[David9694]

A new catch-all Tea Shop thread for those miscellaneous new stories that don’t quite fit with parking, crashing into buildings or trapped/prisoners in their homes. 

Topic

[brooksby]

Except that the little

Except that the little supermarkets in city centres are always more expensive than the huge out-of-town ones…

[chrisonabike]

Problem: where we’ve had the

Problem: where we’ve had the car long enough we’ve another well-known self-reinforcing cycle.  We get supermarkets and the “big (weekly) shop”.  We get convenience and a wider range of things normally in stock … but which drive … more driving, drive down prices on staples,  drive down margins for smaller producers, drive smaller stores out of business…

Changing that is hard (although the supermarkets themselves have adapted to smaller stores in urban places)!  It would almost certainly mean:
 – higher prices for the consumer (one might say “reflecting the price of good quality, sustainable food being produced more locally” … but this is probably enough to be a “no go”)
 – changes to the physical infra (slow!) e.g. more local shops
 – changes to people’s shopping patterns (where people have optimised their lives so they do all their shopping in one go).
 – changes to distribution
 – possibly more food waste (the big stores can again benefit from scale)

[chrisonabike]

David9694 wrote:

Alwen Lewis, owner of Iechy Da, an eco-friendly refill healthy food shop…

David9694 wrote:

[Alwen Lewis]”Those are the customers that come in and spend under £2 but they are popping in all the time and it mounts up. Now why would you spend another pound on parking if you are only buying a pound worth of porridge. […]”

Those are exactly the journeys we need to deter people from driving (and frankly if you’re driving in daily to spend 2 quid it would be for your own benefit…)

Those are exactly the shopping patterns which work well with active travel. 

But yes – obviously while we have the car right there and it’s so convenient we will use it.  And of course if we start off in the car we’ll be using it for all those other trips, including – “oh – I’ll just nip in and grab some oats”.

[David9694]

Hirsute wrote:

Hirsute wrote:

I find it hard to believe anyone spending less than £2 is also running a car. Traders overstate by some margin the people who come by car to shop.

c4,000 transactions /yr @ <£2, 100% arriving by car, 100% thinking better of it. 

Oats @ £1.79/ kilo. https://www.grapetree.co.uk/jumbo-oats-1kg

[quiff]

David9694 wrote:

“Now why would you spend another pound on parking if you are only buying a pound worth of porridge. You wouldn’t, would you? It would double the value of what you’re buying.”

There’s a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. 

[Hirsute]

I find it hard to believe
I find it hard to believe anyone spending less than £2 is also running a car.
Traders overstate by some margin the people who come by car to shop.

[David9694]

We could lose thousands if we

We could lose thousands if we lose our street’s free parking

Traders say the loss of two hours free parking would be a huge loss and could put some at risk of going out of business

Alwen Lewis, owner of Iechy Da, an eco-friendly refill healthy food shop…

“I figured out that the customers I would be losing if that happens are the customers that are spending under £2. I have calculated that I would lose about £7,000 per year.

“Those are the customers that come in and spend under £2 but they are popping in all the time and it mounts up. Now why would you spend another pound on parking if you are only buying a pound worth of porridge. You wouldn’t, would you? It would double the value of what you’re buying.”

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/could-lose-thousands-trade-under-31757730

[David9694]

Monsoon of bees plaguing a

Monsoon of bees plaguing a Worcester street removed

Scared neighbours felt like they were trapped in their homes because of huge swarms of bees that flooded their streets, gardens and in one case, a chimney. 

One resident, who wished to remain anonymous out of fear of repercussions from bee activist groups, said neighbours are relieved that the issue has finally been resolved.

https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/25193903.monsoon-bees-plaguing-worcester-street-removed/

[mdavidford]

Reports of a second vehicle,

Reports of a second vehicle, believed to be a hummer, involved in the incident unconfirmed.

Accident investigators are combing the area.

Etc.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c23mrprk952o

[wtjs]

No ved since November…

No ved since November…

Pfff! Lancashire Constabulary openly declares that they’re not interested and accordingly ignored WU59 UMH for years (approaching 8 years without VED), which was regularly parked outside the pub150 yards from the police station. But it’s not just them- DVLA is also not interested. I have reported BF64 TGE 3 times to DVLA since early 2022- they won’t let you send in photos because they don’t want to know. Most of mine over the years are taken outside his house. However, I think DVLA and the police would go hard after VED dodgers they really don’t like: people who waste their time by reporting offences

[Hirsute]

Less joy with this one.

Less joy with this one.

When I asked why he was parking on a pedestrian crossing, he claimed he was unaware. No ved since November and I doubt it is roadworthy given the state of the bumper and offside front light.

[David9694]

Just spitballing here, but

Just spitballing here, but maybe a bit of peer pressure would help? A man can dream, can’t he?  “Update from Lancs Motorway cops: ‘between 5 am and 6 a.m, today RPU4 early shift reported to court 5 drivers in the M6 for speeding, of which one was clocked at 94 mph, one was impounded for no insurance, another for no valid licence and a vehicle was prohibited as overloaded.  Clearly, drivers cannot use this road safely so as a precaution the Lancs stretch J6-35 of the M6 is CLOSED for 24 hours.'”

[David9694]

Should have gone to

Should have gone to Specsavers 

[wtjs]

Joy!!

Joy!!

[Hirsute]

A man claims to have suffered

A man claims to have suffered a reported neck injury and whiplash after Leicester’s new automatic bollards lifted up his car. Raheem Awan said the incident meant his car has also now been written off.

In response, a Leicester City Council spokesperson said CCTV footage of the incident showed Mr Awan’s BMW had followed another vehicle through the bollards when it should not.

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/man-suffers-neck-injury-whiplash-10209743#google_vignette

[Author]

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