It’s BALLY’S and ADIDAS (again!) and not KAIYUN SPORTS not MACRON, not BOXT, or UNHCR

[I'm Red Till Dead]

The thing with places like amazon lockers is that they can be used for both dropping off and picking up returns, So if a courier is making a trip out to deliver to a locker then they can not only unload what they have to bring out but take back to the depot anything which has been left as a return. You don't get that convenience with doing that at people's doors but that doesn't mean there isn't going to be a driver in that area. Most days an Amazon driver would be in most areas especially a big city, so it doesn't put too much out provided there's still a balance.

Returns are a necessary part of online shopping because it replaces the time of inspecting the goods in the shop before purchasing. In a shop your only legal recourse to return goods is if they're faulty and if they're faulty within a time period (legally six months without question) and it's down to the shop's goodwill to allow the return for any other reason, but you can return online within a week or two for any reason, and you don't even need to give one. So you can indeed buy multiple sizes of the same thing and return ones which don't fit...

The point with free shipping is that actually it's not free. Most retailers don't offer it separately unless it's a premium service - one place I get CDs and sheet music from quite regularly offers RM 2nd class free, RM 1st / tracked for a quid or two, and then you can have a couple of couriers for a few pounds, if you go for the basic delivery it's slow and untracked but the faster/trackable service is a bit more. But the costs of postage will be subsumed within the cost of the goods. Even with something like Prime that happens because the amount paid for Prime probably doesn't go anywhere near covering the cost of the deliveries Prime customers make during the course of the year and it also covers the cost of other services such as the video streaming etc.

Probably. Though certainly in Nottm it's getting harder to get into the centre especially if you're not taking a bus, and then if you're getting a lot of stuff or larger items (which you presumably still can in places like M&S and JL) getting things back via bus can be impractical and then if you're going for delivery... might as well have just done it online to begin with. One time I saw some people who basically got as many things like pillows and duvets they could carry between about 4/5 of them and then tried to take it all on a packed bus...

If you're parking in somewhere like VC then the parking fee is quite high and you're still cramming the car into the tight spaces from the 1970s or whenever they were measured, but when you see an older car it's noticeable how much smaller they are.

I guess there's places like Meadowhall and the smaller retail parks around Notts also but then you're travelling around more which removes the convenience anyway.

The other thing is places like Amazon, Ebuyer, etc can then also hold much larger inventories in a warehouse and even if they don't get it a lot can be dropshipped from a wholesaler or ordered in for them to ship out within a few days. Stores are limited by their size and so can't really compete.

It's sad to see it but it's been shifting over for a while and the pandemic really did ram the boot into the high street.

I tried a few years ago buying all of my Christmas presents in Mablethorpe where I live so that I helped the local shops. I expected to pay a little more but I feel it's important to keep the shops going.

One thing I was looking for was a particular Lego Star Wars toy for a great nephew. I went into a shop that sold Lego and asked for it and was told they didn't have it and I should try Amazon. They didn't even say that they could order it for me as they would have done in the old days, no, try Amazon!

I got it from Amazon. If they can't be bothered to try why should I bother trying to help them?

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

I tend to be the same watching the progress of the orders. Amazon with their maps and position of delivery make me laugh though. The map shows the location of the driver on my street and says I'm the next delivery. I look out of the window and can see the van. 20 minutes later the van hasn't moved an inch. I sometimes think one of their drivers is 'getting his cocoa' at a house down the street!

For all the troubles of Evri, thy have never left a parcel on the front yard. Only an Amazon driver has done that. Fortunately I was in at the time and saw him leavings rushed out as it wasn't in the safe place. He pointed out he had left it by the step.

If anyone is interested, I found out why I couldn't see the progress of my order on Evri. I was looking on the laptop and it seems that despite cutting and pasting the tracking code into the box from Evri and the Forest Shops emails it would say the tracking code was invalid.

It worked on the mobile when I tried it this morning so deduced it must be using an old tracking number from the cache rather than the tracking number I had entered. After removing the cached data for the Evri site and retrying, the tracking data appeared.

 

[Statto]

I tried a few years ago buying all of my Christmas presents in Mablethorpe where I live so that I helped the local shops. I expected to pay a little more but I feel it's important to keep the shops going.

One thing I was looking for was a particular Lego Star Wars toy for a great nephew. I went into a shop that sold Lego and asked for it and was told they didn't have it and I should try Amazon. They didn't even say that they could order it for me as they would have done in the old days, no, try Amazon!

I got it from Amazon. If they can't be bothered to try why should I bother trying to help them?

That's the sad truth about it though and in reality it's why a lot of these smaller shops won't stay open long term.

I guess Mablethorpe being out on a limb a bit but also being at the sea has the disadvantage of not consistent foot fall but then also a toy shop would be popular with kids on holiday with their parents but then also that need would be seasonal too...

So you'd expect that if they have a decent relationship with a wholesaler they could order in anything they don't have in stock within a couple of days provided it's available there, but then they've lost one sale there from not doing so and in the end you just won't ask or go in and they'll wonder why their sales are down

Shooting themselves in the foot really

 

[Frank Clark’s Tash]

As the consumer we only see the part of the supply chain that directly affects us, the actual delivery, and so understandably that’s the part we get pissed off about. But if you ever stop to think why it’s shit, and look for the root cause I think Statto’s post above goes some way to answering that.
And if we really do look for the root cause I think we’ll find that WE are the problem, we want everything cheap, we want it now, and a lot of people order multiple items and return what they don’t want all of which helps to overload the system and cause the problems we see. IMO.

Glad to know I'm the problem, and not the millionaire and billionaire owners of these companies that constantly look to squeeze every last penny out of their customers and employees.

I'll make a note to try and do more in my day to day life to better increase shareholder value wherever possible.

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

That's the sad truth about it though and in reality it's why a lot of these smaller shops won't stay open long term.

I guess Mablethorpe being out on a limb a bit but also being at the sea has the disadvantage of not consistent foot fall but then also a toy shop would be popular with kids on holiday with their parents but then also that need would be seasonal too...

So you'd expect that if they have a decent relationship with a wholesaler they could order in anything they don't have in stock within a couple of days provided it's available there, but then they've lost one sale there from not doing so and in the end you just won't ask or go in and they'll wonder why their sales are down

Shooting themselves in the foot really

True but there is usually someone who will come in after them and think they can make a go of a small shop.

Yes I'm sure it is incredibly difficult to run a shop in a small seaside town like Mablethorpe. To a certain extent the size doesn't matter. Even the Coop has to make the majority of its annual revenue during the summer season as the size of the shop is way to big for the number of full time residents that you will see in the winter. The same will be true of of the recently added Tesco and B&M's. In fact every shop in town needs to do well in the summer to make it through the lean winters when it is pretty much just the locals.

You would, but many a shop in the old days would shop at wholesalers rather than order directly. I guess it would depend on when they would visit and whether the wholesaler had it. As you expect to pay a premium at a local store the shop could have ordered it from Amazon and marked it up.

Yes they are. It's the service that good shops can give that makes you want to go back, And it's the people that go into the smaller shops to take a look at goods before they go away and order them online that kills the shopkeepers' spirits.

 

[Strummer]

One thing I was looking for was a particular Lego Star Wars toy for a great nephew.

Crikey, I don’t want to know what you got for your crap nephew, IRTD!

Incidentally there’s a proper Lego shop in Stuttgart (as in, one that sells Lego,not one made of Lego) and they have some cracking F1 cars in there, one of which would look excellent on my bookcase.

 

[Rob1965]

Glad to know I'm the problem, and not the millionaire and billionaire owners of these companies that constantly look to squeeze every last penny out of their customers and employees.

I'll make a note to try and do more in my day to day life to better increase shareholder value wherever possible.

If you could, that would be great

I know it’s very simplistic but if we used the high street there would still be a high street.

 

[Notcher]

Players should be back in for pre-season within the next week so we'll probably start seeing some of the gear that's going to be available.

 

[FLC]

Players should be back in for pre-season within the next week so we'll probably start seeing some of the gear that's going to be available.

I think you’ll find this is the parcel delivery thread.

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

Crikey, I don’t want to know what you got for your crap nephew, IRTD!

Incidentally there’s a proper Lego shop in Stuttgart (as in, one that sells Lego,not one made of Lego) and they have some cracking F1 cars in there, one of which would look excellent on my bookcase.

Maybe if you start a Go Fund Me Page you might get a couple of Euros towards it.

 

[Strummer]

Maybe if you start a Go Fund Me Page you might get a couple of Euros towards it.

Why did I not think of that….!!

 

[Master Yates]

I will get closer to it I tell you.

Cue you telling me it's now less like it
View attachment 60915

I’d buy that

It looks like a NASL kit from the 70s

 

[Notcher]

I’d buy that

It looks like a NASL kit from the 70s

We'd have to change our name to something like the rebels especially as outlaws is already taken.

 

[Rob1965]

I’d buy that

It looks like a NASL kit from the 70s

A nasal kit from the 70’s you say…

 

[Ian Moore Gone Little]

A nasal kit from the 70’s you say…

I seem to recall another one along the lines of “A secodd class tikkid to Dottigub, blease”.

 

[Rob1965]

I seem to recall another one along the lines of “A secodd class tikkid to Dottigub, blease”.

That was ‘Tunes’…

 

[Ian Moore Gone Little]

That was ‘Tunes’…

Tudes, yes, of course it was…

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

That was ‘Tunes’…

That's Peter Cleall of Please Sir and The Fenn Street Gang on the right if I'm not mistaken.

 

[andyd]

Blimey. Stay off the forum for a few days and I come back to find nothing about new shirts but a deep dive on UK delivery companies and the shopping practices of Mablethorpe. Not what I expected.

When is the shirt getting released?

 

[Berkshire Red]

Blimey. Stay off the forum for a few days and I come back to find nothing about new shirts but a deep dive on UK delivery companies and the shopping practices of Mablethorpe. Not what I expected.

When is the shirt getting released?

August 21st.

 

[Strummer]

Blimey. Stay off the forum for a few days and I come back to find nothing about new shirts but a deep dive on UK delivery companies and the shopping practices of Mablethorpe. Not what I expected.

You must be new here?

 

[Notcher]

Blimey. Stay off the forum for a few days and I come back to find nothing about new shirts but a deep dive on UK delivery companies and the shopping practices of Mablethorpe. Not what I expected.

When is the shirt getting released?

That's pretty on track for this forum.

 

[Frank Clark’s Tash]

Anyone know the best company to use for shipping squirrels to Germany?

 

[Danga]

Anyone know the best company to use for shipping squirrels to Germany?

Carlos will do it for a bag of pork scratchings if you ask him nicely.

 

[Statto]

Carlos will do it for a bag of pork scratchings if you ask him nicely.

Who knows what condition the squirrels will arrive in though