Group News
Aberdeen
After the AGM failed to find new members for the Committee a much happier Extraordinary General Meeting produced a new team, now active.
A main interest of the new members is the range of services offered by leading supermarkets, and more local stores adopting the same format. Some of the services you may not be aware of at all until the need arises. The Editor of "Consuming Interests ", Aberdeen's very professional quarterly magazine, found out the hard way that one supermarket had a dedicated member of staff with jump-leads to assist customers whose cars would not start!
Services survey
A survey of big and small supermarkets and more traditional shops suggests that, in Aberdeen anyway, the big boys on the block are not having it all their own way.
The smaller shops may lack the space and range of goods but they do have the advantage of convenient locations and a cosier atmosphere. One local shop, Kelly of Cults was recently voted "Independent UK Retailer of the Year".
Nowadays we expect access for disabled customers, and all stores surveyed in Aberdeen will help customers with their shopping, whether disabled or not, and will carry it to the car if required.
Some other facilities found included a brolly service, a car trouble service, home delivery at Iceland, ASDA and Kelly, a creche at ASDA and Sainsbury, with a Kids Club near the Scottish Co-op. ASDA at Portlethen seems to offer every service including hairdressing and a Travel Agent. Mace and Spar shops offer photocopying and a Post Office.
Organic Foods in Aberdeen.
A report last year that all outlets for organic foods in Aberdeen had closed, caused interest outside the City. Now a shop, Totally Organic', has opened up in Holburn Street. The business is a member of the Soil Association and all stock is guaranteed to be organic. Prices are higher than for non-organic equivalents.
Of wider interest must be the decision in principle by Tesco to opt for organic produce on a large scale, with the aim of having half its range of suitable items organic within five years.
To this end Tesco has entered into an agreement with Aberdeen University for a large scale research and development programme which has attracted much other support. On the basis of the findings, Tesco's main suppliers will progressively convert to organic methods.
Plymouth Label Problems
A member of Plymouth and District Consumer Group bought a packet of cereal (Märchen-Land Kinderflakes) in a reduced price shop. The cereal was excellent but its content remains a mystery as all the wording on the packet was in a foreign language, presumably Austrian. One wonders what Weizenvollkornmehl is?
Food ingredients in the UK must be in English, even in Wales, which is where Plymouth Trading Standards found that the supplier of the packet was located, and where appropriate labels should have been affixed.
Another package said "4 Savoury Bites" and the egg mayonnaise content was plain to see. What was not so plain but important to a vegetarian, was the very small print, white on a blue background which read "filled with sausage meat with chopped egg and mayonnaise-coated breadcrumbs". In very small letters at the bottom of the preparation guidelines was the message "not suitable for home freezing or microwave cooking". There was no offence committed, but surely these important messages should be plain to see.
Traditional Style Syrup Sponge Pudding, said the label. Traditional" and "Original" are terms that marketing people think will sell a product [personally I fight shy of anything so described - Editor. One look at the ingredients shows that it is not something that Grandma would have made. For a start she would not have added soya to the main mix. Then she would not have used the additives for colour, flavouring, preservatives, emulsifiers and gelling agents. Maybe Iceland is more honest in describing the Syrup Sponge as "Traditional Style"
Plymouth Group are collecting such labels. If you find any that tend to be misleading they would be interested in learning about them. Send your information to Stuart Coverley, Editor of "The Plymouth Consumer" at 20 Culme Road, Mannamead, Plymouth PL3 5BJ.
Travels in Oxford
At the Group's AGM, members were asked to fill in a questionnaire about how they travelled most often. This was an exercise to refine the questionnaire to be circulated more widely with the Group's quarterly magazine, "The Oxford Consumer
When asked how they travelled most often, almost equal numbers replied 'on foot', 'by bicycle' (well it is Oxford with a strong cycling tradition), 'by bus' and 'by car'. 'l'here was no place on the form for the member who travels by electric
scooter, but that will be remedied.
Small but perfectly formed - Oxfordshire TSD
At the AGM, Chairman Mrs. Moyra Haynes, paid tribute to the Oxfordshire Trading Standards Department. Small and underfunded, they had, nevertheless, been selected to receive a grant from the Cabinet Office to enable them to help with a national web-site to make Government and local authority information available to the public. The Department supports the Young Consumer of the Year competition but was unable to find a commercial sponsor for this year's heats. Oxford Group stepped in and helped to the tune of £200. Happily the Oxfordshire team, from Fitzharry's school, Abingdon, won both the local and regional Heats and will go forward to the National Final.
Ray Heyworth points out in the April issue of "Counter Points", the magazine of the Edinburgh CG, that, in 1996, Mark Purdey spoke at the Edinburgh International Science Festival advising research into the possibility that the use of organophosphate insecticides was the initial cause of BSE.
Now, he reports that the Somerset farmer has triumphed in his ten year battle to persuade the Government to authorise extra research into these organophosphates, and whether their use on cattle parasites helped to trigger bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE to you and me).
A plea for uniformity from Hamish Henderson
Hamish Henderson, writing on his Chairman's Letter page in "Counter Points" makes a plea for standard size indications in clothing. He points out that some stores merely mark clothing as S, M, or L, without any indication what that means.
Examples of shirts from Van Heusen, Marks and Spencer and Adidas reveal the several different ways of giving sizes, some in centimetres, some in inches and some in unidentified measurements, usually all quoted on a label growing ever longer - the Adidas one is over 5 inches, or 13 cms long.
He says "with centimetres in almost universal use now, and the clothing industry so international, much ribbon would be saved if measurements could be given clearly in centimetres". Can I hear an echo from Hendon?
The role of the City in relation to bus services and fares
Mrs. Dorothy Cockrell, on behalf of Edinburgh Group, has been in correspondence with the City Council concerning bus fares and ticketing. A lengthy reply from the City Council Member holding the exalted position of Convenor of Transportation makes clear the position of the Council in relation to Bus services and fares since the Transportation Act 1985, which may well be of interest to other Groups.
He says "under the Act Bus companies are free to decide which services they want to operate on a commercial basis. They are also free to determine the fares charged on these services and the types of tickets available as part of the commercial freedoms conveyed by this legislation. Local Authorities, including this Council, have power to provide financial support for services considered to be socially necessary, but which would not otherwise be provided commercially by Bus operators. We are not allowed to financially support journeys that would substantially compete with existing commercial Bus services.
"The Council's ability to control fare levels is limited to those services for which we provide financial support. On these services the fares are normally set at levels equivalent to those charged on commercial services
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