All articles by Jac Roper – Page 28
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Clarifying the VAT on top-ups
I hope this will be the final definitive word on this subject (as it involves sums, it's doing my head in). Two issues back I recounted Leicester retailer Subhash Varambhia's equations on what commission on top-ups he was actually making - he made it out to be less than his ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Affordable epos that really works for small turnover stores? Perhaps it is possible after all
This exercised quite a few retailers' minds a couple of issues back.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Penalised if you're early, penalised if you're late
The premises renewal fees are beginning to hit the doormats of those good retailers who applied for their grandfather licensing rights early to beat the rush - as requested by all the local authorities. So now they are finding that they are being billed for their renewal fees early, too.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Choices, choices, but there is still a contract to negotiate
I know we don't all read every word of every contract. In truth, we would be a bit of an anorak-fusspot if we did.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: If I want the phone to explode, I just mention Camelot
As I said in the last issue, quoting Camelot, there are 100,000 retailers waiting for terminals on its database. Quite a few believe that Camelot hasn't properly examined their premises to assess their suitability to have the lottery. Surely, too, with that many retailers' details and even with Camelot's sophisticated ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: How do you set yourself apart? This couple are 'green' grocers.
In the process of discussing an ongoing serious problem of a refrigeration nature with Lloyd Bakewell (more on that issue in the future), we ambled onto other subjects. Lloyd and his wife Sue, who trade in the village of Thornton, near Leicester, fell into recycling plastic bags about six months ago.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Write-ups on the post office always generate feedback, too
In the last issue I reported on Richard Lambert's frustration in trying to get his hands on anyone from the Post Office to assess his suitability to take over the office from a nearby store that was closing down. In the end he got nowhere and the franchise went to a Co-op further away.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Here's a postscript on the subject of viability of epos for small stores.
This got quite an airing in the May 19 issue as retailers debated whether it was worth forking out considerable sums for all-singing, all-dancing epos when you still had to scan in every cash and carry purchase item by item as the suppliers' invoices do not come with scannable barcodes.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: The downwardly mobile commission on top-ups continues its slide.
In C-Store May 19, I wrote about Subhash and Rama Varambhia's discovery that the commission on etop-ups for mobiles was even less than it was cracked up to be because of the VAT element.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Is cashing up the fag you don't look forward to at the end of the day? Interested in a shortcut?
I've been talking to Vince Masi, a Londis retailer of some standing, who trades at Lyneham in Wiltshire. He has developed a software program that he says takes the strain out of the chore of cashing up at the end of the day.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Camelot - it isn't happy-ever-after for everyone.
For those who do not have the lottery in their store (and there must be at least 100,000 because that's how many are waiting on Camelot's database) life can seem very unfair at times.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: It is never easy to lift any of the Post Office's veils.
Sometimes I think the Post Office has more veils than Salome. Let's try to lift one.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Slush sales should be picking up now that summer's here, but not all retailers want to sell the stuff.
Albany Catering - a company that is really out there, having put some 1,200 machines into stores in the past two years - has come in for a bashing from two retailers lately.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Still on staff - not thieving, just not working.
Staff are meant to work, right? John Maxwell Jones, who runs Burgess Stores at Goudhurst in Kent, had a 'worker' who took sick days without ringing in or producing a medical certificate and then left without notice, leaving a note on the deli counter and leaving John short-staffed at an ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Where there's muck there's brass - for some people at least.
Sometimes the final straw can be a small thing.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Beware the enemy within. Thieving staff is the last thing you need.
It was good to get a retailer's recommendation for a supplier that helped him nail down the mysterious case of the missing Richmond King Size 20s cartons that disappeared every shift that a certain employee worked.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Would you benefit from a listing on an internet directory?
I've had three calls in the past few weeks from concerned retailers who have received 'Important Dated Material' through the post from a company called Business Internet Directory, urging them to check the enclosed business listing details and inform the company of their business category so that 'their listing can be activated'.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Does anyone have a remedy for this problem?
Does anyone have a remedy for this problem?
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Councils seem to be getting better at screwing money out of all of us.
We all know about the parking and speeding fines and waste management fees and the cost of advertising boards outside the store and the penalty culture overall. But it gets worse and I couldn’t resist retelling the following.