back to menuCroydon and District Consumer Group took a stand at the August Seisdon Forestry and Country’ Fair, using the NfCG portable (just) display stand. Despite the fact that the weather was decidedly mixed they enrolled six new members.
The event itself was very interesting with many unusual displays. There was a working threshing box powered by a stationary steam engine which was fed with real sheaves and produced straw and corn as intended. "So what!" you might say, but who grows long-stalk corn these days, let alone harvests it into sheaves, stooks it in the field to dry and then keeps it for the threshing box?. In this case somebody went to a great deal of trouble to do just that.
"Read the labels", says Bath Group, when buying tinned goods. The price of a standard 425 gm can of baked beans in tomato sauce can vary enormously, says the Bath Times. The Bath and District Consumer Group looked at twelve varieties and found that the most expensive was seven times the price of the cheapest. This is quite extraordinary. The fact that the cheapest obtained their flavour with tomato puree is no explanation, as the most expensive does also. Real tomatoes are used by the middle, priced ones. The cheaper ones all have water as their second listed ingredient.
All brands are thickened with starch, the most expensive one using brown rice flour; the majority use modified maize starch (cornflour). The least expensive did not declare the source of the modified starch and would have to be avoided by anyone with an intolerance to wheat or gluten, in case it was wheat flour starch that was used.
No variety claimed to be free of GM food ingredients, but equally there was no indication that a brand contained a GM food item.
Several varieties contained onion extract or powder. This can cause allergic reaction in some people. One variety contained ingredients derived from cows’ milk making it unsuitable for those allergic to dairy products. "Whole Earth" (the most expensive at 64p per can) declared the variety of beans used (Haricot); all the others just called them "beans". Whole Earth cans also contained Tahini flavouring which has soya as an ingredient.
As the ingredients are similar, in most cases it is really up to you and your taste buds which variety to buy. The prices, at the time of the survey, ranged from 9p at Corale (Aldi) to 64p at Whole Earth, with a whole spectrum in between. They do change, particularly when special offers occur. Read the labels, and watch the weight as well as the ingredients; the HP Organic beans came in 300 gm tins, selling for 39p, making them almost as expensive as the Whole Earth ones in which all ingredients were either organically grown or produced.
Other articles in The Bath Times included a Beginners Guide to Current Food Labelling Legislation, personal experiences of Prepaid Funerals and Hearing Aids (do not give up if they do not work properly at first), Vegi-Vision (intelligent screen recognises the shape) and many others, including some ads for local traders.
Bromley and District Consumer Group members visited Bluewater, the huge shopping development near Dartford, and wrote a report for their magazine "Watchdog" (Dalmatian Issue). They went by bus on a Monday, having read that 60 or so buses serve the site every hour." It is far from being ‘as the crow flies’", said one passenger, of the journey which took almost an hour and cost £4. They discovered that John Lewis, one of the three ‘anchor’ stores, was closed on a Monday. The other two, Marks and Spencer and House of Fraser, were open at the other two corners of the triangular development.
They found hundreds of attractive shops, many coffee bars, cafés and restaurants and a multiplex cinema. There are no food supermarkets on the site, though Marks and Spencer has its usual food section and must do well because of this.
They admired the architecture and the special amenities such as wheel chair or push chair hire, ‘carry to car’ services and the extensive car parks for 13,000 cars. However, take heed of the experience of a friend of the Editor who lost the car she came in among those thousands of cars, for it was a busy day when she went.
Write down exactly where you have left your pride and joy, particularly on what floor you have parked. It takes a long time to wait until most have gone home!
Water, Petrol and Council Tax costs are top concerns for members of Exeter and District Consumer Group. The Group carried out a survey of members’ concerns and these came top. The results were presented at the second Consumer Conference, held by Devon County Council, last October. The prices charged are all heavily influenced by Government policy and will surely become issues for the next general election. Members were also asked about value for money expended, and they put motorway services and roadside cafés at the bottom of their list.
Areas of concern which merited future consideration included Transport, Food and Financial Services. It seems likely to the Editor that similar questionnaires in other Consumer Groups would provide a good guide to what NfCG should be concerning itself with for the new century
The winter issue of Oxford Consumers Group’s quarterly magazine contains so many interesting articles that it is difficult to pick out what to include, here. One gem concerns a peripatetic post box! A member used a particular pillar box regularly - and was surprised to find just a hole in the ground where it had stood when arriving to post some letters. It was nowhere to be found.
Some days later neighbours in another road reported that Royal Mail had installed a pillar box at the end of their road, They were very pleased. The member paid it a visit and recognised the box as being the one that had gone missing. For several weeks this was the box used; then, one day, it disappeared again.
Eventually it was tracked down, in a place well out of sight of either of its two previous resting places. So far it is still there, says the correspondent, but also "please do not take it from me that it is still there when you read this; just as soon as I have posted this off it is quite likely to gather up its skirts and sidle away to some new pitch".
Market Stalls also deliver. Oxford Group has been finding out which shops will deliver for customers. A surprising number will do so. Now they have found out that many of the traders in Oxford’s covered market will deliver to your home (if you live in the area). The market is not just a quaint tourist attraction, it is noted for the quality and variety of goods and the service.
Thirteen traders are on the list. Butchers and florists are most numerous but it also includes two stalls selling leather goods, one called "Bags of Choice", the Oxford Cheese Company and an engraver.
The magazine, which appeared in December, also includes a very useful table of Christmas and New Year opening times for the market, the two main shopping centres and car parks (with charges - mostly it was free during the holiday) and the Park and Ride.
Oxford Group is involved with many influential groups in the City and reports appear in the magazine about public transport, both in the City and in Oxfordshire, the shopping centres, parades of shops in need of renovation and the matter of "virtual quarrying" which led to the resolution at the AGM concerning statutory powers for privatised and related industries.
Other topics include ‘Government for Older People’, concerning the Cabinet Office initiative, ‘Genetic Modification, why worry about it?’ and ‘The Mind Blowing Internet’. In all it is a very good read.
They had rib eye steaks on the menu for their Christmas Dinner, and Marinated Loin of Tuna, Turkey and Pan Fried Halloumi with roasted vegetables.
BOGOF is not meant to be rude! It stands for "buy one - get one free". Even if the first one is expensive, two for the price of one is usually a bargain - if you wanted one in the first place. You probably cannot have too many toilet rolls for instance, dysentery might still strike following a late millennium bug invasion.
Edinburgh Group decided to investigate bargains in local shops and supermarkets. It seems that Iceland, in Edinburgh anyway, was the leader up to Christmas in making these irresistible ‘BOGOF’ offers. There were several examples of three bottles of wine for £10. Buying individual bottles worked out much more expensive. Wine keeps, even improves sometimes with keeping. Iceland also had similar offers on several varieties of beer.
Video tape packs do not improve with age (as far as I know) but, if you use a lot, buying two packs at Waitrose for the price of one seems sensible. Other bargains were two packs of Typhoo tea bags for the price of one at ASDA, similar bargains in cooking oil at Superdrug and cleansing wipes at Tesco. It seems slightly’ odd that Iceland is big on wine and beer bargains and Superdrug in cooking oil, but retailers are always out to confuse us.
The sting in the tail is that no one went shopping! Dick Mackie looked up the offers mentioned on the Internet. All the main retailers have websites which highlight their current bargains and http://www.priceoffers.co.uk gives you a selection and also the facility to search by product or supplier.
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