Dear Jac – Page 96
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: You have to keep things safe, but there are limits.
I've had a very short email from someone called Chris and it goes: "Please could you tell me if I need safety data sheets to sell bleach to the general public from my convenience store."
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: You can 'shop' a competitor flouting Sunday laws, but it might not stick.
A c-store retailer, trading from two-shops-knocked-into-one not far from where I live, comes in at just under the 3,000sq ft Sunday trading limit.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: I've won the lottery!
Not for the first time either, although I've yet to see any money. This time it was an online cyber lotto draw conducted from an exclusive list of 250,000 email addresses. I've won 850,000 pounds 'staling', it says here. It sent me a phone number to respond to (clearly overseas) ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Introducing a new slot – website of the fortnight.
Lesley Roberts rang from her store in Rock Ferry, Liverpool, wanting to find out if I knew of a supplier of plastic ribbon door curtains she could use to screen her stockroom. It is currently being inadequately screened by a beaded curtain.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: It's a cold call and they want your bank details.
But what if it's legit? Jayesh Patel, who runs Classic News in Northamptonshire, got just such a call from PayZone (Alphrya). Did he want a machine to do top-ups and so on? Well, he might. Jayesh asked if details could be posted so that he could peruse them at his ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: We all know how old they have to be to buy age-restricted items, but what about selling the stuff?
You can sell alcohol if you are 16-17, providing you are in the presence of a supervisor at the point of sale – ie when the money changes hands. As I am clearly over the age of 18 it always makes me smile when young people selling me booze start ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: What is the best way to keep out threatening headgear and protect already traumatised staff?
I always cringe when I read about the ‘hoodie’ threat for two reasons. I know how scary it can look, but I also have a son who owns about 20 of them (mostly fashionably ripped, of course) to go with his tattoos, dyed hair and body piercings. But he also ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: There’s nothing to stop next door underselling you.
Mohammed Rehman, who runs Raney’s Minimarket in Glasgow, is totally ticked off with the competition around him which includes both supermarkets and other independents.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: The goods were faulty, the goods were returned but the debt collector is still chasing the full invoice.
Jan Graundfell, who runs Meadow Road Stores on the Isle of Wight, got a leaflet from a company called Voltage Accessories, offering reasonably priced watches that Jan thought might have made good Christmas stock and so ordered a couple of hundred quids-worth. However, when the goods arrived she found that ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Here’s a little feedback on ‘mis-counted’ newspaper voucher credits.
In our last issue I asked, on Nigel Riley’s behalf, whether anyone else had been short-changed on vouchers that had been passed to the handling house via wholesaler WH Smith. I cannot say that feedback has flooded in but Caroline Darrall from Quorn in Leicestershire emailed with a very similar ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Here are some more sobering thoughts on licensing and the morality of test purchasing
I’ve had the good, the bad and the helpful on the subject of licensing in the past couple of weeks. Steve Keast, who runs Daw-to-Door Stores in Doncaster, is an ex-military man and he’s all for sting purchasing. He says: “There should be more of it, and when these outlets ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Have you ever been short-changed on vouchers?
I thought I would look for some feedback on this one. Nigel Riley has noticed over the past few months that there are frequent, albeit small, omissions from his news-paper voucher returns credit notes from WH Smith.
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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: 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: 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: 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?