Jonboy

Italy has a lot of zombie companies anyway, just ticking over on ever-renewed bank loans...the central bank won’t tighten up the terms because doing so in a consistent way would crash their economy as many companies would fold...meaning all our Italian suppliers are relatively sanguine about the shutdown. not sure on the others as I don’t deal with many other EU country’s other than the odd company here and there.

Still the 737 max project managers must be incredibly pleased with the lull in demand....

I have the “quandary” that although I work from home, but take my non-driving wife to her job each morning and then drive home. There is not an early enough bus if we wanted it, more so now they have cut back with a temporary timetable. I am now picking her up as well so she doesn’t need to use the buses home (that are not cleaned throughly in normal time’s). As she makes ventilators for a living full time I am not going to lose any sleep over breaking the rules in this way.

On the other hand what is the alternative? Retailers always have the right to refuse transactions and it is only since chip and pin came in that vigilance, signature checking etc. by the seller stopped being a big part of the paperwork and training retailers were supposed to provide their staff, that came with a pdq machine. I am lucky to work in a low risk of fraud area as our goods are generally low value and often require other bits to make usable/worthwhile. Higher risk businesses just cost it in as another expense, same as shoplifting, cctv, alarms etc.

Here in Didcot the main post office is in WH Smith, which closed last week, taking the post office with it at the moment. There are a number of smaller ones in smaller shops around the villages that appear to be open at the moment. Don't forget you can buy postage on the royal mail website and print out a label to stick on the parcel and then drop it at your normal sorting office, any post office or drop into a post box. Some local business parks also have franked mail boxes with larger slots, on Milton park these have been rebranded small parcel boxes. I regularly used to drop signed for items into these, and they always got the requisite signature at the other end despite this being against the stated rules (never had a missing one to claim for mind).

Goldfish swims into a wall “dam!”

Two goldfish in a tank. one says to the other “you drive, I’ll man the gun”.

As an aside the Dyson order is only valid IF their design gets clinical certification, no certificate, no order. https://www.itv.com/news/2020-03-26/the-ventilators-the-nhs-needs-going-into-mass-production-and-dyson-isn-t-involved/

Based on the response at my wife’s workplace and competitors , who make them full time, to adapt and work with other big production names (Some companies have advertised their taking part, others haven’t) for expanding the production of designs that are already certified, tested to normal standards and operate in a way that hospital staff are familiar with, I would guess the NHS may have decided it can meet the targets without an unknown machine in the mix. ( Dyson may of course have been given the same curtailment but not advertised it).

As mentioned elsewhere my employer have closed up shop for the near future due to the Covid-19 situation. On the day we closed we had around 200 live courier consignments out and about with three of the major networks. 90% of those have gone without a hitch. The other 10% have been a pain in the butt to resolve and i thought i would share the experience in case anyone is expecting deliveries from smaller businesses. The main issue we have experienced is that the courier contact centres have mostly closed without any planning for a situation where they would all do so at the same time. Plenty of resilience planning to roll calls from one to another, but not for a full shutdown of phones across multiple centres. This means we are back to emailing specific dedicated email addresses for certain functions, who are now operating from home. These staff then pick up the requests for redirections, change of address, return to vendor etc etc one at a time and action them with the relevant depot. They are suddenly getting more requests that at Xmas peak..... If you as the receiver use the publicly published contact details, live chats etc you get a different team, who cannot see the requests, until the team we deal with have actioned them, which has been up to five days later in 2 cases this week. I have been called a liar three times this week simply because I have followed the usual email processes (phone being unavailable) and the carriers customer service team are deluged with alterations. If you do make such a request for any alterations or encounter lost or delayed parcels with any seller, big or small please bear in mind it is not business as normal in the back end and stay nice.

At this point in time rejecting contactless cards seems like a less smart idea, although at the time I was still office based and had a contactless terminal on my desk as a permanent fixture....

Are Ocado still under capacity from the fire that took out one of their warehouses last year?

the other thing that was mentioned somewhere in the media is that a lot of mountain rescue volunteers are medical or emergency workers in their day jobs, so they may be at lower capacity to begin with,

is it only me that sees this and thinks ohhhhh rabbit warren potential?

That explains the fireworks down the bottom of Didcot, didn’t have a clue what it was for....

My wife works for a company that make certain models that are popular for that specific reason. They are still servicing devices in Africa made 30+ years ago....I doubt the Gtech ones will get anything like the required testing to ensure it can stand up to that environment. These simple ones may be right for this situation because they will be transported on first world infrastructure, and then they will be used on patients with similar conditions and not alongside anaesthetics that need varying supplies for every patient and procedure. wifey has spent the day showing the assembly to a number of hi-tech companies that are gearing up now to produce from this week.

And it will also have fallen on Hattons to risk assess the number of drivers coming into them to deliver and collect, some of who may have done 50 or more deliveries to any random destination to empty the van before collections begin. ironically the only carrier I know that use dedicated collection vehicles full time for small parcels from such dedicated mail order houses is everyone’s favourite Hermes, as i doubt Hattons have dedicated artics parked outside, which you would if dispatching larger items. Most others use their delivery vehicles at least part of the time (I assume Royal Mail may have cages or yorkies in use for Hattons).

Our specialism is more the adult end of the market, rather than the kids end with a few notable exceptions. I would suggest the average hobbyist has enough supplies in stock to craft through a 2 year shutdown, let alone a few weeks, as the universal truth seems to be you buy three for every one you use....whether it be loco kits, model planes, wool, fabric, scrapbooking embellishments, cameras and lenses, bikes or almost any other hobby/interest equipment you care to mention. I do take @AY Mods point of different retailers having to make their own decisions for their circumstances and hope all businesses pull through ok. (Talking to our customers many seem to be having constructive talks with landlords, which is heartening to hear).

I am a manager within an arts and crafts wholesaler. we only supply business to business via mail order, could of stayed open but have taken the decision to close to avoid being a source of possible contagion to our staff and their family’s. simultaneously and without coordination a number of our competitors appear to have made the same decision today. If we had known our competitors where doing the same it would have been one less point to consider, at this point in an unprecedented life and death scenario. well done Hattons for starting a mature conversation in your industry, and trying to put the health and welfare of your staff ahead of toy trains.

Just trying to work out what the score is with the MOT on the car, booked for Wednesday (due 12th April latest), as the wife’s work is essential and buses have all been cut back as of Monday. waiting to see what the garage suggest.

Be aware that the signature for signed for may be into possession of the Spanish postal service, not alway the end buyer. you may find it cheaper to use a freight broker such as worldwide parcels https://www.worldwide-parcelservices.co.uk .

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/headlines/2016/5/williams_-pit-stop-expertise-to-help-save-newborn-babies.html

At our local Tesco admittance for the early shop is with NHS ID card only.

@Butler Henderson you may wish to try looking at local farm shops or Holland and Barrett If you struggle with the gluten free flour in the supermarkets.