Piggin B&Q!

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

That's exactly what I do and get, at my farm store. I suggest you find one near to you - farmers aren't keen on throwing money away on pre-packed rubbish.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

But he's recommended.

[Tony Bryer]

There used to be a screw specialist in Isleworth who counted by weight

- - special scales: put one screw in one pan and the rest in another and it gave the quantity.

[Chris J Dixon]

Quite common in industry - though these days it is all electronic. It used to be done mechanically - there were pans for x 1, x 10, and x 100.

Chris

[charles]

no she didn't - this was Woolworth's.

[Jethro]

it's how coins are counted in banks ...

[Jules Richardson]

fnar, etc.

[Bob Eager]

I remember Woolworths testing every bulb. But that was when they had wooden counters, not checkouts.

[Dave Liquorice]

Aye, every bulb tested. And things price marked with a round purple inked stamper.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

It was at Woolies I first saw the routine check-out testing every single bulb sold. I suppose that was dropped later on.

[John Williamson]

I daresay the safety elves would have things to say about easily touchable live pins on the counter nowadays.

[S Viemeister]

Woolies staff also checked every mug sold, by banging them together and listening to the ring - supposedly this was to make sure there were no hidden flaws.

[Frank Erskine]

ISTR that they had to press two buttons (with separate hands) to energise the lampholder.

[Mike Clarke]

Should have been OK. I remember them having a box with a BC lampholder on the top and 2 push switches, one on each side. They had to insert the bulb then use both hands to press the switches.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Today's H&S would have had a fit.

[John Williamson]

I remember the sales person just briefly holding the bulb in the fitting, which was one of a variety fastened to a batten on the counter, so that may not have been Woolies.

I was told that the testing was dropped because the flash at full power made the filament brittle, and so more likely to fail when the customer plugged it in at home, which led to too many returns as dead on arrival.

[Steve Walker]

They definitely can. Even at the "self-service" tills - there the "cashier" can use their electronic key (the one they use for age verification and such like) to enable scanning multiple items. They've done it for me a few weeks ago.

SteveW

[Steve Walker]

Ah, but did they have a timer to require both to be pressed within a fraction of a second of each other, so as to prevent them sticking one or both down with chewing gum or tape? You can tell I design safety systems can't you!

SteveW

[Cash]

Ret,

You'd have to pay me to buy screws from B&Q - I can buy a box of 200 x 2" C/S twin thread screws from a local ironmongers merchant for less than a pack of 10 from B&Q - and that's just an example.

Cash

[John Rumm]

I am sure the logic goes, why sell you the number you want, when they can get you to buy the next multiple up?

(not only that, they do away with the complexity of scales / wire cutters etc)