Shops - Downturn (OT)

[Huge]

Do you know me?

Oh, yes. Your description is spot on.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Exactly.

Every employer knows the one. Always in more or less on time, always polite, always agreeable. Always phones in and brings a doctors note when sick.

Just never produces any useful output.

They are useless, they know they are useless; They even know that you know that they are useless. They just need a job, and whatever it takes to keep it.

[meow2222]

oh yes, demotivating people that do care is a big problem. But its not as one sided as is sometimes portrayed, the scenario of the employee that wants to make things better but doesnt understand what theyre doing and proposes changes that would cause big problems is all too common. And of course they think its your fault if you say no.

NT

[Owain]

Sounds like large percentage of The Public Sector :-)

Some of the really useless ones don't know they are useless. I suppose it's kinder that way, a bit like gaga people not realising they're gaga

Owain

[Dave]

When I was still working, I always tried to visit the person that I wanted to phone. I was in charge of a big expensive project and when I got a problem, I found a phone call could never resolve anything but the smallest problem. So I did a face to face and came away every time with a solution.

Dave

[Bob Eager]

I've always done that. You build up a relationship with the person, which is always good. They can put a face to a name, and it oils the wheels. Besides, It's the way I work and I like doing it!

[chris French]

Not really much of a useful approach when you are buying something mail order though

[Andrew Gabriel]

As Derek said, parking charges are simply a big sign saying Fuck Off, and so people do because they don't like being spoken to in that way. Retailers know it; it's just councils who are clueless. It doesn't matter how small the charge is -- that's not the point.

[Tony Bryer]

You're right, it's a psychological thing. People (myself included back in the UK) would spend 30p to drive to a large Tesco with free parking rather than put 20p in a meter.

The answer is simple. Reverse the current system so that councils keep business rates instead of central government and all parking revenue goes to central government funds.

This done, local councils would start thinking about the minimum level of parking enforcement required to ensure safety and traffic flow, and where parking does need to be rationed by price, how cheap can they make it. Meanwhile councils who are losing serious money over shut-down Woolworths etc would make it clear to their planners that they should work positively with anyone who might wish to reopen it.

Meanwhile back in the real world, just to further the decline of my old home of Twickenham, LBRuT has this bright notion of charging owners of higher-CO2 cars more to park.

[Appin]

The message from The Natural Philosopher contains these words:

At long last the rural dwellers can get their revenge :-)

[Dave Liquorice]

Because they don't consider the cost of the car journey. If they actuall= y worked out how much that 70 mile round trip really cost they'd make a shorter trip and pay the car park charge.

40p/mile is on the low side of the real cost of running a car, so that trip really costs =A328.00. =A38.00 of which is the 2 gallons of fuel. B= all park figures, with average cars, not nasty little tiny tin boxes doing 7= 0 to the gallon.

[Dave Liquorice]

Well I hope that the residents tell *their* council to FOAD, like Manchester recently did over the proposed "congestion charge" for that city.

[Tony Bryer]

OK when the council prices residents parking permits by CO2 - which LBRuT instituted (and which left me, with a Honda Jazz, better off), but when it comes to casual parking, those affected may well live elsewhere and its not their council. Sure they can 'vote' by taking their custom elsewhere, but since councils don't receive business rates, just a share of the national pool, they have no direct financial interest in the health of their town centres.

[Tony Bryer]

No, no, no! The relevant figure is the marginal cost of driving the extra miles. Driving extra miles costs you nothing in tax and insurance, may not cost you anything in servicing if this is determined by time rather than distance. Likewise the extra cost of tyre wear and depreciation may be nil if you're only doing a low mileage.

70 miles is a bit way out; what is more relevant is that people will drive a couple of miles each way (say 60-80p) to save 20p

[Chris J Dixon]

Just so long as they are at home to accept the delivery ;-)

Chris

[Ian White]

It isn't so much the meter charges as the severe penalties for overstaying, which defeat the whole objective of casual browsing.

(Not that I do much of that kind of shopping myself - I normally prefer SAS methods.)

[Tim S]

Ian White coughed up some electrons that declared:

Exactly. Why, when I go to hospital or to a car park in Tunbridge Wells, do I need to "guess" the correct time to the nearest hour that I'm staying using a pay'n'display machine?

In either case, I have no idea much of the time, so usually end up over paying. Pay-on-exit isn't exactly an unsolved problem. I don't care if it costs the car park operator to put in exit barriers - it's them who's making a profit.

The hospital could solve the problem more cheaply with pay'n'display in 5-6 hour increments - nobody wants to stay in hospital longer than necessary and 5-6 hours would be enough to prevent abuse by commuters if there's a station nearby...

Cheers

Tim

[The Natural Philosopher]

We always are. Such work as we do, is done from home.

[The Natural Philosopher]

It used to cost £5 for a waitrose online delivery. Thats 20 miles round trip. At 25p a mile average sort of cost (fuel, tyres etc) its pretty even stevens.

Any trip to a major city tat involves paying 5-10 for parking, o a bus ride from a park'n'ride that means you have to lug heavy bags top and from bus stops, is out.

The only efficient thing for buying exactly what you already know you need is online. You gasp at the 5 quid postage on a 5 quid item..and the calculate the cost of going to town, ordering it, going back, going in again when it arrives...

Even a phone call costs money.

[The Natural Philosopher]

You have to factor in tyres and brakes unless you are doing REALLY low mileage, in which case sell the car and hire as needed.

If an average set of tryes costs what - 300 quid for about 20k miles, hats 1.5p a mile straight.

Brakes need relining at similar intervals and chances are, new discs at every other interval.