All articles by Jac Roper – Page 30
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: One retailer has Islington Council in his sights over the way it runs its business.
Regular correspondent and activist Hurendra Bhatt discovered more or less by accident that Islington Council had given planning permission for a six-storey building to be erected over a new supermarket (heavily rumoured to be Tesco) less than 100 yards away from his business, Universal Newsagents. He has enlisted the help ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Here’s another insight into the role of the trading standards officer.
John Inglis emailed me after he read the story about the retailer who sent back a load of duff watches but got charged for the freight. Trading standards wouldn’t help.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: And still the weird little wrinkles of licensing are surfacing.
Pete Patel runs Europe Off Licence in Leicester and had duly applied for the two new licences. The premises licence arrived last July in plenty of time. But he never got the personal one.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: You have to keep things safe, but there are limits.
I've had a very short email from someone called Chris and it goes: "Please could you tell me if I need safety data sheets to sell bleach to the general public from my convenience store."
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: I've won the lottery!
Not for the first time either, although I've yet to see any money. This time it was an online cyber lotto draw conducted from an exclusive list of 250,000 email addresses. I've won 850,000 pounds 'staling', it says here. It sent me a phone number to respond to (clearly overseas) ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Introducing a new slot – website of the fortnight.
Lesley Roberts rang from her store in Rock Ferry, Liverpool, wanting to find out if I knew of a supplier of plastic ribbon door curtains she could use to screen her stockroom. It is currently being inadequately screened by a beaded curtain.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: You really have to push to influence local councils.
And no one does it better than Hurendra Bhatt. Two issues ago I carried the story of Hurendra's ongoing fight with Islington Council over what appeared to be minimal criteria being applied before granting planning permission for what was rumoured to be a six-storey development plus big Tesco just a ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: You can 'shop' a competitor flouting Sunday laws, but it might not stick.
A c-store retailer, trading from two-shops-knocked-into-one not far from where I live, comes in at just under the 3,000sq ft Sunday trading limit.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Can you vouch for total honesty when it comes to news vouchers?
The feedback on newspaper vouchers continues to trickle in. Four more retailers have been in touch.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: It's a cold call and they want your bank details.
But what if it's legit? Jayesh Patel, who runs Classic News in Northamptonshire, got just such a call from PayZone (Alphrya). Did he want a machine to do top-ups and so on? Well, he might. Jayesh asked if details could be posted so that he could peruse them at his ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Has anyone made a study of the effect of open-plan chillers on theft?
A retailer who is at the planning stage of upgrading his business from CTN to full-blooded convenience, says that his first step will be to change traditional coolers to open-deck type cabinets. (He has also requested anonymity, saying that he knows of at least two other retailers within striking distance ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: What amounts to too much information on a customer's receipt?
The manageress in Howard Toms' store was taken aback when a customer pointed out that almost all his details had been printed on his receipt, including his card number, name and expiry date.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: You are open all hours – except when you’re on strike. Is going on the picket line a sensible option?
I promised a couple of retailers that I would test the theory of whether going on strike will engender sympathy from shoppers for the ‘plight’ of the independent. I put the word in inverted commas because I know a fair few retailers who enjoy being their own boss and being the boss of others, meeting and greeting shedloads of people every day and relieving all of them of some of their money. However, I must also acknowledge that others, often through the sheer bad luck of having to trade in the shadow of a superstore or even its little clone, are suffering the consequences.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: There’s nothing to stop next door underselling you.
Mohammed Rehman, who runs Raney’s Minimarket in Glasgow, is totally ticked off with the competition around him which includes both supermarkets and other independents.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Here’s a little feedback on ‘mis-counted’ newspaper voucher credits.
In our last issue I asked, on Nigel Riley’s behalf, whether anyone else had been short-changed on vouchers that had been passed to the handling house via wholesaler WH Smith. I cannot say that feedback has flooded in but Caroline Darrall from Quorn in Leicestershire emailed with a very similar ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: The goods were faulty, the goods were returned but the debt collector is still chasing the full invoice.
Jan Graundfell, who runs Meadow Road Stores on the Isle of Wight, got a leaflet from a company called Voltage Accessories, offering reasonably priced watches that Jan thought might have made good Christmas stock and so ordered a couple of hundred quids-worth. However, when the goods arrived she found that ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: What is the best way to keep out threatening headgear and protect already traumatised staff?
I always cringe when I read about the ‘hoodie’ threat for two reasons. I know how scary it can look, but I also have a son who owns about 20 of them (mostly fashionably ripped, of course) to go with his tattoos, dyed hair and body piercings. But he also ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: We all know how old they have to be to buy age-restricted items, but what about selling the stuff?
You can sell alcohol if you are 16-17, providing you are in the presence of a supervisor at the point of sale – ie when the money changes hands. As I am clearly over the age of 18 it always makes me smile when young people selling me booze start ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Here are some more sobering thoughts on licensing and the morality of test purchasing
I’ve had the good, the bad and the helpful on the subject of licensing in the past couple of weeks. Steve Keast, who runs Daw-to-Door Stores in Doncaster, is an ex-military man and he’s all for sting purchasing. He says: “There should be more of it, and when these outlets ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Have you ever been short-changed on vouchers?
I thought I would look for some feedback on this one. Nigel Riley has noticed over the past few months that there are frequent, albeit small, omissions from his news-paper voucher returns credit notes from WH Smith.