Energy Efficiency Advice Centre
Homebase - Spend & Save
Fair Trading News
Visit to “Scotsman”
Publications
Local Electricity Competition
Starts in March
Cut Price Electrical Goods?
Food Discussion Day at MAFF
NfCG AGM Report
Past Your Sell By Date?
Handling of Police Telephone Enquiries
Centre for Human Ecology Lectures
Edinburgh Environment &
Consumer Services Report
A Rose by Any Other Name …
Costco - Good Value but
Knowingly Undersold
New Kids on the Block - B&Q Warehouse
Want to Buy or Sell Your House Online?
Chairman’s Letter
Many of the things that we buy nowadays, especially foodstuffs and medicines, carry not only a “sell by” or “display until” date but, perhaps more importantly, also a “best before” date. That of course does not mean that the goods are dangerous, useless or inedible after that date. The German version appears to me (with my extremely limited knowledge of German) to mean “keeps at least until. . . . “, which is perhaps less depressing when you find that your block of butter is past its “best before” date. It may still be quite edible and safe to eat.
However, foodstuffs and medicines are not the only things that may sit on shelves for too long. On a number of occasions I have tried to find a date on maps indicating when they were printed or, more importantly, brought up to date. If such a date is shown, it is certainly not on the face of the folded map, and is difficult for the intending purchaser to track down. I find it embarrassing to open out a map in a shop when I hunt for these dates.
Two experiences spring to mind. I bought a map of an area in Germany during the period of dual pr icing, when goods showed both the old £sd price and the decimal price. Some time later, when decimalisation was already well established, I bought a new copy in the same shop, because I knew that there were many developments going on in that area. I subsequently discovered, in a corner to the unfolded map, that the second copy had been printed before the first one.
When a member of the family went to live in a rapidly developing area in of England, I bought a large scale map of that area. When I had occasion to use it in order to go for a walk, I found it had been printed more than five years before, showing none of the new roads, but the countryside as it had been but before the developments. It was as useful as one of those reprints of Victorian Ordnance Survey maps would be for finding the route of the M25, but ideal for finding out the name of the woods and farms that had disappeared.
Why do all maps not indicate the date or period of the relevant survey in bold print on the outside?
Next time I buy a folded map, I shall refuse to be embarrassed if I have to spread it over the shop counter to play “Hunt the Date” before parting with my money, even if all I can find is the date of printing.
Hamish Henderson
Energy Efficiency Advice Centre
We were pleased to meet Clare Mitchell and Jill Huxley in May.
They used the Home Energy Survey form for discussion of improving comfort in the home, saving costs and helping to maintain the environment. The forms are used at the Centre to provide advice and details of grants which appear to be appropriate for that householder. Advice has been given to 6000 households in Lothian and Borders.
Grants of £200 are available towards the cost and installation of condensing boilers. The extra cost of these boilers over conventional boilers would be recovered in two to four years.
If you are using storage heaters and could benefit from cavity wall insulation, we advise you to contact Scottish Power immediately!
The City of Edinburgh Council sponsored a community competition (CoWarm) to stimulate interest in energy saving earlier this year. The campaign was successful in gaining enquiries. Calculations were being made to find the prize-winning community.
Leaflets on the new energy labelling of household goods explain the information on energy efficiency (A to G), average energy consumption, and where appropriate, performance of washing or drying, capacity, water consumption and noise. These leaflets help to interpret the information which is supplied by the manufacturers.
The speakers left copies of the Home Energy Survey form for anyone who wishes to seek advice or grants.
Choosing your Gas Company
You can get information from Gas Consumers’ Council, 86 George Street EH2 3BU (0131 226 6523). Be sure to ask for the tariffs of the suppliers in Scotland and they will send the Consumers Association Factsheet.
This scheme now converts expenditure over the customer’s year into points. These qualify for vouchers for either cash discounts or conversion to Air Miles.
Although the qualifying expenditure has been reduced from blocks of completed £100 to blocks of completed £50, the rewards have been reduced and halved at the lower levels. The 4% benefit originally available at £100 is not now available until £600!
Better value is available at their regular 10% off everything days, available to all customers, usually just before Bank Holiday weekends.
Ray Heyworth
(Or, for the over 60’s, a 10% discount is still available from B&Q Superstores [but not the new Warehouse] on Wednesdays for all purchases except Kitchens, Bathrooms, Conservatories and Gift Vouchers)
The magazine of the Office of Fair Trading says the exclusive arrangement between Wall’s ice cream and its network of 32 wholesale suppliers is to be investigated by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, since retailers may find the terms of supply to be restrictive.
The pricing strategy of The Times is under scrutiny before a decision is made for a new OFT enquiry.
Legal proceedings have started to end resale price maintenance in over-the-counter medicines. Since 1970 these sales have dropped from between 10 to 13 to 7 per cent of pharmacy turnover, advertising costs £130 million per annum, and costs are 17 per cent more. Abolition could save consumers 15%.
The MMC is to investigate the supply of raw milk and report within nine months. The Director General concluded that changes have resulted in a market which is not as competitive or as transparent as he would have wished. Milk Marque has an estimated 50% share of raw milk supply to dairies in England & Wales.
National Express Group plc has recently divested Scottish Citylink Coaches Ltd., as a result of its acquisition of ScotRail Railways Ltd. It was ruled that the merger could have led to loss of competition, increased coach fares and reduced services.
Visit to “Scotsman” Publications
A small group enjoyed our lunch time visit to see the production side of modern, mass, daily publishing which incorporates high quality colour reproduction, glossy magazines and junk inserts.
The basic raw material is in the tons of newsprint in rolls ready to be mounted and fed continuously into the giant machinery. It costs £350 a ton whether sourced from sustainable forests in Canada or recycled material from Bridgwater or Holland. A higher quality, used for magazines, comes from Norway. There are two weeks supply in store.
Shift working allows for production of The Scotsman, Scotsman on Sunday, Evening News and various editions of Herald & Post. The figures are astronomical, like 56,000 copies of The Scotsman an hour.
Material in page format is received electronically from the editorial departments, currently in North Bridge. Negatives at final page size are produced for each of the three colours and black. An image is produced by UV light onto flexible plates. These are mounted on rollers for continuous offset printing via uniform rubber rollers.
The pages are automatically cut and folded into newspapers from several simultaneous lines. The latest of these machines cost £3.5 million. Machinery is available for automatic inserts of magazines or loose advertising. The papers flow to the dispatch department for bundling, taping and loading into vans.
We were left with some strong impressions of an efficient process, highly mechanised, a supremely attractive product in terms of colour reproduction on a vast scale, and application of health and safety regulations in a noisy and heavy industry. But who benefits from the waste involved in junk advertising!
The Group is grateful to Carol Levy and to John Walton for planning and for guiding our tour.
Ray Heyworth
Local Electricity Competition Starts in March
Offer have a useful booklet, How does electricity competition affect you? Their Scottish Headquarters is at
70 West Regent Street,
GLASGOW G2 2QZ.
Telephone: 0845 601 3131 (local rate).
The controlled market start up date for Postcode, “EH” is March 1999.
Both Scottish Gas and ScottishPower are offering joint gas and electricity tariffs. The tariffs consist of a Daily charge and a Unit charge. There are different rates for different methods of payment. The cheapest rates are for monthly payments by Direct Debit or Standing Order.
ScottishPower have an annual discount of £10.50, starting in March, for joint payments for gas and electricity.
The best choice of supplier depends on each household’s energy use, over say 12 months, of gas and electricity and comparison of the total costs with the offers from joint suppliers. It is necessary to include VAT, and present and future annual discounts and monthly payment discounts.
The savings from either Scottish Gas or ScottishPower for my household appear to be about 6%.
There will be other suppliers to consider. Barclaycard, for example, have an arrangement with Eastern. They give an estimate of monthly payments over the phone and promote their Profile points, but have not sent their tariffs yet.
Ray Heyworth
Comment: Further to the above, there is one situation in which it is already possible for you to have one supplier for both Electricity and Gas (and indeed Telephone) but only as long as that supplier is ScottishPower, You can opt to move to them for Gas and would not have to for Electricity as they are the monopoly supplier until March.
They offer a special combined tariff for Gas and Electric, and I believe for Telephones as well (ScottishTelecom). We have not evaluated these yet but my daughter has recently moved to them for all three services, so we’ll keep you posted.
Dick Mackie
Group Secreary Mary Paterson and
Bruce Nisbet
sign on the dotted line at their recent wedding in Australia.
End of lines, returned goods etc. are stocked by the Comet Clearance Centre in Glasgow. Everything is covered by the usual one year guarantee and our reporter has found most kinds of equipment available whenever he has been there.
Comet Clearance Centre
Possilpark Trading Estate
Lomond Street
Glasgow G22 3EU
Tel: 0141 347 0423.
a consumer’s view, by Maeve Robertson, reprinted from NfCG Consumer News
The NfCG Food network held a discussion day in London on May 12th, hosted very generously by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF ). Maeve Robertson, a member of the network and also a Member of NfCG’s Legislation and Consumer Affairs Committee (and Edinburgh Consumer Group) spoke about both the Network’s and her own concerns.
“I want”, she said, “to highlight three interconnected, ongoing food issues that I would like NfCG to put to Government on behalf of grassroots consumers, asking that their interests should be paramount and protected (and when I say government I mean perhaps the new Food Standards Agency, MAFF, and whoever or whatever else is appropriate).
“Now, at the end of this century and approaching the millennium, we are at the beginning of what is likely to be the most far reaching and important change in our food supply since we humans gave up being hunter-gatherers and took to settled agriculture.
“Some good may come of it. I hope it will. I am not impressed when people say it is against nature so it must be wrong. Nature can play some dirty tricks, although, when you come to think about it, often with our help - such as dust bowls and DDT. And BSE - remember the MAFF Consumer Panel was told not to be worried by the scaremongers”.
No evidence can never mean no risk in genetic engineering
Maeve was a member of the MAFF Consumer Panel for six years during the rise and rise of BSE. “No-one”, she said, “could have coped with the situation unfolding with complete certainty; MAFF drew the short straw and, I have no doubt, did its best to contain the growing disaster, but mistakes were made and we were all too easily reassured. There were no scientific reasons to believe that scrapie could, or would, jump species, that vertical transmission could take place between cow and calf and, above all, that there was any possibility of risk to humans. How innocent we were! I learned, I hope we all learned then, that no evidence can never mean no risk.
Fears about genetic engineering
“I would like to believe, but do not see any signs, that government is keeping BSE in mind when, on behalf of another industry, they assure us that there is no scientific evidence to justify our fears about genetic engineering and possible environmental damage.
“Horrible and tragic though it was, and is, BSE is a local difficulty compared to the global problems that could arise if the warning voices turn out to be correct - again. There are some highly qualified scientific doubters out there. I hope that they are being given a fair hearing.
“We are planting genetically modified crops now, in the countryside around us. Genes do jump, viruses do mutate, new allergens are created. Against these risks (which may indeed be very small and yet significant) what are the gains? I have yet to see any signs that the hungry are to be better fed (and I have been asking the questions) or that the generality of processed foods are cheaper because they contain genetically modified Soya. So far, the benefits go only to the companies who manipulate the genetics and that, it seems to me, will continue into the foreseeable future. I worry that this manipulation is the use of power by large corporations against ordinary people who cannot influence the outcome.
“Governments, with consumers in mind, might ask more questions and go more slowly, give less weight to the competitive edge and give more serious thought to risk avoidance”.
Antibiotic resistance
Maeve suggested that the second area where we need protection is that of antibiotic resistance; and hormones; and hormone-mimicking substances. “All these” she pointed out “are used in the interests of health - and wealth - and growth promotion. The 30 month rule for slaughtering cattle must be reconsidered for certain breeds if it means that healthy animals are fed with antibiotic growth promoters to bring them prematurely ready for slaughter while they are still young enough to enter the food chain. [685]
“The continued use of antibiotics in genetic engineering is extraordinary, For years there have been promises that the use will be phased out and yet, right now, we have in our fields crops that carry antibiotic resistant marker genes. There is no absolute certainty that the resistance will not be passed on.
“We are already awash with antibiotics and hormones. Please do not let us follow the Americans and give the green light to BST, which are hormones to increase milk yield. The European moratorium ends soon and the approval of BST will be discussed again. It brings problems for cows that we can do without, leading incidentally to increased use of antibiotics, and we do not need that extra milk. Consumers must hope that the UK representatives will argue more strongly against BST this time than they did before. The moratorium was introduced more in spite of, rather than because of, the arguments of UK Ministers”.
Labelling
Maeve’s third issue was labelling. “Labelling”, she said “and what I have always to be consumers’ inalienable right to information and choice. If we have insufficient information on labels how can we choose? We may believe that GM food is safe to eat but still would like to be able to choose not to buy it for environmental reasons; to choose try to protect tomorrow’s world from unpredictable alien species around us today.
“The ability to make an informed choice is an important consumer right. We have to look to government for protection and assurance that, where there are regulations, these are adequate and are enforced. We heard earlier that there are only two inspectors concerned with releases from GM crops to cover the whole of the country form the north of Scotland to the most southern part of England. This staffing level cannot justify claims of the closest possible scrutiny.
“I am afraid that this is all to familiar to all of us. There is nothing here which I was not nagging about when I was on the Panel. To sum up, the three things for which consumers should demand effective protection are:-
Protection from environmental damage inflicted in pursuance of corporate profit with no obvious gain for consumers.
Protection from the nasties in our food, hormones and the like and the build up of potentially fatal antibiotic resistance.
Protection from the erosion of our long-established and hard-won consumer rights - which must include our right to make informed choices about our lives and the lives of our children".
As a sad footnote the following appeared in the Kentish Times on April 30th 1998.
Maeve Robertson
Vegetarian dies from CJD.
Clare Tomkins was only 24 when she died at the end of April. She had been a vegetarian since the age of thirteen. She became ill two years ago and was diagnosed as suffering from the new form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in August last year. The unanswered question which her family faces is: how could a young girl, a vegetarian for eleven years, die from a disease related to eating beef? It is a question which we should all like answered. The enquiry into the causes of BSE in cattle continues.
London - 26th September 1998
(by Ray Heyworth, AGM delegate M)
Edinburgh Consumer Group proposed the motion that:
“The National Federation of
Consumer Groups welcomes the termination of duty
and tax-free shopping across European Union boundaries, due in July 1999”.
Background
The Council of Ministers decided unanimously in 1991 to abolish duty-free sales for travellers within EU, on the grounds that they are an anomaly within the Single Market.
Seven and a half years notice has been granted to allow duty-free shops and suppliers to explore alternative business and employment, with their captive customers awaiting flights or sailings.
Commissioner Monti said, “Duty free sales enjoy a tax advantage worth 1.2 billion pounds every year, give rise to a number of distortions of competition and represent an unfair advantage for regular air and ferry travellers financed by taxpayers.
“The Commission has no intention of proposing any further extension. Seldom has so much money and time been spent by such a wide coalition of interests in trying to reverse a Council decision. Duty-free lobbying budgets are enormous. The time has come for airlines, airports, ferry operators and suppliers of tobacco and alcohol to face up to reality and invest their money wisely to get ready for 1999.
The lobbies may claim they are acting in the interests of the man in the street rather than their extraordinary own profit margins. But the truth is that all taxpayers are bearing the burden of a massive subsidy to certain sections of the travel industry which benefit a few regular travellers. Moreover the benefits of cross-border shopping and broader Market gains will always outweigh the purchase from a duty-free shop.
As for the lobby’s unsubstantiated claims of a doomsday scenario with massive job cuts and bankrupt airlines and ferries, it could only happen if they failed to act responsibly as of now”.
Unbeknown to me, that was written by the Commissioner last year. So why does The Duty-Free Confederation still tell us that 30 million people enjoy this shopping annually in the UK, the cost of travel is cheaper, it creates jobs, boosts the economy, everybody benefits and nobody loses. It invites you to write to your MP and MEP and your local radio and newspaper.
Here is a recent glossy from Edinburgh Airport:
“Duty-free campaign grows -
international air routes under threat,
reduced Investment (Edinburgh Airport is in the midst of massive expansion),
jobs at risk, local economy will suffer.”
Since Edinburgh Group submitted their proposal in July, the Commission has published another paper - All shops inside the Single Market should be treated in the same way. It makes no more sense to have duty-free on flights from London to Rome than from London to Manchester.
A small minority of EU retailers and transporters enjoy the advantage whilst exchequers lose £1.2 billion in revenue. Rail and road travellers lose out. Taxpayers foot the bill whilst frequent business travellers really benefit.
BEUC, the Bureau for European Consumers, has questioned how much of the advantage is passed on to the traveller. Goods over £60 are taxed, even when sold in duty-free shops.
There will still be shops at the airport, even duty-free goods if you are leaving the EU. Travel is rising by 7% a year. The Single Market brings advantages anyway.
So who is speaking for the consumer? Should not NFCG have a policy? There was a wide discussion, enthusiastic support and a powerful vote in favour of our proposal.
Ray Heyworth
LOOK OUT FOR .... out of date foods in the shops (and in our own cupboards too). In a recent national survey 23% of 404 food premises visited between January and April 1998 were selling food past its ‘Use By’ or ‘Best Before’ date. The inspectors even found 2 cases of food being sold 12 days over it ‘Sell By’ date! Cheese, cooked meats, frozen foods, soft drinks, confectionery and biscuits were all found to be older than they ought to have been.
Or Well Past!
Tyneside Consumer Group is carrying out a project to identify the oldest working electrical appliances in the hands of members. So far they have hand mixers, electric heaters, a cooker and a sewing machine from the early 1960s, also a power drill from 1959. They would like to hear if anyone elsewhere has older working machines. Your Editor has a refrigerator, still in use, made in 1955 and a Hoover vacuum cleaner from 1957 (which is a bit like Wallace’s axe - 3 new handles and 2 new blades). What have you got?
Handling of Police Telephone Enquiries
Dear Mrs Nisbet,
You may or may not be aware that from Monday 2nd November, 1998 all telephone enquires to police stations within the City of Edinburgh, except Police Headquarters and the Airport Police Station, will be dealt with centrally at a Public Assistance Desk (P.A.D.).
This decision has been taken following a successful trial at Leith Police Station which resulted in an 18% reduction in calls being given out for officers to attend. The calls to the P.A.D. enable members of the public to be given appropriate advice by experienced officers on the phone rather than send a police officer to give the same advice. This should help us to have additional patrolling time in which we can focus more attention on complaints and problem areas. In this way we hope to give a better service to the public.
I am aware that there will be times when you require to phone your local police station to speak to me or another officer about a specific matter and this will still happen although it will be routed through the P.A.D.
l hope that you will take this opportunity to pass on this information to the relevant people with whom you have contact and if you encounter any problems please feel free to contact me.
A. Conn, Station Inspector, Oxgangs
Centre for Human Ecology Lectures
Topic: Biotechnology/Genetic Engineering
the ecological, social, psychological and ethical
issues raised by this technology.
the promise and the threat of biotechnology
CHE The speakers are people of prominence in the
fields of genetics and ethics addressing
Time/Date: Tuesdays 6.30 p.m. , From 9th Feb 1999 - 16th Mar 1999
All lectures are held in the Friends Meeting House, Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh EH1,
and are followed by a convivial, simple shared meal with the speaker.
Entrance £2, or £1 for Friends of CHE. Also payable in Reekies, Edinburgh’s local
currency.
Details CHE Tel: 0131 624 1972, Email: che@clan.com
Website: http://www.clan.com/enviroment/che
or to view the current (Feb/Mar 1999) programme of lectures CLICK HERE
City of Edinburgh Council Environment & Consumer Services Report
Short Measures, Short Change?
The Department has recently taken a tough stance on licensed premises. Trading Standards officers have visited city centre licensed premises to ensure that consumers are not served short measure or over charged for their drinks.
To date over 80 premises have been visited and comprehensive inspections carried out. This was followed up by a programme of evening visits during which a large number of test purchases were taken from premises which had obtained temporary licences for the duration of the Festival. The results were so alarming that the Department went public with the results, obtaining extensive media coverage.
This is an area of great concern and one which Trading Standards officers will continue to monitor.
Councillor E Brian Fallon,
Convener General Purposes and Consumer Services Committee
Street Furniture
A range of high quality street furniture for the city centre is one benefit of the agreement reached with Adshell on the provision and financing of street furniture.
The tendering process for this major contract began in January 1998 and it is likely to be completed by the end of the year. It represents a major investment on the city’s behalf by Adshell of approximately £3.6 million over 15 years.
Agreement has been reached in principle on the amount of street furniture and levels of advertising. This includes
The contract with Adshell will include service agreements far in excess of any provision the Council could make, and contributes to the City Strategy objectives of providing quality services and promoting the city nationally and internationally.
Street Litter Control Notices are to be issued to city centre businesses known to cause litter problems, in a partnership initiative which is part of the Clean Edinburgh 2000 campaign.
Fast food outlets and late night catering premises where pizza and burger cartons, kebab and chip wrappers are discarded by customers often end up being blown about the street, causing a major street litter problem.
Under the Environmental Protection Act business proprietors can be held responsible for litter which occurs as a direct consequence of their business - the Department will be working in partnership with businesses to pursue this area.
Princes Street is to get a new look with 75 brand new litter bins replacing the existing bins which have been on site since before Princes Street was widened.
The existing black and white bins, currently in the middle of the pavement on the shopping side of Princes Street are being removed because they obstruct pedestrians and are not suitable for re-siting at the edge of the pavement. These bins will be re-sited elsewhere.
The new bins are of the same design as those in Rose Street except for colour, and will remain on site until a customised bin for the whole of the city centre has been designed.
Around 30 years or so ago, when living in Lancashire, we were looking to see what housing was available locally. We saw advertised “Desirable new built properties” in Bury, which were to found in “Buckingham Drive” and decided to have a look. But, like the Chairman in his letter, our maps were a little out of date and so the “Drive” was not in evidence. But we knew roughly which end of town it was in and, on examining the map, my eyes immediately alighted on a street called “Coal Pit Lane” which indeed led to one.”That’ll be it!”, I said to my wife, and of course it was.
In Edinburgh, at one time, you could tell broadly where a district was, as a range of streets bore the same opener. I was raised in Hutchison and my Granny lived in Chesser Cottages, both districts having been named after Edinburgh Lord Provosts of the time. These days development companies are in the ascendent, and namings owe more to marketing needs, and perhaps Middle England, than such sensible conventions. So where might “Meadowspot” be, or some such creation of the Peter Pan school, taxi drivers must be driven mental by it all.
All of which is but a precursor to the following “translations” of current phrases in the consumer area. Any further examples most gratefully received for future issues
Deceptively spacious |
Surprisingly small |
I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, Utterly Butterly, You’d Butter Believe It! |
You are
right - |
All Prices Cut By Up To A Minimum Of 50% |
Doesn’t actually mean anything. perhaps some prices are down slightly! |
Sale must end |
.. as next
one starts |
Vestibule, Hall, Lounge, 2 Double Bedrooms, Dining Room/Bedroom 3, Kitchen, Utility Room, Bathroom etc. |
4 Apartments |
Never knowingly undersold |
We may, after a lot of hassle, match our competitor’s price for you, but we certainly ain’t going to reprice the product squire! |
Costco - Generally Good Value but Knowingly Undersold
As readers of Counter Points will be aware from past surveys, Costco has consistently been a source of good value for its subscribers (£23.50 per annum). Unfortunately it seems unable or unwilling to keep up with market changes happening elsewhere, this is particularly so in the field of computing where prices have a habit of steady decline.
When they first introduced a Digital Camera to their stock range over a year ago, the Minolta Dimage, their pricing at around £499 was competitive against comparators in the High Street and PC-World at £599. Latterly however this model has become generally available (Morningside & St Andrews photo shops) at £399 and was offered by Argos for £349 some months ago. But Costco still charge their original price.
I noted the discrepancy in the Customer Suggestions Book, and true to Costco’s way of operating they phoned me next day to identify my sources which were duly given. Alas, 3 months later, their price, checked in Edinburgh and Glasgow, remain unchanged while the camera has subsequently become available (at GD Young and Jessop) for as little as £299.
So the oldest maxims of the educated consumer, i.e. “shop around” and “caveat emptor” still apply. Never let a feeling that a particular outlet is generally good value obscure the reality that their prices could be “mix and match”. They may well be less competitive than they would like you to think or simply inefficient in reacting to changes in the market place. And £200 is a substantial amount to pay over the odds by any measurement.
Dick Mackie
New Kids on the Block - B&Q Warehouse
Opening Day at B&Q Warehouse
Despite a dreich day on Friday 13th, the
turnout to the opening at the new B&Q Warehouse was impressive.
It had nothing to do with the free coffee and cake offered to their pensioner members had
it?
Since our last issue there have been some major changes out of Town, with the B& Q Warehouse opening at Newcraighall and its nearby branch at Milton Road closing at the same time. Focus DIY at Kinnaird Park has closed and is, I believe, being replaced there by Comet, B&Q’s stablemate, which was also located at Milton Road.
A newcomer on the electrical goods retailing scene is Miller Brothers, from North of England, who now have three stores in Edinburgh (that I know of) at Craigleith, Straiton and Kinnaird Park where the former CWS Co-op Concepts has gone away. This will therefore provide four competing stores in the electrical field at Kinnaird, Currys, ScottishPower, Miller Brothers and Comet. It will be interesting (and perhaps improbable) to see whether this leads to a lowering of prices generally.
The major change is of course the arrival of the B&Q Warehouse, which opened on Friday 13 November 1998, and we have carried out a quick but comprehensive survey to see what is apparently “the largest DIY outlet in the East of Scotland” also offers best value. B&Q’s own view is that it does, and on the way in one is regaled with typical price comparisons with the nearby Wickes and others, but some of them are with HomeBase where price competitiveness is hardly cutting edge.
For our comparison between B&Q Warehouse and the opposition we have taken a range of prices, compared them first with other branches of B&Q and then sought out the best price we could obtain the goods elsewhere. Given that they only opened on 13 November you will realise that we were not able to carry out a full survey of the opposition.
Nonetheless the conclusion must be that the range of stock is extensive, but the value is not so great, better with your 10% card at their Superstores
Click Here to View Table of B&Q Warehouse Price Comparisons
Want to Buy or Sell Your House Online?
Well not quite, you will still need the services of a qualified person, such as a solicitor, for the paperwork and £115,000 is perhaps a little over your Visa limit, but at least you can now browse through the properties currently available through Edinburgh Solicitors Property Centre - ESPC on the World Wide Web at http://www.espc.co.uk. Their site lets you choose a price range, district, or even street, and type of property, without plodding through the Weekly List. There are many others online as well, such as gaproperty.co.uk nationally, John Sale for the Borders at propertyfinder.co.uk/johnsale, or even georgesons.co.uk for that little something up in Caithness.
Edinburgh Group Christmas Dinner
The Christmas Dinner of Edinburgh Consumer Group will be held on 2nd December 1998 at Giuliano’s, 18 Union Place, Edinburgh. (opposite the Playhouse) at 7.30 p. m. Tel: 556 6590
The menu this year will not be a standard one, selection will be made from the normal menu available in the restaurant. We understand that a typical cost will not be much different than that which we enjoyed at the Pavilion last year, but it will be up to each individual, or party, to settle their own account with the waiter.
Please let me know by 26 November if you and any friends intend to be present. I can be contacted by phone on 334 4574, or by mail to 44 Gordon Road, EH12 6LU. Please note the urgency of this date due to the late circulation of Counter Points for which we apologise.
Dorothy Cockrell
Christmas Greetings
The Committee of Edinburgh Consumer Group send you their best wishes for Christmas and for a Prosperous New Year in 1999. We look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at our December outing.
Dick Mackie