Exeter and District Consumer Group carried out a seasonal mince pie survey just before Christmas and, because they did one the previous Christmas, were able to say that leaving one out for Santa was going to cost more. Boxes of six mince pies were 9p or 10p more expensive this recent Christmas in Pioneer, Waitrose and Kwik Save. Tesco value mince pies were actually 1 p cheaper but their more upmarket variety went up by 5p. Sainsburys basic mince pies were the same price as found at the last survey but their luxury ones had gone up by 10p.
One EDCG member complained to the makers of Milk of Magnesia that instructions for use were illegible once the bottle was opened and the main wrapper broken "The only explanation we can offer" replied pharmaceutical giant GIaxoSmithKline "is that it may have been stored in a hot/humid environment somewhere in the distribution chain, causing the glue to melt on the label" At least the member received a reply.
Another Member spotted an advertisement for no monthly fee for so-called ‘Anytime' Internet access. He warns us that if you sign up with Tiscali Anytime you will certainly pay no monthly telephone bills but the package still costs £14.99 per month.
There is a hardware store, Haynes Hardware, in Colyton, Devon which is described by satisfied customers as an Aladdin's Cave of goods. One EDCG member went in and described an adjustable towel rail with a vertical fitting which had been part of a fitted kitchen, but had broken. The proprietor, Colin Haynes, advised him to return following the shop's usual delivery time the next Monday morning, which he did. He was presented with an exact replacement for the towel rail, and for only £3.50.
It is now possible to receive ExChecker, the magazine of the EDCG, by e-mail instead of through the post. EDCG members are invited to inform the Editor on graham.norwood@btinternetcom
The Christmas Watchdog from Bromley and District Consumer Group, featuring somewhat indeterminate breed of dog on the cover, came through the letter box recently. The Group is setting up an e-mail based network so that opinions can be obtained easily and quickly, though, so far, there has not been much response, possibly because the e-mail address to which Bromley members were asked to send their replies omitted a vital dot and consequently all those hundreds of messages have been returned with the operator saying 'cannot find this' or something similar. There is many a dot between success and failure. Bromley Members are asked to note that the correct e-mail address is john.brown6@virgin.net.
This is the practice by some unscrupulous second-hand car traders of winding back the mileage recorder so that the prospective buyer thinks the car is less worn out than it actually is. The Bromley Watchdog advises having a mileage check carried out and suggests that Experian, an information solutions company, could do this for you through its subsidiary VMC Ltd. The easiest way is to use the company's web service -previously only available to the motor trade You log on to www.wisemileage.com and pay £9.50 and the information is revealed to you. If no data is held on the car in which you are interested, no charge is made. The site also provides a link to the AA Car Data Check which may carry more information about the history of the car. This could save you a lot of money and disappointment in the long run.
Did you know that SAGA has its own radio station? Well it has in the West Midlands - try SAGA 105.7 fm. There is a report in the latest newsletter from the Birmingham Consumer Group which says that it seems to be staffed by people over 50, even the presenters, which one would expect. There is a mix of programmes with the emphasis on music, and not just old pop music either. You can enjoy current affairs, celebrity interviews, chat and sports programmes as well as light classical and country music and much more. Brief details of programmes are given in the Birmingham Evening Mail or you could ring 0121 452 1057 to find out what's on air.
George Weil writes in the Birmingham Group Newsletter that there are now three card issuers who do not charge commission when you use one of their cards abroad. Others usually charge a commission of about 2.75%. The three are Liverpool Victoria, the SAGA Visa card operated via Frizzell Bank, which is owned by Liverpool Victoria, and the Nationwide Building Society. George points out that the Visa organisation charges 1 % for use outside the EU. However he was allowed a very good exchange rate when using his Liverpool Victoria card in Switzerland last year, so much so that he wondered if the issuers had made a mistake and thought Switzerland had joined the EU.
Members of the Birmingham Consumer Group paid a visit last summer to a new development known as the Mailbox. Why Mailbox? The answer seems to be that it has been built on the site of the Royal Mail
Sorting Office along Commercial Street in the city centre and it extends for 25 acres. The most visible attractions are some very high class shops, a cinema and other leisure facilities plus several restaurants, bars and cafes. Group members said that prices in the restaurants were realistic as there is much competition in the area. There are two hotels, one with a health club and conference facilities, and 200 apartments. Some of the office space provided will be occupied by the BBC.
The Group thought that access was good. The centre is within walking distance of New Street station and there are 900 parking places, while buses run close by. You could also arrive by canal. There was criticism of the lifts serving the car park floors as not all lifts stopped at all floors -which was confusing. There was also criticism of the basic design, which created a potential wind tunnel through from the huge main entrance to the back. Shoppers now expect shopping malls to be warm and sheltered. All-in-all, however, the Group welcomed the new development. More people living in the city centre will give it more life and the hotels will help to meet the demand for bedrooms caused by the growth of conference facilities in the area.
Last year members of the Tyneside Consumers Group paid a long awaited visit to a Tesco Extra branch to see what went on behind the scenes. Until the visit they had little idea of what goes on beyond the retailing counters and shelves. There is, for a start, a vast storage area and brightly lit offices and corridors. They were told that, even though it is huge to visitors' eyes, the storage area is not big enough and the branch has a back-up store nearby. Supplies arrive from Tesco distribution centres at Doncaster and Milton Keynes. Stock control is very sophisticated, linked to till records telling the computers what and how much has been sold so that restocking orders are placed automatically. Group Members asked about Internet ordering and delivery and were told that this had increased considerably. They serve a 20-mile radius from the store with seven delivery vans. Minimum orders are £25 and there is a service charge of £5. Anyone purchasing a heavy item such as a refrigerator can have it delivered for £5. Tesco's Annual Review reveals that the number of customers buying organic produce has trebled over the past year and they now have 30% of the UK market.
Shortly after the Group's visit, news appeared in the local media that Tesco plc had set up a Centre for Organic Agriculture at Newcastle University with a research grant of £425,000 spread over five years. There is no suggestion that the Group's visit helped to secure this generous gesture for Newcastle, but you never know. Tesco is certainly innovative. It has launched ten Internet Cafes in its stores and there is one in the store visited by the Tyneside Group. These are run in conjunction with the Department for Education and Employment (now the Department for Education and Skills) in partnership with Hewlett Packard to provide access to the Internet for people without the necessary equipment. In the store at Kingston Park there are ten screens available, and time is purchased at the cafe till at £1 for 30 minutes.
Did you know that hatters went mad because of mercury poisoning? An article in the Autumn edition of The Plymouth Consumer reveals that they dipped felt hats into mercuric nitrate to soften them, resulting in a build-up of the metal in the hatter, over time, leading to strange behaviour, twitching and dementia.
Of more current interest is the information that a single low pressure mercury vapour fluorescent lighting tube contains enough mercury to amount to a fatal accumulative dose and can pollute 30,000 litres of water beyond a safe level for drinking! This means that the disposal of all those spent tubes poses a serious pollution problem. An EU Directive will soon make it illegal to dispose of lighting tubes containing mercury in an uncontrolled manner, while it is already necessary to obtain carrier permission from the Environmental Agency to dispose of twenty or more tubes. This is a huge problem because, according to The Plymouth Consumer, some 60 million tubes are thrown away each year, giving rise to 4 tonnes of mercury going somewhere into the rubbish disposal system. Help is at hand, at least in
Devon and Cornwall. A non-profit making firm has been set up by Plymouth electrical contracting company, Drew & Co, known as Lamp Recycling Services. They will collect and recycle mercury-containing tubes. At present this is for commercial firms, who may have hundreds to dispose of. They charge the cost of processing, 50p per tube. The mercury vapour is recovered and processed, the phosphor powder is also recovered and the glass is recycled. A perfect solution.
Plymouth and District Consumer Group is renowned for its consumer testing and tomato juice has been under scrutiny. Several members declined the offer to taste as they detested the stuff but the others found that they liked Sainsburys own brand the best, just pipping (a most appropriate word in this context) the Del Monte variety. Others tested were Safeways own, Libby, and the ASDA variety. All were acceptably pleasant, though it is all a matter of taste, the main differences being in sweetness and thickness.
Also tested were tins of chunky chicken in white sauce. A can of this ready-prepared concoction is a useful standby, suggests the Group's taster, who tried seven different versions, three from Tesco, Grangedale from Lidl, one from ASDA, Brookdale from Aldi and one Sainsbury variety. Price was not an indicator of preferred characteristics. The main criticism was that the meat was not tender in some examples including two of the most expensive. Meat content varied between 34% (not the cheapest) and 55% while salt varied from 0.1g to 0.4g per 100g, so none were low salt products which, suggests the Food Standards Agency, should have less than 0.04g of salt per 100g or 100m1. The preferred example was the Grangedale from Lidl, costing £1.29 for a 400g tin. Next best was the Tesco Healthy Eating version, costing £1.59 for a tin weighing 4188. Both contained 50% tender meat. The third choice was ASDA's Smart Price, and smart it was at only 75p for a 400g tin containing 41 % tender meat. The taster enjoyed eating these three but did not enjoy the rest, mainly because the meat was tough or stringy.
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