All articles by Jac Roper – Page 31
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: This retailer was looking for a pay back so we zoned in and got results
Aris Ahmed, who runs Ahmed’s News in Coventry, first rang late in December to say that his PayZone terminal had been out of action for 10 days or so, during which time the engineers had been to and fro, trying to fix it. Meanwhile, Alphyra had helped itself to an ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Happy New Year! Let’s kick off with the good news for once.
Here are two tips from a live wire on how to make savings on telephone bills and those soaring electricity and gas prices. Jeanette Cranfield, who trades in Godalming, Surrey, switched from BT to XLN last spring and found that her bills went down dramatically. She had been paying about ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: The season of peace and goodwill has finished but do you have to put up with a menacing racket?
How do I go about suing the police?” These were my caller’s first words, and he gets full marks for getting my attention. Like a number of retailers, he had been driven to distraction by noisy teenage hordes gathering outside the store.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: More bits of paper on the wall – this time it’s the health mob
Kumud Patel was out when the environmental health officer (EHO) paid a visit and was dismayed when staff told her that the EHO would like to see the training certificate for food hygiene as the store has a Country Choice Bake ’n’ Bite bake-off unit, where baguettes and pies are ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Beware the enemy within
According to recent figures, about one-third of store theft is down to staff, with almost another 5% taken by dishonest suppliers, and yet another 15% down to ‘internal errors’ (European Retail Theft Barometer).
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Don’t let the local authorities put you in danger
Retailers often keep tempting piles of money in their safe and will be only too aware that they could be targeted at any time. Jeeta Bhadal, who runs a Londis store in Leeds, was horrified when his local licensing authorities told him that he had to publicise his home address ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Here’s an unusual one – a retailer in praise of trading standards.
It’s fireworks any second now, isn’t it? So it was great to get a call from Andy Dawes, from Halcon Stores in the village of the same name in Taunton. He and his wife Debs had recently had a visit from a new, young trading standards officer to check on ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Nuisance calls are on the increase – for some.
If you run a store and think it might benefit from a hot coffee/slush machine, then you might be pleased to get a telesales call from a company dealing in such items. But Alison Shrimpton is adamant that her business, Shipton Road Stores in York, would not.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: An Inspector Calls
Your business could come under scrutiny at any time. Are you prepared for when the inspector calls?
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Not everyone records telephone calls, but perhaps they should.
This is a story involving till rolls, a small item but one that’s crucial to everyone. Muhammad Javaid, who runs Carronshore Mini Market in Falkirk, got a phone call from Saxon Papers offering him six boxes of till rolls for £95 “all in”. He took this to mean that VAT ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: My thanks and my best wishes.
A big thank-you to all of you who emailed, faxed and phoned your congratulations on my ‘10th’ birthday as agony aunt on this magazine. I’ve even had a few nice cards. In return, I’d like to wish a large slice of our readership peace and goodwill for their festival celebrations of Eid and Diwali which take place this month.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: ‘Economy’ has not been the result for some retailers switching supplies.
In the past fortnight I’ve had two complaints about Economy Power. NN Obadeyi wrote to me from Superfreeze in Manchester to say that there had been four increases in her bill in the past 18 months, and whopping they are too.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Have councils discovered a new licence to print money?
Retailers are continuing to contact me with tales of licensing wrangles with their local authorities.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: The need for at least two licences has caused trouble for some.
Two retailers trading in Norfolk have been utterly incensed to have their licensing applications rejected after getting local authorities blessing in the first place and getting the paperwork in on time. Nicola List rang to say that her partners application had been checked in front of them by a helpful ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Here’s a training tip – make it clear to staff what they can and can’t sign for.
This interesting little tale comes from Paul Henshaw, whose current Spar store trades in Meliden, near Prestatyn, North Wales. He used to own another store not far away at Bodelwyddan, and in 2001 a member of staff signed him up to a five-year leasing agreement with a hygiene services company ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: This is a Camelot question - how big is your wallet?
This is the feedback slot. Chris Blakey (The Paper Shop, Halifax) has been in touch. Yes it’s him again, as featured in our last issue with definitive info on coins of the realm. Chris is a university graduate and a very lively retailer with, I suspect, useful input on most ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: News retailers and wholesalers continue to be uneasy bedfellows.
Keith Palmer emailed me with the beef that the Daily Mail was offering readers a free DVD if they picked up their copies from WHS. He wondered if this was legal.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Chocs away! Remember, customers eat with their eyes.
Here’s a story with a sweet ending. Mahendra Oza, who trades in one of London’s trendiest districts, Islington, found himself caught up in the food supply chain when a customer brought back a Snickers bar because it had turned a bit white. The date was fine: November 19, 2005. He ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Self-service stores will always be tempting to thieves. But are there double standards at work?
I frequently hear stories about inventive crooks. Amjad Farooq, who runs a Booker Premier at Bolton in Lancashire, offered me a good example. He has traded in the Halliwell area for 18 years and has suffered plenty of petty thievery. But this one was different. A ‘gent’ came into the ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: The Swiss are after European City Guide.
This will come as good news to retailers in this country who have been harassed by European City Guide (ECG), a company fingered as operating a scam by quite a few European countries. The high-profile website www.stopecg.org claims that 50,000+ businesses are fighting against bills they never expected to receive ...