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Arkwright - The Independent Voice
Supermarkets may think they rule the world, is it now possible that they believe by instructing their staff to make inane small talk with customers at the check out it will give that ‘corner shop' feel to a megastore? I live in an old market town that still has a butcher, baker and candlestick maker so thankfully I rarely have to venture to the dominating T, A, M and S words but last week's misguided trip to one such place reminded me again why I should stay away.
To ask if I need any help with the packing is a perfectly legitimate question for the cashier to put to me but after that they should get down to their scanning and I'll throw everything into the lifetime bags I've brought with me, no further communication necessary until payment is required. I'm quite popular, I don't need to make a new best friend while shopping and I don't need to know whether they like the yoghurt I've just bought. Please just go back to talking over my head to the cashier at the next till; while that can be irritating at least it requires no input from me, apart from the odd shocked look when the assistant describes in far too much detail what she and Tyron were up to the night before. Surely the "be matey with customers" course has included "know when to back off or shut up" but if it did unfortunately not everyone had been listening because despite my avoiding any encouraging eye contact and giving only the odd grunt of response Cashier Number 12 went right on with a running commentary throughout the whole of my shop. When I go to have my hair cut I've found closing my eyes as soon as I sit in the hairdresser's chair puts a stop to meaningless conversation there but obviously closing my eyes at the check out wasn't really an option.
So how much longer are the pre packaged administrations going to be allowed to go on and when will a limit be put on how many times individuals and companies can go through the process? More financial sleights of hand! It cannot be right for existing directors and managers to be able to walk away from unpaid debts, causing problems for other businesses down the chain then, within hours, just to go on with business as usual following administration. The excuse that "basically the business is sound, it just has too much debt" wears very thin and is ridiculous. If there's too much debt then either the business has run its course or the management haven't been doing their job properly and reined things in when they should have. What assurances are there that they'll do any better the next time? It was easy to appear a big boy if you built a business on debt and strutted about like a successful fat cock, there are always unquestioning sycophants who'll happily jump on the apparent bandwagon. A recent quote in a national newspaper demonstrates claptrap from past senior management of a big High Street name, "It has the opportunity to be recognised as the retailer for sports product. No one is better placed than JJB if they can get their finance and stock in place". Two rather important ifs and what's more it appears the company is having difficulty agreeing about who should be in charge. If that were "better placed" I'd hate to be facing up to "demanding challenges" in their language!
Desperate times call for desperate measures but charging every debit and credit card transaction twice over in a day is audacious even by banking standards though it's what my credit card processor did due to an everfamous computer error. They did unravel the mistake within a few days but just think, wouldn't it have helped their cash flow while they had the double money? After all it wasn't just my terminal or terminals in my area it affected but, I understand, all terminals across the country linked to that system so it must have run to some considerable sum they had the use of for 48 hours.
Needing to have eyes in the back of your head is a well-recognised phenomenon of shopkeepers and few of us look any the stranger for it but we're not alone in having extra antennae. I learnt this summer, from a weary mother, that many children are blessed with eyes in the end of their fingers. "Why else do they reach out to touch things immediately after they have been told to just look?" she reasoned. A novel excuse for just plain disobedience!
