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Good way to finally stuff the retail trade - should one think that that is a good idea.
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>>Good way to finally stuff the retail trade ...
Retail employs nearly 3 million people in the UK, is the UK's largest private sector employer and accounts for £325 billion in sales and one-third of all consumer spending.
That's a lot of tax. What pays for state pensions again?
Happy Christmas.
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Just for clarity, the above is not targetted at any particular post or poster. Just felt moved to remind us all of how curbing spending, provided it is affordable spending of course, has and is having a hugely detrimental effect on the economy.
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Tue 20 Nov 12 at 19:34
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In a similar friendly manner, some feel it's a good thing, less spending in the shops, people saving more for the future etc. Always a difficult thing the right balance I suppose.
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Pendulum effect in my humble. If you think of consumer spending as a clock face it was at 9.00. It is now at 3.00. Needs to be at 6.00 sort of thing.
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True, but I think though lots of people read that clock face in all sorts of ways. Your 6.00 might still be 9.00 to others.
How are sales looking this christmas in your* neck of the woods?
* Shoes, I think?
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Predictably, is perhaps the best description.
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Like the curate's egg, good in parts.
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A Continental colleague was over this week for a two-day meeting that had to be split over a weekend. No problem, she said, she could amuse herself in London in between. We saw her off on Friday evening with cheery advice on cultural treasures she could visit over the weekend; she rolled in on Monday morning with a bag that looked twice the size of the one she'd had before. Shoes, she said: I can't get [insert expensive-sounding name I half-recognized here] back home. Three pairs. I smiled and thought of Humph.
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Your colleague may or may not fit into either of these categories but, it is an undisputed industry fact that fat women buy more and indeed more expensive shoes and handbags than slim ones.
Theories as to why include the supposition that the larger lasses find it hard to fit into or feel as good about clothing purchases but that shoes still fit them and of course handbags don't have to.
Not a lot of people know that.
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Interesting, Humph. I'm pretty sure she has no trouble fitting into anything, if you know what I mean.
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Ding Dong ! ( er, merrily on high )
:-)
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>> Pendulum effect in my humble. If you think of consumer spending as a clock face
>> it was at 9.00. It is now at 3.00. Needs to be at 6.00 sort
>> of thing.
>>
Ah, an economic analyst I see.
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Hardly ! :-)
No, just an interested party shall we say.
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Did you see about these pay day loans Humph? People who can least afford it are up to their necks in debt again.History repeat itself.
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Retail employs nearly 3 million people in the UK, is the UK's largest private sector employer and accounts for £325 billion in sales and one-third of all consumer spending.
The point I was trying to make !
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Absolutely Rob. I understood, but when I re-read my reply it occured to me that it could have looked like I was flaming you rather than agreeing with and expanding on it which was my actual intention.
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10+ Million motorists throw plenty in! Ludicrous rates of duty and VAT on fuel and very little of ploughed back into the transport infrastructure. Four year old report says "The latest is the £174m extension of the M6 between Carlisle and Guards Mill, in Cumbria." Perhaps there is something newer that I couldn't find?
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" Perhaps there is something newer that I couldn't find?"
Work has now started on the Elvedon Bypass on the A11 - cost £150 million and due to be completed by Dec 2014. First planned 40 years ago.
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Couldn't agree less.
I love Christmas, I love everything about it, from the first advert, the first time I hear Merry Christmas Everybody, presents and happiness, and silliness. Christmas jumpers and scarves down the pub on Christmas Day, the laziness of Christmas evening, family and friends, christmas pud (really love it), decorating, parties. and so on and so on and so on.
Choosing and giving presents, watching other people's faces, opening presents, the way it all looks on Christmas morning.
With or without kids, I love Christmas.
Love it, love it, love it.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Tue 20 Nov 12 at 17:40
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Me too, what a load of miserly, miserable old so and so's we have on here.
Pat
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Happy to do Christmas and all the trimmings. At Christmas.
Not happy to see all the Christmas stuff hit the shops third week in October, as happened here this year. For goodness sake, I don't want carols and decos for two and a half months of the year.
Yesterday I walked past a pub that had a sign wishing me a happy new year.
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Yeah, it should be banned by law till December 1st.
And January Sales should be banned till, hhmmm lets see, January should do it.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 20 Nov 12 at 18:25
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I've been delivering Christmas goods since late August.
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My brothers shop doesn't do a lot for Christmas until November. But the reason is they make a big thing about Halloween and shift a lot of related mechandise.
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I can't say I'm too fussed either way about christmas. It is a bit tiring to see all the xmas stuff too early, I'd have to agree with Zero december for xmas stuff. Seems to early to me most of the time.
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I quite enjoy the build up to Christmas, choosing presents and getting all the food and drink in etc, but the big day itself always seems to be a bit of an anti climax after the presents are opened. Also as I am the only one in the immediate family who can cook, after 30 years it would be good to have a break from kitchen duty.
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My wife can cook. In fact she's very enthusiastic about it. So much so that most things get cooked for at least 50% longer than is strictly necessary...
Good job we've all got strong teeth !
:-)
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after the presents are opened.
Perhaps some cooking lessons as presents? :)
Also as I am the only one in the immediate family who can cook, after 30 years it would be good to have a break from kitchen duty.
>>
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We've been on Easter Eggs for a couple of weeks now!
Pat
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This year's getting close to best by date Pat?
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They just get sent back, re-packaged and sold in the cheapy stores!
Pat
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I was doing work at Mars in slough once, did I ever tell you about the easter eggs on sale cheap in the staff shop? the ones for export to the middle east with arabic script? they had loads of them.
No word of a lie.
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 21 Nov 12 at 08:27
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No word of a lie
Suppose they were destined for Arabic speaking Christians Iraq/Iran/Israel/Syria etc..
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>> This year's getting close to best by date Pat?
Mine already have. I bought some from Tesco when they had their "buy one, get two free" deal. Although the BB date was something like July/Aug they still tasted fine when I ate one of them a couple of weeks ago, and it didn't give me the two bob bits either. Still got a flake one left that's also out of date.
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>> Happy to do Christmas and all the trimmings. At Christmas.
>>
That's me.
Christmas day itself is lovely, especially with the kids. Hearing crappy Xmas songs everywhere in November is a huge irritant.
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Possibly pda but very few people pay any attention to the religious aspects, certainly not the young. They know it is someone's birthday but note that they get the presents!
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Whose birthday is it? Certainly not that of the person in whose name it is celebrated!
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>> Whose birthday is it? Certainly not that of the person in whose name it is
>> celebrated!
Why do you care, you are agnostic.
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Come on, Melders, spare us the 'true meaning of Christmas' cobblers. It's a midwinter beanfeast and has been for millennia. The early Christians just attached their own myth to it to keep themselves off the menu.
I love it too, btw. Even my dad, who used to grumble about commercial exploitation of just about everything, loved having the house full and was a great one for Christmas traditions. I'm just the same, although our food is better now.
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christmas is nowt to do with bejeezus.. its a pagan festival ,the sun is reaching its lowest path.. come new year its reborn
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I am not a lover of Xmas. Until a few years ago I was 'in trade' which meant 7 days a week retailing from mid Nov, finishing around 9pm Xmas Eve after delivering a van load of goods, then the 26th book keeping and sorting the warehouse. Back on the 27th ready for lots of returns and a very quiet 2 months trading to balance things up.
Thinking about it, I dislike Xmas a lot.
It will be interesting to see first hand how my CA friends celebrate Thanksgiving. Called at the local Raleys supermarket to purchase a few bottles of Sancerre for the big day but was disappointed. But did find some Oyster Bay Sav Blanc at sub $10.
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Whatever the religious or pagan background it has been turned into a tacky celebration of commercialism and conspicuous consumption.
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Detest it with a passion.
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I just ignore it, and it goes away eventually.
A.N. Ignore rant.
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>> I just ignore it, and it goes away eventually.
It'll be Baaaaaa----aaaaaaack.
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>> Me too, what a load of miserly, miserable old so and so's we have on
>> here.
>>
>> Pat
>>
www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=12399&m=277581
;-)
Last edited by: John H on Wed 21 Nov 12 at 11:24
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Absolutely right John, the Bah Humbugs should butt out and let the rest of us enjoy it:)
Pat
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I have some pretty complicated views about Christmas.
On the whole I don't like it. Certainly I don't like the commercialised, consumer-orientated shop-fest it has become and I hate the retail sector's attempts to persuade the gullible that the festive season really begins in September. (Maybe this year, due to the recession, it has been a little muted.)
Christmas promises so much and delivers so little. It seems kids' expectations are sky-high and bound to be disappointed unless their parents have deep pockets. It's a time for families to be together, but considering the number of fractured families in our society, the logistics become massive. "Now, you will have Christmas Day with Mummy and her new bloke, and Boxing Day with Daddy and his latest squeeze." The trouble is, Daddy now lives in Newcastle and Mummy in Exeter.
So the stress factor becomes huge. Add to this the need to "celebrate" (celebrate what?) and that means lots of food and booze, much of which (the food, anyway) will eventually be thrown away. So the catering becomes another source of stress and people suffer from the effects of over-indulgence.
If there ever was a "real" Christmas it's got well and truly buried; even early Christians didn't celebrate it - it's north-west Europe that got its teeth into the idea when the church converted pagans and couldn't rub out the ancient mid-winter rituals that, since primeval times, concerned themselves with ensuring the sun regained its strength and that life in nature was preserved. Hence the burning of the Yule log, the holly, the ivy and above all the mistletoe.
And then the Yanks got in on the act and decided that we should eat turkey, which despite being "healthy" meat in having little fat also has precious little flavour and isn't worth putting on your plate.
However, I'm putting on a brave face and this year (like last) we shall have fun with Polish food and drink for Wigilia (Christmas Eve to you) and I have ordered an free-range cockerel, which the next day I will roast together with root vegetables and other bits and pieces which taste nice, followed by home-made Christmas pudding. Later we shall eat the Christmas cake which I am about to make today.
I couldn't give a toss about the ideas behind Christmas, but I like food and it's nice to have some stuff you don't eat on every other day of the year and maybe a glass or two as well, which I'm happy to share with friends, family or whoever is around.
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Free range Bronze turkeys have more flavour but are expensive. If you have a goose you will have for the next 6 month's roasties!
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I think it's unfair to stigmatize all turkeys - or to blame anyone but our own intensive farmers for the dry, anaemic white ones. The Copas and Kelly Bronze turkeys we've had since 2005 have made me a firm turkey convert: fantastic flavour, especially in the legs, crisp skin, lots of lovely dripping, and bones that make the tastiest stock of the year. We use every scrap of it and I'm sorry to see the last bits go.
The liver is my cook's treat while I'm roasting the rest - which takes under three hours, incidentally; none of this getting up at midnight to make sure it's thoroughly desiccated by lunchtime.
Yum. Hungry now.
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>> I couldn't give a toss about the ideas behind Christmas, but I like food and
>> it's nice to have some stuff you don't eat on every other day of the
>> year and maybe a glass or two as well, which I'm happy to share with
>> friends, family or whoever is around.
>>
Ditto.
>> >>Good way to finally stuff the retail trade ...
>>
>> Retail employs nearly 3 million people in the UK, is the UK's largest private sector
>> employer and accounts for £325 billion in sales and one-third of all consumer spending.
>>
>>
I don't bother with supporting retailers - that should please Fursty Ferret as it means less buying of tat made in China. But that means less in VAT to the taxman, and also the Chinese will get less of money to lend back to us, so that is a double whammy to the UK economy. My money stays in the bank, or so I thought, until I realised that it goes to FF to fund his loans buy his car and house.
>> That's a lot of tax. What pays for state pensions again? >>
The Chinese.
They are ecstatic about our Christmas traditions.
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>>It seems kids' expectations are sky-high
>>the number of fractured families in our society, the logistics become massive.
The fact that there are so many parents who believe you manage children with bribery & build a relationship with them by buying presents, who think its more important to be with a girl/boyfriend then it is to be spending time with their offspring, says a great deal more about the country's values than it does about Christmas.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Wed 21 Nov 12 at 11:38
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I quite agree. My old Mum has been widowed for many years, and despite her always telling me I should spend Xmas Day elsewhere, i cannot recall ever not having a xmas day dinner with her. In a previous life she would always come & spend the day with us, staying over and feeling useful on Boxing Day helping tidy the warehouse!
Despite being a beneficiary in a retail sense, the conspicuous consumption side of Xmas makes me puke.
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Christmas comes but once a year. Thankfully! - Westpig
