back to menuIt still possible, likely even. For Some time there have been rumours that the Kingfisher Group (Woolworth’s etc.) was about to buy ASDA. Now it seems that the huge American store group WAL*MART, looking for a way into the European scene, has made an offer of £6.7 billion, which ASDA is minded to accept as it is rather more than Kingfisher was offering. It will be interesting to see how ASDA changes if WAL*MART is successful, as their philosophy is of the "pile ‘em high and sell
‘em cheap" kind, which they can do as they have enormous buying power with their turnover of £85 billion. How long the name ASDA will remain is also an interesting question. No matter that WAL*MART values the ASDA name, it will surely soon want to stamp its corporate identity onto its first UK acquisition and even persuade the staff to learn its corporate song. It is also interesting to consider the effect on the other UK supermarket chains. Price reductions are predicted and, while this will obviously be popular with consumers, in a paradoxical way it may also be a good thing for the other players. They have been accused of keeping prices high in comparison with those on the Continent and there have been suggestions of an OFT investigation. Now they may be able to point out that they could be facing the fiercest of competition rather than the present seemingly uncompetitive relationship with their rivals, and an investigation would be inappropriate.
6th and 7th July An expensive day out?
The theme of the Conference is "Consumers at Risk" -the cost to full member delegates is £90 for the one day; non members, a swingeing £195; associate members get in for £45!
However, this is a top level conference with distinguished speakers who focus on different aspects of risk for consumers - the first keynote address is being given by Dr. Sue Mayer, University of Lancaster and Director of Genewatch who will discuss "The Nature of Risk". The second, entitled "Vulnerable Consumers - Consumer Risk in the Marketplace" is being given by John Bridgeman, the Director General of Fair Trading.
There will follow some "Great Debates" (workshops) all of which will be attractive to NfCG Members -
Perhaps it is not so expensive after all as it includes a buffet supper on the 6th and refreshments and lunch on 7th July.
The full programme starts on Tuesday, 6th July, with the Consumer Congress AGM at 5pm, followed by the preConference buffet supper. Very reasonably priced overnight accommodation has been arranged. A report will appear in the next issue.
Have you received an invitation to attend a television preview? It says "we have selected you for an important role in television (you feel nice about that) and are herewith inviting you to participate as a member of a hand picked special audience (you feel nice about that as well) at our two-hour session television preview". You think, "how nice, someone wants my views of forthcoming programmes
Gerry Lanchin said "warn readers about this" and I wondered why. Then I examined the various components. The covering letter gave an address to which I wrote and the letter was returned "addressee has gone away". The Manchester phone number did not exist.
A Royal Mail official told me that he and his wife had succumbed to such an invitation at an address that did exist. The programme they saw was designed to advertise consumer goods to a captive audience. There were some so called ‘pilot programmes’ which, he said, were dire in the extreme. You may think that "Summer Bay" and other Australian soaps are characterised by wooden acting but, compared to what was shown they are positively dynamic!
I shall raise the matter at the next Post Office Advisory Committee meeting. What I do not understand is what the organisers are up to. Why have they covered their tracks? JEB
The Membership & Development Committee is keen to establish a new Consumer Group - entirely on the World Wide Web. It needs somebody with the right expertise - a real surfer - to take it on board. Any volunteers? Contact M&D Chairman Roy Bisson on bisson@guernsey.net.
This was the message recently made to a gathering of "Marketers" at the formation of the Guernsey Branch of The Chartered Institute of Marketing.
"Music to our ears" said several Guernsey Consumer Group members in attendance!
Past Chairman, Bob Gale, has been our representative on the British Standards Institution Consumer Policy Committee for some time. He recently stepped down because of other commitments and the NfCG Executive Committee has appointed Vice-Chairman Roy Bisson as his replacement.
Whenever I travel by train into London I pass a huge ‘energy from waste’ power station which gobbles up all the combustible waste from a large area of South East London and turns it into electricity and then the residual heat is used as well.
Now I have discovered that a straw fuelled power station is being built near Ely in Cambridgeshire. This is a big unit and will burn 200,000 tonnes of straw per year to provide electricity for some 80,000 homes -that is two and a half tonnes for each home! The straw will come from farmers in a fifty mile radius of the power station, with whom the operators will enter into firm contracts. Waste heat will not, in fact, be wasted but used by local enterprises.
Filtration systems will neutralise emissions from the power station and the residual ash will be collected for use in agricultural fertiliser production thus very neatly completing the cycle.
Bernard Shaw, I am told by Brian Locke, spelled "fish" as "ghoti". Why? Well consider this - spell ‘f’ as ‘gh’ as in enough - ‘i’ as ‘o’ as in women -‘sh’ as ‘ti’ in mention. Simple?
I receive some odd press releases. One recently arrived announcing the world’s first global lottery, known as PLUS Lotto. Plus Lotto is authorised by the Liechtenstein Government and operated by the International Lottery in Liechtenstein Foundation (Inter Lotto).
The release goes on to say that PLUS Lotto donates up to 25% of the proceeds from individual games to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. A further 5 to 15% will be donated to charities at the discretion of the Charity Allocation Committee which is controlled by the Liechtenstein Government. It is, says the blurb, one of the most philanthropic lotteries in the world. The Internet lottery draw (which is carried out in public in Liechtenstein) takes place every Friday at 3pm CET.
Interested? Then the web site is http://www.pluslotto.com
A shoppers’ guide to Genetically Modified Food, written by Sue Dibb and Tim Lobstein, has been released by Virgin Publishing. It gives shoppers the information they need to make informed choices. It contains a complete list of all foods that are guaranteed to be free of GM or GM-derived ingredients, using data from the food manufacturers and suppliers.
If you are worried about GM foods and ingredients then this book should be essential reading and, at £4.99, it will not break the bank. I suspect that it will gradually become out of date as more food manufacturers realise the growing public resistance to GM ingredients and bring in products which avoid them.
Please keep sending them, our letters page is looking rather thin. Surely there are some topics about which you want to make your views known? While several people have pointed out that the metrication article in the last issue is misleading in that the enabling legislation to make it all happen is still awaited, nobody has written about it. We have many metrication supporters; come out, declare yourselves and tell us how frustrated you feel!
As ever, send contributions to me, John Brown, at No. 6 Priory Gardens, Dartford. DAl 2BE, or fax then to 01322 280 673 (no change) or e-mail me on john.brown6@virgin.net
The material contained in Consumer News may only be reproduced by federated groups unless otherwise indicated. The articles do not necessarily represent the views of the National Federation of Consumer Groups, its Groups or its members. ©1999 NfCG
National Federation of Consumer Groups
NfCG was founded in 1963.
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