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Power of supermarkets
In article ,
Janet wrote: In article , says... Not so long ago I told Ray that I'd read of a wholesale nursery going belly up. Today, he learned a bit more about it and said it was because it had a £3 million order from a supermarket chain which suddenly decided to halve that order. Then it said that if they potted the remaining order on, they might buy them. They didn't. Personally, I don't understand why anyone puts their entire future and livelihood into the hands of one customer. But neither do I understand the morals of a customer who will do that to a supplier. Why make it about morality? It's about business, what the supermarket can sell, to customers whose choices are led by the weather and the economy. If there's a late cold spring, down goes the demand for tender plug plants and GYO salad trays. When budgets are feeling the pinch paying bills and buying food, customers may spend less on hanging baskets or pots of bulbs in flower. It may be very lovely for you, a comfortably off non-working housewife with a car to spend more time during the day, and more money, shopping in small businesses. Don't you realise it's a luxury to have such means and opportunity, one denied to many working parents on a very tight budget. They need to shop outside working hours. How many small bakers, butchers and grocers stay open in the evening? Even if they did, what does a single working parent do with the tired children as s/he trails them a mile or two from shop to shop ? Carrying the shopping, because small shops don't have a great big car park, and trolleys with child seats. And what you don't realise is that it is people like you who have driven the alternatives to bankruptcy. It's not only the way that you shop - it's the political establishment that you support. I will describe the working hour aspect below. But what is worse is the harmful effects that you have caused to the rest of society. Starting with supermarkets, but now in almost all areas of retail and 'service' (such as banks), we are no longer the customers but their commodities. Similarly, the government is now the agent of such organisations, and has often changed the law when they found it allowed individuals or small organisations to resist - and the working hours issue is PRECISELY one such. The country is now dependent on massive imports of oil, and have essentially damn-all sources of foreign exchange except money laundering to pay for it. WHEN, not if, we run out of that, we are going to hit real trouble without the time to deal with it. It is legally and politically acceptable to pay people less that it is possible for them to raise a family on, and sometimes even less than it is possible to live on. It is YOU who are among the lucky ones, to be able to raise a family and work, and afford a car. Child care is beyond the unfortunate ones. And so on. In article , 'Mike' wrote: And IME, the demise of the "corner shop" is as much the result of the attitude of the owner as anything else. I've seen it here and back in Cardiff where I used to live. With the right attitude, these little shops can thrive, even if they back on to a large supermarket's car park! The common denominator seems to be ethnic! That is partially true, but also very false. Back in the 1950s to 1970s, the laws on working hours and Sunday trading were changed to allow small traders to open for longer hours than large shops, and many did so. The nascent supermarkets got the law changed so that they had the same privilege, thus removing the only advantage that a small trader had over them, and the supermarkets abused their position to force their suppliers and small, competitive shops to the wall. But it wasn't just that - they got the law changed so that they are largely except from parking planning regulations (whereas small traders are not). Regrettably, since the tories took over the Labour party, we were left with only the woolly-minded Liberal Democrats as opposition, and we have seen what a balls up they have made of coalition. It's a bit unfair to blame them, as they had no direct experience of the dirtiness of the politics played by the main parties. Unfortunately, our only hope for improvement is a revolution, and those are never nice to live through (even when they are bloodless). God help us all, because doing so is beyond mere sub-deities :-( Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
#2
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Power of supermarkets
In article ,
Nick Maclaren wrote: In article , 'Mike' wrote: Sorry - mistaken attribution. Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
#3
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Power of supermarkets
Your apology accepted Nick
Mike "Nick Maclaren" wrote in message ... In article , Nick Maclaren wrote: In article , 'Mike' wrote: Sorry - mistaken attribution. Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
#4
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Power of supermarkets
On 01/09/2013 12:08, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article , Nick Maclaren wrote: In article , 'Mike' wrote: Sorry - mistaken attribution. Easily done. For some reason he keeps posting a response quoting the previous post but with nothing else in it. Normally, this would be very irritating. In his case I consider it to be something of a blessing in disguise. -- regards andy |
#5
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Power of supermarkets
On 2013-09-02 16:17:09 +0100, News said:
On 01/09/2013 12:08, Nick Maclaren wrote: In article , Nick Maclaren wrote: In article , 'Mike' wrote: Sorry - mistaken attribution. Easily done. For some reason he keeps posting a response quoting the previous post but with nothing else in it. Normally, this would be very irritating. In his case I consider it to be something of a blessing in disguise. I'm told he specialises in doing this to people who mark their posts not to be archived. As it was described to me "every group has a village idiot". He thinks he's upsetting people who are unaware of his existence, in fact. -- Sacha South Devon |
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Power of supermarkets
On 2013-09-02 15:17:09 +0000, News said:
On 01/09/2013 12:08, Nick Maclaren wrote: In article , Nick Maclaren wrote: In article , 'Mike' wrote: Sorry - mistaken attribution. Easily done. For some reason he keeps posting a response quoting the previous post but with nothing else in it. Normally, this would be very irritating. In his case I consider it to be something of a blessing in disguise. As someone has explained to me, he does it to people whose posts are marked 'x-archive', so that his juvenile idiocy ensures they are archived. -- Sacha www.hillhousenursery.com South Devon |
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Power of supermarkets
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#8
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Power of supermarkets
In article ,
Gary Woods wrote: Starting with supermarkets, but now in almost all areas of retail and 'service' (such as banks), we are no longer the customers but their commodities. I heard an interview with Phil Zimmerman, author of Pretty Good Privacy and net privacy guru. When asked about "free" services like Facebook, Gmail, etc., he said "If the commodity is free, YOU are the commodity." There's a lot of that going around on my side of the pond too....supermarket loyalty cards so they can tell what you're buying, sell the info to their suppliers, etc. It doesn't have to be free :-( All that is needed is an effective monopoly/cartel and a requirement to use their services, then your only function is as the resource to be exploited. To use what I think is an Americanism, they have us over a barrel and are seeing how far they can push the broom handle. The trouble is that the English are so damn docile, and they dominate the UK! Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
#9
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Power of supermarkets
The trouble is that the English are so damn docile, and they dominate the UK! Who the English or the Supermarkets? |
#10
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Power of supermarkets
In article ,
David Hill wrote: The trouble is that the English are so damn docile, and they dominate the UK! Who the English or the Supermarkets? Both :-( Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
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