Latest from Dear Jac – Page 77
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: No need to get burned over the new fire regs
The current fire regulations run to more than 100 pieces of legislation. All this is to be swept away in October - long overdue as it was meant to happen in April this year.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Have you put local advertising to the test?
Four retailers have contacted me over the past year to relate their dealings with a company called SD Media, which puts together ads to run in post offices, doctors surgeries and so on. In all four cases the retailers claim that the rep had signed them up for a trial ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Goods for sale, skills for hire
Michael Mercer runs West Hill Stores at Hednesford in Staffordshire. But not for much longer.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Understanding the court of Camelot
Ranjit Thind rang me after I last wrote about Camelot and the have-not retailers who believe they are as deserving as the next outlet to sell the National Lottery.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Is the Copyright Protection Office really a con?
No, it isn't a scam but one can forgive any retailer from wondering as they tend to show up like number 9 buses.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Affordable epos that really works for small turnover stores? Perhaps it is possible after all
This exercised quite a few retailers' minds a couple of issues back.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: The scam slot - healthy as ever
Revisiting a very regular subject, here's the news on a couple of the recent cons doing the rounds.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Clarifying the VAT on top-ups
I hope this will be the final definitive word on this subject (as it involves sums, it's doing my head in). Two issues back I recounted Leicester retailer Subhash Varambhia's equations on what commission on top-ups he was actually making - he made it out to be less than his ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Penalised if you're early, penalised if you're late
The premises renewal fees are beginning to hit the doormats of those good retailers who applied for their grandfather licensing rights early to beat the rush - as requested by all the local authorities. So now they are finding that they are being billed for their renewal fees early, too.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: If I want the phone to explode, I just mention Camelot
As I said in the last issue, quoting Camelot, there are 100,000 retailers waiting for terminals on its database. Quite a few believe that Camelot hasn't properly examined their premises to assess their suitability to have the lottery. Surely, too, with that many retailers' details and even with Camelot's sophisticated ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Write-ups on the post office always generate feedback, too
In the last issue I reported on Richard Lambert's frustration in trying to get his hands on anyone from the Post Office to assess his suitability to take over the office from a nearby store that was closing down. In the end he got nowhere and the franchise went to a Co-op further away.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Choices, choices, but there is still a contract to negotiate
I know we don't all read every word of every contract. In truth, we would be a bit of an anorak-fusspot if we did.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: How do you set yourself apart? This couple are 'green' grocers.
In the process of discussing an ongoing serious problem of a refrigeration nature with Lloyd Bakewell (more on that issue in the future), we ambled onto other subjects. Lloyd and his wife Sue, who trade in the village of Thornton, near Leicester, fell into recycling plastic bags about six months ago.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Slush sales should be picking up now that summer's here, but not all retailers want to sell the stuff.
Albany Catering - a company that is really out there, having put some 1,200 machines into stores in the past two years - has come in for a bashing from two retailers lately.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Camelot - it isn't happy-ever-after for everyone.
For those who do not have the lottery in their store (and there must be at least 100,000 because that's how many are waiting on Camelot's database) life can seem very unfair at times.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: The downwardly mobile commission on top-ups continues its slide.
In C-Store May 19, I wrote about Subhash and Rama Varambhia's discovery that the commission on etop-ups for mobiles was even less than it was cracked up to be because of the VAT element.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Is cashing up the fag you don't look forward to at the end of the day? Interested in a shortcut?
I've been talking to Vince Masi, a Londis retailer of some standing, who trades at Lyneham in Wiltshire. He has developed a software program that he says takes the strain out of the chore of cashing up at the end of the day.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: It is never easy to lift any of the Post Office's veils.
Sometimes I think the Post Office has more veils than Salome. Let's try to lift one.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Here's a postscript on the subject of viability of epos for small stores.
This got quite an airing in the May 19 issue as retailers debated whether it was worth forking out considerable sums for all-singing, all-dancing epos when you still had to scan in every cash and carry purchase item by item as the suppliers' invoices do not come with scannable barcodes.