All Dear Jac articles – Page 50
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Now it’s time to get serious
I urge all retailers with payment terminals to read this article carefully. We've said in the past few columns, get...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: If it sounds too good to be true...
Ken Naran confirms those milk wars I reported last issue. A rep for Freshways came to his Nisa Extra store in Bolton, Lancashire, to offer him a 12-month contract for milk supplies. "I knew it was too good to last at 50p, but it only lasted three...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Unlucky for some - 13 and counting
Jim Perry, who runs Areley Kings Supermarket & Post Office in Worcestershire, writes on a subject that has bugged him for a long time. "Has anyone ever totted up number of agencies, local and governmental, that can walk into retail...
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Dear JacDear Jac: Points for and against
Some of the retailers who signed up for the supposedly free Point Four epos system (to be financed by sales of ads displayed on-screen in store) are coming to the end of their original five-year contract. To date the screens still have...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Are the ‘milk wars’ still floating around out there?
I have had a call from Paul Bhatt, who runs Duncan Stores in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. Last October he switched to London-based Freshways for milk supplies. The prices were very good (55p for two-litres; 45p for one-litre and 28p a pint) and would...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Secret shopping - convenient ways to hide a camera
Subhash Varambhia writes from Snutch Newsagents in Leicester: "Following your article (on possible Ukash vouchers fraud) I was in Maplin Electronics and what I saw shocked me and may be the answer to your query." My query was could the...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: The night they invented...a scam?
The trouble with being a specialist is that you sometimes attract specialist problems. Harpal Rai has featured twice before in this column (with his name spelled incorrectly as Hartal, so from now on I'm going to refer to him as 'Paul', just the...
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Dear Jac
Free advice: Book your consultation today
A strong line-up of industry experts will be on call for visitors to the NCS later this month
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Dear Jac
Penalties you can ill afford to pay
I had a call from an anonymous retailer trading on a tough estate, who has taken great exception to Costcutter charging him £300 for a failed direct debit. He is not disagreeing with the principle, but with the amount. He accuses...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Don’t bank on any help from the lender
NatWest appears to be getting very tough. Two retailers have contacted me in the past fortnight to say that the bank was calling in the overdraft and demanding full payment of loans. Neither had defaulted on payments, but somewhere in the fine print...
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Dear JacDear Jac: Carry on retailing
To say that Scott Dodds' relationship with his news supplier did not go well for the first two months is something of an understatement. By the time he contacted Convenience Store he despaired of ever getting news supplies to his Hartsholme Store in...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Three’s a crowd in this case
Mansukh Waru, responding to the report in my last column over Ukash voucher fraud, knew instinctively that something was amiss when three blokes came in together at his Ministore at Sutton, Surrey. He says: "One was on the phone, one...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: The latest on leasing debts and threats
In the last issue I promised you more information on defunct photocopier supplier Lanwall and various leasing deals via the likes of Bank of Scotland Equipment Finance and Key Financial. There is still a lot of noise out there, but so far...
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Dear Jac
Get it on record and the truth will out
Here’s a tip passed on by John O’Hara who runs The Bridge Store at Cropredy, Banbury. He took someone on without taking up references.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Tuning in on being tuned out:
Jim Perry, who runs Areley Kings Village Supermarket and Post Office, Worcestershire, uses TV screens to display his special-offer slide shows, rather than computer screens (the former are far cheaper). He says: "The screens have never been...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: How was this crime perpetrated?
Man goes into Kiran Patel's store, (Coulsdon News in Surrey) and asks for a £100 Ukash voucher, which Kiran put through his Payzone terminal. The customer didn't touch the voucher (neither did he have a mobile with which to photograph it), but then...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: They’re not rating you right
You would think that, when you install £5k-worth of CCTV to help control crime and add air-conditioning for the comfort of customers and staff, that it shouldn't be penalised by increased business rates. The reality in Paul Fryer's case...
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Dear JacDear Jac: No such thing as a free lunch
It's a favourite expression among journalists and now it's one of Hartal Rai's. His cryptic message on my answerphone said the problem concerned the Italian football team, South Africa and pasta. Hartal, who runs the award-winning Rai's...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: A postscript on Lanwall
The feedback I'm getting from my column two issues back on whether anyone has ever actually been taken to court over Lanwall by leasing companies such as Bank of Scotland has been almost universally positive. The bottom line is, aside from a couple...
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Dear Jac
When insult is added to injury
Illa Patel and her husband Jitendra are victims twice over. In 2009 Jitendra was alone on the till when a man came in to their Supamac Store in Melton Mowbray, ostensibly for a packet of crisps. As Jitendra opened the till the guy stabbed him twice...