All Dear Jac articles – Page 51
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Dear JacDear Jac: Look after the pennies
Nice to hear of a neat little touch that not only saves you money, but which counts as an extra customer service. In the last issue I asked where you got your money from your change. Do you buy it from the bank?
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Dear JacDear Jac: The inconvenient truths
Any of this sound familiar? Steve Edwards has written me a heartfelt email about 'the sector'. He writes from Seaview News: "We have been in Cleethorpes for some 60 yes, 60 years in the retail sector, first as a family butcher's and then with the...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Where do you get your money?
I told Mohammed Khan (Best One, Washington, Tyne & Wear), I'd ask the audience. He needs about £100 a week in change (1p, 2p, 5p, 10p and so on) and he used to get it from the Alliance & Leicester at his local post office. He's had a falling...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Catering for your customers
I get asked from time to time about the various aspects of hot food planning regs, VAT implications, licences and so on. So for Johanne Hole and Raj Lal who both recently emailed me, here is what I know about this decidedly woolly subject.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac:Terms and conditions apply
We have had a rather shocking question on email from someone called Jack. Goes like this: "I have been employed at a Londis store for 16 months. I work 35 to 46 hours per week, depending on school holidays. My only day off is Saturday. In the time I...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Yet another point about being caught out with PayPoint
Those of you who do not have PayPoint terminals will probably find it irritating that I write so often on the subject on the other hand, those of you who do have terminals, take good note of the following. This is a warning from Chetna...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Now it’s time to get serious
I urge all retailers with payment terminals to read this article carefully. We've said in the past few columns, get...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: If it sounds too good to be true...
Ken Naran confirms those milk wars I reported last issue. A rep for Freshways came to his Nisa Extra store in Bolton, Lancashire, to offer him a 12-month contract for milk supplies. "I knew it was too good to last at 50p, but it only lasted three...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: They’re coming to take me away, ha-haaa
If you want a laugh then Google the lyricist Barrie Roberts, who wrote 'The knock-on-the-door-in-the-night squad'. Marion Lowe, from Swanbourne Stores, alerted me to it after she read my bit on officialdom's statutory rights to enter premises. It...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: And here’s a tip to avoid being caught out by crooks
Glyn Reece, my Northern correspondent (Penny's in Chester), tells me that the simple ploy of facing your terminal inwards means people will not be able to secretly photograph transactions or to memorise them. You wouldn't think people had memories...
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Dear JacDear Jac: Look after the pennies
Here's another instalment in my occasional series entitled 'The customer isn't always right'. What would you have done when faced with this dilemma? Presentable middle-aged lady buys a chocolate bar and you give her the 50p change. She...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: The night they invented...a scam?
The trouble with being a specialist is that you sometimes attract specialist problems. Harpal Rai has featured twice before in this column (with his name spelled incorrectly as Hartal, so from now on I'm going to refer to him as 'Paul', just the...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Secret shopping - convenient ways to hide a camera
Subhash Varambhia writes from Snutch Newsagents in Leicester: "Following your article (on possible Ukash vouchers fraud) I was in Maplin Electronics and what I saw shocked me and may be the answer to your query." My query was could the...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Are the ‘milk wars’ still floating around out there?
I have had a call from Paul Bhatt, who runs Duncan Stores in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. Last October he switched to London-based Freshways for milk supplies. The prices were very good (55p for two-litres; 45p for one-litre and 28p a pint) and would...
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Dear JacDear Jac: Points for and against
Some of the retailers who signed up for the supposedly free Point Four epos system (to be financed by sales of ads displayed on-screen in store) are coming to the end of their original five-year contract. To date the screens still have...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Unlucky for some - 13 and counting
Jim Perry, who runs Areley Kings Supermarket & Post Office in Worcestershire, writes on a subject that has bugged him for a long time. "Has anyone ever totted up number of agencies, local and governmental, that can walk into retail...
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Dear Jac
Get it on record and the truth will out
Here’s a tip passed on by John O’Hara who runs The Bridge Store at Cropredy, Banbury. He took someone on without taking up references.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: The latest on leasing debts and threats
In the last issue I promised you more information on defunct photocopier supplier Lanwall and various leasing deals via the likes of Bank of Scotland Equipment Finance and Key Financial. There is still a lot of noise out there, but so far...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Three’s a crowd in this case
Mansukh Waru, responding to the report in my last column over Ukash voucher fraud, knew instinctively that something was amiss when three blokes came in together at his Ministore at Sutton, Surrey. He says: "One was on the phone, one...
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Dear JacDear Jac: Carry on retailing
To say that Scott Dodds' relationship with his news supplier did not go well for the first two months is something of an understatement. By the time he contacted Convenience Store he despaired of ever getting news supplies to his Hartsholme Store in...