OT-ish B&Q automated checkout

[Rick Hughes]

The key thing here is B&Q provide the convenience of having the items you need in one place (typically) .... sell some loss leaders and people assume they are cheap - usually not the case.

[polygonum]

I have often pondered whether some of the offers are what they seem. A classic is something like washing-up liquid with 750 ml for the price of

500 ml. But is it really the same? Or is it watered down 500 ml WUL in a larger bottle?

I have no idea about industry standards, etc., but I somehow doubt anyone would be sure.

(And the way shops mix up price per 100 ml, per litre, per 500 g, etc. Comparisons may be possible, but why keep changing the units? Definitely not to our benefit.)

[Dave Liquorice]

At least those are normally 1l/100ml, 1kg/100g, it's easy to shift the decimal place in your head, unlike working out the 2fer example I posted earlier.

[polygonum]

It is not when the units are differently dimensioned unless you are in a position to estimate that, say, washing-up liquid is probably mostly water so is likely to have a density very close to 1 ml = 1 g. Not true for everything.

Though I do accept your confusing offers issues.

[djc]

The choice round here is Waitrose or Tesco. There is a Sainsbury on Tootenham Ct Rd; it was previously Budgens, it has not improved. There is also an M&S, after they intoduced the self service tills, AND expected payment for bags that I stopped using them. A Morrisons is due to open in New Oxford Street, replacing the bust Jessops, I doubt I'll use it.

Not in Bloomsbury unfortunately. Too many students most of the year. They don't seem capable of shopping unless there are at least three: one to hold the basket, one to pick stuff off shelves, and the rest to just get in the way.

[polygonum]

Salad bar not very appealing to me. The only pizza worth heating the oven for is my own home-made! Deli has some very good products - with care. Alcohol is OK. Breakfast - don't know. Cheeselets? ISB is better than some - especially JS. Their spelt and so on are better than a lot. Pies - don't know. Meat - def. better than Asda!

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Once again, you prove yourself to be full of shit.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I rather think you have just done that to yourself actually.

Or perhaps to you 'better than Tesco' is 'quality'

[The Medway Handyman]

Very hard to get hold of...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

How is that any different from Toolstation?

[Simon Finnigan]

I refuse to use them. Last time I went to a B&Q I was forced to use them, so went home and complained to the CEO, and ended up with a £50 voucher and an apology for not having a proper till open.

Everyone should complain about them!

[fred]

Never mind B&Q its the bloody talking lifts I cant stand,

Doors Closing First Floor Doors Opening etc.etc.

Some day I'll bring a can of expanding foam with me Spray that into the spe aker grille should sort it out P.D.Q.

[Man at B&Q]

Rubbish.

MBQ

[Man at B&Q]

I know for a fact that you are wrong on quite a number of lines, having been in both quite recently.

MBQ

[Man at B&Q]

Try B+M, but watch the sell by dates and buy branded goods only.

E.g. (Almost) Identical (the weight is the same) bag of Haribo sweets, £1.39 in Tesco (and I think even that was an "offer". In B+M they have a "99p" flash in the corner of the bag but are sold for 89p. Go figure...

MBQ

[polygonum]

speaker grille should sort it out P.D.Q.

Never mind talking lifts its the talking travelators I can't stand.

Sainsbury here has installed them between the ground floor and the first and second floor car parks. Between ground and first, there are two flights, and they are installed as pairs (one up, one down). And the same between first and second. So a total of eight flights. And at both ends of every flight there is a voice saying "Prepare to push your trolley off the walkway" (or whatever it says at the other end). Combine the ludicrously high volume each is set to, with the enclosed highly echoic chamber in which they are all enclosed, it would be a wonderful scene in a film of a dystopian future. I keep getting reminded of Brave New World, Clockwork Orange, and the like.

To a tinnitus sufferer like me, it seems to inflict especially nasty torture. However low my tinnitus level when I arrive, by departure it is at screaming point.

[Man at B&Q]

and I said that's OK I'd rather to stay in this queue and she asked me why, so I said I don;t want to see you loose your job, and a look of shock came over her face.

At Tesco my clubcard is my credit card so no extra time taken there.

The *real* problem *by far* is the dippy women (it's *always* women) who are only half finished packing and look surprised when asked for payment and then slowly finish packing before spending another 5 minutes fumbling in a handbag, stuffed to the gunnels with gawd knows what, trying to find their purse. They should have their own decated lane.

MBQ

[Man at B&Q]

But the stuff Primark sell is s**te. It used to be OK.

MBQ

[Man at B&Q]

As a kid in the 70s, we used to visit Rellys in Bradford every fortnight and would shop at a Morrisons. I forget exactly where it was but I believe it was one of the first really big supermarkets in the area, if not the country.

MBQ

[Man at B&Q]

That's true round here but only because Waitrose is in a posh market town (so *all* the shops are full of Tarquins, etc.) whereas Morrisons is in the much larger county town. Nearest Asda are much more chavvy but, again, mainly due to the catchment area.

MBQ