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Suppose I’m just a grumpy old bastard, but I’m getting seriously pigged off listening to the doom and doom Christmas shopping reports each year and this year is certainly no exception.
In previous years, (think this was the case last year), we have had reports of record Christmas sales, but this was gloom and doom because much of it was on Credit cards, (surprise, surprise, people trying to spread the load at an expensive time of year). Obviously this meant we were buying things we could not afford, so record sales obviously mean the “end of the world is nigh”, (as the bloke used to have on his placard when I was a kid).
This year with Britain in economic meltdown, evidently the doom and doom is back, because according to News at Ten there were lots of people out shopping, but so far, they have spent 9% less in the shops than last year, so the world might end again.
What did we have to do to get the media to announce anything as GOOD news?
So people were careful and tried not to spend too much, as money is tight, this is bad news ?????
Or like me many people looked around the shops and then bought stuff much cheaper on the Net as sales there were significantly up.

However, looking at things in a slightly different way, each time I’ve been in Meadowhall over the last few weeks the shops have been open all hours, with prices reduced between 20% and 50%, which never normally used to happen until the January Sales, when they sold the "leftovers".
Now I am not a Bwanker or anything (oops, I seem to keep spelling that word wrong!) and I’m certainly not a Maths wizard, but if all prices are cut between 20% and 50% and they still had only 9% less than normal takings, they must have sold a lot more items than normal.
Do they really expect us to buy twice as many presents?
On a more serious note, I know SIX people in immediate family, friends and neighbours who have lost their jobs in the last few months, so perhaps we all have reason to be a bit more careful.

Happy shopping

There will be a lot more big name firms going under when they realise giving stuff away to compete with internet prices hasn't improved their end of year accounts.

Howard, your my hero.

I never go anywhere near Meadowhall after the end of September, it's total madness.

Samray wrote:There will be a lot more big name firms going under when they realise giving stuff away to compete with internet prices hasn't improved their end of year accounts.

PC World amongst them no doubt.

Meadowhall is an example of doom and gloom itself - the replacement of Dunford Hadfiels and Brown Bailey Steel works by a retail site given over to floggin off imported goods doesnt bode well for the future.

And your maths isnt wrong but you are assuming that the 30% off is genuine rather than just a label for what is in reality the normal price level.

lazarus wrote:Meadowhall is an example of doom and gloom itself - the replacement of Dunford Hadfiels and Brown Bailey Steel works by a retail site given over to floggin off imported goods doesnt bode well for the future.

And your maths isnt wrong but you are assuming that the 30% off is genuine rather than just a label for what is in reality the normal price level.

I've lived and worked in the Steel City all my life, including quite a few years working in the steel industry.
Dunford Hadfields had the best training facilities in the area, and probably the country as far as our industry was concerned. Never actually worked for them but went on regular training courses there, along with many hundreds of other steelworks apprentices.
The biggest problem was a massive failure to invest in the British Steel Industry in general plus changes in the world market and increased production in cheaper labour areas.
After the steel stikes many years ago, we got Tory politicians on the telly every night explaining how much tonnage the German steel workers produced per man, compared with the (disgustingly) low levels produced in similar Brit factories, how could we ever hope to compete.
Actually it was the normal load of bollocks, accurate but meaningless stats.
I worked as a foreman on the Finishing banks at Templeborough at the time, (where MAGNA is now sited).
The Arc furnaces produced the ingots, these were ultimately put through the rolling mills to produce steel billetts between 2" and 3.5" section and steel slabs.
Our rolling mill was bought secondhand from another steelworks at Stocksbridge many years earlier and had been used here for years with little changed.
When we changed section to run 2.5" after rolling 2" we had to change all the bloody rollers, run test ingots through and keep checking until the size was correct, with a bloke with a big spanner tightening the rollers down! Hence mill programmes were planned in advance to minimise the downtime of changes. The modern German mills were fully computerised and changed section by pressing a button in the control room so they did need a few less workers to man the place.
At our bit of the great BSC everything relied on manpower.
If you factored in the cost of investment we were very cheap, but everybody believed the Tory politicians so it got shut down like Hadfields and Brown Baileys down the road.
At least Meadowhall brought in massive investment to the area, created the biggest Shopping Centre in Europe at that time and brought lots of jobs to Sheffield. Since then it has helped ton regenerate the whole area, so it wasn't all bad.
And yeh, shopping there can be a pain!!
But you've got to do it somewhere at Christmas.

I worked at Brinsworth, Stocksbridge, Tinsley and even at River Don works for some years. But I also travelled round the continental steel works and saw how they operated - and they used much the same sort equipment as we had in BSC. The Sheffiled private sector was another story altogether - small melting funrnaces, hand rolling mills, and in many cases gross underinvestment. But then they didnt have the money to invest - at the time of nationalisation only one steel company (United Steels) was profitable. The other 12 were losing money big time.

Nevertheless, you cant run a country on imports though we seem to be trying hard to do so. Thats why Meadowhall is sad.