sadly I can hardly justify a sixteen mile round trip to buy some pine cladding as an essential excursion.

They're still delivering too, though with a nearly three-week waiting list. I checked on eBay to find plenty of availability but delivery charges, even for very small amounts, hiked up to near the thirty pound mark.

So I think I'll find another job, however irksome it is to leave the present one unfinished. I suppose I can take solace in the thought that I'm far from being the only one in that particular boat.

[Jinky ...]

I usually have stuff in stock 10 to 15 years before I get around to using it .....

[Brian Reay]

A common trait among radio amateurs.

[Jinky ...]

I liberated two phosphor bronze brackets from a multi story office block I was working on in 1974...used them to support a timber beam under my gang nail truss attic shack in 1998....beat that

[Jinky ...]

nah he might drop you in it with that unnessary drive of yours....

[Michael Chare]

I drove much further to get a Screwfix order of paint and some plumbing waste pipe items. The order was large enough to qualify for free delivery but oddly they could not deliver all the items.

[David]

I tried to get Click and Collect but the web page didn't work. Showing in stock but seemed to want to notify me when it was in stock.

I ordered for delivery in a couple of weeks time in the end. Defer one project and find another.

Cheers

Dave R

[Bert Coules]

I've now done the same. Driving eight miles to the store and back sealed in my car and collecting an item which I can load myself with no assistance doesn't seem to me to pose any sort of risk at all, either to myself or anyone else, but there you go.

[charles]

but, there might be somebody who doesn't think that there'll be anybody else on the road and comes out of a side turning without looking ;-(

[williamwright]

I regularly use tools that were given to my dad by men who were retiring. This was when my dad started as an apprentice at Stevens Wagons in 1934.

Bill

[Brian Gaff (Bed)]

Could you not contact an actual person who is legally allowed to buy stuff, like a plumber to get it for you. They do want to know if any company is profiteering, so report them for over the top delivery charges. Brian

[Bert Coules]

I did think of that, but unfortunately only after I'd placed the order and arranged the delivery.

I might have been unfair when I spoke of the prices being hiked: in truth it's only my suspicion that the eBay delivery charges have shot up recently and it could be that they've always been that high. Several different suppliers are all charging much the same, so perhaps that is actually the norm: in every case the same charge applies for a bulk purchase as for a much smaller amount.

[John Rumm]

You only need drive behind some belching plumes of vape "smoke" out of the car in front to suddenly get a whiff of vanilla and anchovy (or whatever flavoured concoction they are snorting) to realise that being in a car does not make you invulnerable to ingress of exhaled air from others!

[John Rumm]

and £30 for DIY materials delivery would not be excessive in normal times, let alone when there is unprecedented demand for delivery services.

[Bert Coules]

I've been lucky enough never to have experienced that, but it's a good point., Thanks.

[Robert]

The regs say: "to obtain basic necessities, including food and medical supplies for those in the same household (including any pets or animals in the household) or for vulnerable persons and supplies for the essential upkeep, maintenance and functioning of the household, or the household of a vulnerable person, or to obtain money, including from any business listed in Part 3 of Schedule"

So are the items for Essential maintenance, upkeep, functioning....of the household ?

[Bert Coules]

Robert asked:

They are not. And in truth I'm a little surprised that Wickes are not only still making such stuff available but also agreeing to deliver it. Screwfix and Toolstation, in contrast, appear to have imposed strict limits on what they're willing to sell.

[newshound]

FWIW I'd class it as essential because it affects your stress levels. You are hardly risking spreading the virus in an 8 mile trip in a closed vehicle. You are very unlikely to be stopped and challenged by the police in the UK, if you were you could say the cladding is to fix a hygiene problem in your kitchen. Thoroughly enjoyed your last John Buchan a couple of weeks ago, BTW. As much for the perspective on changed times as for the story itself.

[newshound]

Yes but that is at the molecular level. OK corona virus is sub-micron but a pollen filter is still going to catch a lot (and will certainly take out the droplets).

[newshound]

It would be interesting to know just what SF and TS are defining as essential. Neither are being explicit. For people in the building trade, virtually everything could be essential (you might be working on NHS property for example).

Personally, I think there is much to be said for keeping the economy running as far as practicable subject to distancing rules. And even for the domestic DIY-er, it makes sense to make use of time available consistent with controlling the spread. With click and collect, there is much less risk from collecting a few bags of cement than from buying a basket of food at the supermarket.

Much virtue signalling out there, I think.