Latest from Dear Jac – Page 83
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Anybody need help from an old hand?
Jim Roberts is a rare thing. He’s an ex-retailer turned consultant who once specialised in buying run-down shops, pulling them up by their bootstraps and selling them on at a profit. And, as he was independent himself for many years, he knows what the constraints on business are, which means he’s very affordable.
I recently referred a lady to him who had been on the phone in tears, her business rolling downhill before her eyes. He helped and she is happier. -
Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Getting to grips with new licensing laws can make you certifiable.
Even when the Devereux family tried to do everything in plenty of time to comply and cope with the new regime, it all went pear-shaped. Stephen, Lesley and their daughter Simone run the delightful sounding Cocktails/Chocolate Box at Littleborough in Lancashire.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Tote that bale. A newsagent’s life is a tough one.
In the last issue I wondered if any other newsagents had noted extra charges on their invoices for missing tote boxes as Anish Shah, who runs Sonam Enterprise in South-west London, had done. This prompted an email from John Beswick in Old Leake, Lincolnshire who has never had a tote ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Phone companies ideally placed to dodge calls.
Two complaints recently made me realise that no one is better placed than phone companies to hide their contact details.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Property prices seldom go down – and it’s the same with rent reviews.
The following would seem to indicate that the landlord just thinks of a figure and then doubles it. Narendra Patel, who runs Cosmos Newsagent in the Tottenham area of north London, must get the jitters every time his rent review is due.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Has any other newsagent suffered from the mysterious disappearance of tote boxes?
If so, Anish Shah would like to know. For the first time in the six years that he has run Sonam Enterprise in Richmond, southwest London, five of the tote boxes his newspapers come and go in have disappeared.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: How do you know if you are being ripped off?
In the April 22 issue I reported that the final chapter had been written on bogus ‘drugs awareness’ publisher Anderson Clarke Publications. ACP was folded by the DTI following an investigation which showed the company wasn’t printing all the copies of books for schools for which it was charging sponsors.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Your ‘best asset’ can sometimes turn out to be the very opposite.
Yes, we’re talking staff here. I regularly get callers with long tales of woe about useless, lying, thieving staff and those who can’t even be a waste of space since they are too busy malingering to show up at all. A recent caller, who preferred to stick to the pseudonym ...