Bath and District Consumer Group has announced a notable victory in its campaign against unreasonable tow-aways: The District Commander of the Avon & Somerset Constabulary told the Group that, by the end of July, only vehicles parked in dangerous conditions or causing an obstruction would be towed away,
Statistics tell us that single occupancy households are on the increase, and not only among the older section of the population. It is perhaps not surprising therefore that Bath and District Consumer Group seems to have touched a nerve among members with its questionnaire about food shopping for one person. The response was very good, with over 100 replies, and in this case three quarters were from older people. The replies came from a very wide area, indicating a general concern, not just a City one.
Only 35% of those who replied used buses to get to the shops. The buses were not conveniently timed and there was no space for trolleys or bags of shopping. This latter point is surely something to which bus operators should give attention. A surprising 66°% walked to the shops while about half used a car for some, if not all of their shopping. Very few used a taxi.
Superstores were used by 68%, while 54% used local shops and small super-markets, indicating an overlap. Very few bought food at specialist shops or Farmers' markets or street markets. One wonders why. Are prices too high?
Lack of small portions was a common complaint. However some local shops sold food in loose quantities where the buyer could decide how much to buy. The Editor identifies with those who pointed out how annoying it is to find that oranges, for instance, are only available in multi-packs on the day of the supermarket visit. Nearly 90% of respondents said they would not buy multi-packs. Not only was it a case of carrying the packs home but also single people tended to have smaller freezers, or fridge-freezers with less capacity to store multi-buys. Nearly everyone bought two for the price of one if the goods were not perishable but 50% would have preferred a half price offer.
The questionnaire asked which foods you would not purchase if the pack size was too large, and which you would buy more often if the packs were smaller. The answers show that small packs are available, but not always, and not everywhere, and there is a widespread difficulty in always finding what you want in a size that is right for you. The Editor now always buys meat from a proper butcher who will sell him a single chop, if that is all he wants that day, but he is lucky in having such a shop near him.
The difficulty with shopping trolleys on buses has been mentioned. Loaded ones are even more difficult to deal with and lots of full bags of shopping make for difficulties as well. The sheer bulk of some items prevented purchase. "I do not want 1 kg of fruit, 500gms of mince, or six toilet rolls or especially a six pack of some heavy liquid, because I cannot carry all that lot home" was the common message from many respondents. Many outlets now have a home delivery service yet few made use of it. Those that did particularly praised Waitrose and Iceland.
The author of the article says "I am sure we all have our pet shopping problems -but it is in our interest to let the Supermarkets know. They cannot improve their service to the customer unless the customer tells them what is wanted. Also, remember to praise them when they get it right".
This seems such a sound survey that one hopes Bath Group has sent copies to all the traders mentioned in it, and to the bus companies, asking what they are going to do about its findings.
A member of the Plymouth and District Consumer Group gave details in the latest issue of The Plymouth Consumer of
two uplifting experiences. He had recently been fighting his bank, having found a mistake in his statement. He charged them £50 for his time, which is what they would have charged him in reverse circumstances and they paid up, sending him a cheque as he would not let them credit his account.
He arranged for some work to be done at his house by BT and confirmed the arrangement. BT did not keep the appointment and he charged them £120 for failing to turn up and they paid up in view of his time which had been wasted.
The moral of the story is fight for what is right!
Investigations by Plymouth Group had shown that some tinned items contain as little as 3% of the promoted ingredient. Surely tins of baked beans contain just beans? But the price of a tin of baked beans ranges from 9p to 55p so there must be some difference. Were there less beans in the cheaper tins? The Group decided to investigate.
19 different varieties of tinned baked beans were investigated. None of them was unpleasant to the taste. The difference was mainly in the quality of the tomato. Some beans were in tomato, some in tomato puree, and one in sauce.
In about half the second ingredient was tomato, in the rest, water. In these there was a lot of liquid, the beans pouring easily out of the can. In the case of Marks and Spencer Organic (55p) the beans had to be forked out.
The amount of beans per tin ranged from 36% in Co-op Everyday (17p) to 50% for HP Healthy Choice. About half the tins contained 49%, but three tins (ASDA, Spar and Somerfield Healthy Choice) were not marked with the bean content.
Not necessarily, says Plymouth Group. Aldi tins, at 9p. contained 49% beans, while Aldi Corale Beans (15p) had tomato, rather than water, as the second ingredient. Other tins of beans under 20p came from Tesco (45% for 9p), Lidl (44% for 9p), Sainsbury (41 % for 9p) and, lastly, the Co-op (36% for 17p). The Co-op also had the least beans in a tin costing over 20p (38% for 24p).
In the end it comes down to taste, and that probably depends more on the tomato, water, sugar and other ingredients than the actual amount of beans in a tin. Some, when emptied onto a plate, were bean shape, others were more like mushy peas. All were acceptable in flavour to the intrepid Plymouth Group member who tasted them all. His advice is to buy the cheapest you find acceptable. There is a lot of difference between 9p and 55p for a tin of beans!
The latest EXCHECKER, the Exeter and District Consumer Group Newsletter, contains a report of a
recent survey into Food Labelling. They conclude that things are getting better but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Causes of concern included lack of information on country of origin and the use of unexplained code figures. The symbol, the British Farm Standard Red Tractor (see page 3) was not understood by many respondents and the Editor of EXCHECKER included an explanation as it was vital to farming in this country that the symbol be recognised and understood.
The survey revealed the amount of additives in cheaper soft drinks, which seem to be increasing. Are they needed or is it just a marketing ploy? "A degree in chemistry is needed to understand these labels", said several respondents.
The AGM of the Oxford Consumer Group was graced with the presence of the Chairman of the Food Standards Agency, Sir John Krebbs (a local lad, he lives in Oxford). By all accounts he gave a most interesting address and answered many questions. The AGM was in May. He mentioned that "the world may change again after the June election". Labour, he said, had promised a DORA, a Department of Rural Affairs. The Editor of The Oxford Consumer and others could remember when DORA was The Defence of the Realm Act. What we got was DEFRA.
The fashionable word in distribution these days is a hub. Parcelforce has a huge one in Coventry and eventually every parcel posted in England will pass through this hub, no doubt with great efficiency and accuracy of dispatch, but imagine the amount of traffic generated.
Oxford Group has been a vigilant watchdog over the years concerning public transport and pedestrian welfare, with some success. Now there is an enquiry into plans to provide Oxford with an enlarged and updated shopping area incorporating a hub, to improve facilities for people coming into Oxford by bus.
The Group members have studied the plans and the Chairman has submitted comments to the Planning Inspector, suggesting that the planned bus hub is not big enough, that a deep underground car park so close to the Thames will probably fill up with water (!), that security for pedestrians looks inadequate, but the plan is not clear in this matter, and that future development in adjoining areas seems to be ignored, to the detriment of pedestrian access. In fact the Group's submission suggests that this plan ignores the City future development blue print entirely.
I do not want to give the wrong impression. In general the Group is supportive of the scheme, which is likely to attract good individual shops and multinationals to the area.
The National Federation of Bus Users (NFBU), a member of Consumer Congress is an organisation that thinks nationally, but acts locally. It acted locally in Oxford earlier this year by holding a Bus Surgery.
These surgeries use a parked bus in a main street and the general public is invited aboard to meet and air their view: about bus services with the service operator and local authority representatives. In the case of Oxford two buses were parked for two days on the Cornmarket, one from Stagecoach and one from the Oxford Bus Company.
Oxford Group member, Patricia Wright, who is obviously also a member of the NFBU, was one of the people outside persuading people to go inside. She reports that rural services came in for plenty of criticism and so did lack of information, again particularly about rural services. There were many other views and problems aired and one hopes that the bus companies got the message. Patricia particularly mentioned children. In one area services have been withdrawn for driver safety because children were throwing stones at the buses. She thinks that the companies need to improve relations with children travelling to and from school by bus because, if journeys are unpleasant, they will not use them when they have a choice.
If you are interested in joining the NFBU they have local branches - you should write to the Membership Secretary, NFBU, PO Box 320, Portsmouth. P05 3SD. Individual membership is £10, a local group of five or more can join for £15 and a national one for £25. c
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