Doctor John wrote:

> Is it just me, but doesn't it seem odd that Andrew's mother emails him 
> about the price of cheese? He lives with her for $DEITY's sake!
> ...or are they not talking?
> ;-)


cut, and in a few months she'll be unemployed. Her bank balance hasn't 

face it, who the hell is going to hire an old fat women who's nearly 
retirement age?

Post a reply to this message

And lo on Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:18:56 +0100, scott <sco### [at] scottcom> did  
spake, saying:

>> It would be interesting to know which items are their loss-leaders...  
>> ;-)
>
> Usually very common items (bread etc), also usually placed at the back  
> of the shop so that you have to be tempted by 31434 other items before  
> you get there.

They also try and pick certain items they know that people compare between  
stores so their bread might be more expensive, but their milk is cheaper.  
Oh and shouldn't that be 31415 other items :-P

>> I just find it interesting that shops of all kinds are *always*  
>> advertising that their prices are going down and down and down.
>
> Ermm yeh, it helps get people to go to that store rather than a  
> competitor.

Tcch you'd think they were a business or something.

>> So, like, why didn't you do this sooner?

Because every supermarket used to be only really competing with roughly  
one other store - M&S vs. Waitrose; Tesco vs. Sainsbury's; Asda vs. Kwik  
Save. Now add in Morrisons, Lidl, Aldi etc. and combine it with people  
suddenly needing to think about which store they want to spend money in  
and it's a free-for-all.

> (And besides, as far as *I*
>> can tell, the actual prices rise and fall more or less at random, and  
>> they only advertise the ones that have fallen. I'm surprised that's  
>> legal...)
>
> Why? There's no law that says you have to advertise your entire product  
> range or not at all.

then you get those delightful adverts which show that X had 2,000 items  
cheaper, Y had 3,000, but our store has 5,000 cheaper. Doesn't say what  
exactly is cheaper, or even how they're comparing things.

>> Does it worry anybody *else* here that when all the oil runs out in 10  
>> years' time, the nations of the world are basically going to have a  
>> global thermonuclear war over the rights to the last remaining few  
>> drops?
>
> Long before oil actually runs out there are going to be cheaper  
> alternatives.  Industries that are reliant on oil today will gradually  
> shift as prices increase.

and as scott points out elsewhere the rising prices make alternatives more  
viable; and as Darren has pointed out a while ago the estimates were made  
using the then current extraction technique and there is in fact more  
availble that wasn't being touched because it would cost more to get at  
then to sell.

As Florian states the biggest worry is in the plastics industry, as soon  
as that began to dominate the materials industry the fact that we simply  
just burn the same stuff should have registered as a teensy bit off.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

Post a reply to this message

And lo on Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:47:56 +0100, Gilles Tran  
<gil### [at] gmailcom> did spake, saying:

> "Orchid XP v8" <voi### [at] devnull> a écrit dans le message de  
> news:48cea557@news.povray.org...
>
>> All of which, AFAIK, have been around for at least 30 years, and nobody  
>> has taken any notice whatsoever.
>
> Actually, one of the reasons why the price of cheese went up is due to  
> biofuels. A few countries (including the US) have been converting food  
> maize and soybeans crops to biofuel maize for a few years now, due to  
> attractive fuel prices: the US now uses more of its maize crop for  
> biofuel than it sells abroad. Last year, with a few other factors, this  
> cascaded into a world shortage of food/feed grains. The price of cereals  
> doubled between May and September 2007, and drove up the price of feeds,  
> and then of milk and cheese.

All of which you've got to see the funny side of. The eco-warriers demand  
biofuels, some governments set up favourable legislation and as a result  
rainforests are cleared to grow maize and food prices increase. At least  
they've admitted that the outcome wasn't perhaps the best and they made a  
mistake; I don't think any of the governments have done the same yet.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

Post a reply to this message

And lo on Tue, 16 Sep 2008 09:09:02 +0100, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> did  
spake, saying:

> Doctor John wrote:
>
>> Is it just me, but doesn't it seem odd that Andrew's mother emails him  
>> about the price of cheese? He lives with her for $DEITY's sake!
>> ...or are they not talking?
>> ;-)
>
> Nah, my mum is stressed as hell because she's about to get a £5k pay  
> cut, and in a few months she'll be unemployed. Her bank balance hasn't  
> been higher than £-1k in decades, and that's *with* an income. And let's  
> face it, who the hell is going to hire an old fat women who's nearly  
> retirement age?

Nursery schools? Supermarkets too seem to be getting older and older staff.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

Post a reply to this message

>> And 
>> let's face it, who the hell is going to hire an old fat women who's 
>> nearly retirement age?
> 
> Nursery schools?

My God... Think of the children! o_O

> Supermarkets too seem to be getting older and older staff.

Heh. Or just Polish...

(Not that I wish to imply that there is anything *wrong* with being 
Polish - some of my favourite lists are - it just seems a little odd, 
that's all.)

Post a reply to this message

And lo on Tue, 16 Sep 2008 09:29:48 +0100, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> did  
spake, saying:

>>> And let's face it, who the hell is going to hire an old fat women  
>>> who's nearly retirement age?
>>  Nursery schools?
>
> My God... Think of the children! o_O

I thought you'd appreciate that.

>> Supermarkets too seem to be getting older and older staff.
>
> Heh. Or just Polish...
>
> (Not that I wish to imply that there is anything *wrong* with being  
> Polish - some of my favourite lists are - it just seems a little odd,  
> that's all.)

Minimal skilled work that requires little communication or experience. A  
quick launch point to earn some money while gaining cultural and  
linguistic knowledge.

As a pure observation I'm hearing a lot more Polish being spoken locally,  
then again we are home to the Honoury Polish Consul for the West Midlands

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

Post a reply to this message

> As a pure observation I'm hearing a lot more Polish being spoken locally,

When I landed at Stansted the other week, I was greeted by most signs being 
in Polish - I thought I'd landed in the wrong country!

Post a reply to this message

Invisible wrote:
> My mum has just sent me an email saying that the price of cheese (my 
> favourite food) has gone up by 10% in the last week.
> 


> 

> 1 tonne of cheese.
> 


> the stuff, and I'm sure it doesn't include refrigerating it in the shop 
> or any other overheads, but basically the price you pay is about 10x the 
> price the shop pays. That's an impressive price difference...

Mark-ups of one hundred to two hundred percent are quite common in 
retail sales.

> Also, I was under the impression that *all* food prices have gone up. So 
> my mum's comment that "you'd better start eating something else" seems a 
> bit daft to me.
> 
> No doubt at some point somebody will blame all this on the credit 
> crunch.

It's more likely caused by one of the suppliers in the market 
consistently pricing their product or service above market rates. 
Everyone has to pass on this increased cost.  At the moment the two 
players in the market who are most insulated from market forces are the 
petroleum exporters and the government.

Regulation is also constantly increasing, and affects just about 
everybody in the chain from cow to cheese counter at the store.

> If you think about it for a moment, it's quite amazing the power mankind 
> how has to screw itself just by thinking about it. It only takes one 
> news reporter to say "but don't panic-buy, there's plenty of fuel" and 
> within hours every filling station in the land has been denuded of fuel. 
> How powerful reverse psychology is! A crysis exists because somebody 
> says so.
> 
> I think Mr Adams said it right, when he wrote "In summary, people are a 
> problem."
> 
> In a more or less unrelated thread... Which is healthier? A cheese 
> sandwich, or a packet of crisps?

The cheese sandwich is far healthier.  It has more protein.

Regards,
John

Post a reply to this message

And lo on Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:10:53 +0100, scott <sco### [at] scottcom> did  
spake, saying:

>> As a pure observation I'm hearing a lot more Polish being spoken  
>> locally,
>
> When I landed at Stansted the other week, I was greeted by most signs  
> being in Polish - I thought I'd landed in the wrong country!

Fancy doing some trolling on the Express/Mail/Sun websites? :-P

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

Post a reply to this message

>>>  Nursery schools?
>>
>> My God... Think of the children! o_O
> 
> I thought you'd appreciate that.

Actually, my mum really likes children. (The hair gets in your teeth 
though...)

In seriousness... before the two devorces and the near bankrupcy and the 
mental breakdown, my mum actually used to be a childminder. Go figure.

Post a reply to this message