Mundane News

[Mike_P]

Decided the bathroom needed a deep clean which came unstuck when I discovered the head on the bottom shower head bracket had rusted away. The use of a reverse thread drill failed to succeed, I seemed to be drilling for far too long without it tightening up. Gave that up. On reassembling the shower head to its hose the flipping washers decided they were no longer going to be effective.Thankfully in time to nip to Screwfix for some more.

 

[oldwheels]

@deptfordmarmoset - the Honda CR-V I won does the same, along with telling me off if my driving is poor. I can't turn the stuff off and basically I drive too fast / too close / too stupidly / etc. However it gets confused with cars in other lanes so I'm rarely doing any of the things I'm being told off for doing. It's like being at home with SWMBO.

Oh, and because I did my tax return last night she did hers this morning. Only she struggled, with it ending up being me who did most of the completion; the benefit of having a tax accountant as a parent. One thing: Mlmy refund is going into our joint account, SWMBO's is going into her private one!

I gave up dealing with tax affairs and we employed an accountant who saved more money than he cost. The firm was also well known to the tax people as not ever being outside the law. This had the advantage that we never had any problems or spot checks by the Vat Man either. One was known to some others as the Vat Rat since he picked up the slightest irregularity and created problems for them. We never had a problem and were on friendly terms with them.

 

[Speicher]

As it's a craft shop selling 'items', then I think she should 'specialise' in the charity section, with crafty materials as you suggest, and also books about craft, half-finished kits etc. Beads, fabrics, yarns, threads, equipment from crochet hooks and sewing needles to looms and knitting machines. Maybe, if there's enough space, she could find someone who could offer basic lessons on using a sewing machine, or how to knit. Or any other craft. I taught someone how to use a drop spindle at a group I go to.
What part of the country will it be located in?

Thank you for your reply. The shop is in west Worcestershire.

As you suggest, she could "specialise" in craft items, from threads, needles fabric etc, and books, patterns etc. If you were starting to learn sewing, buying all the accessories you need might be expensive. Inexpensive kit to get someone started is a good idea. Being able to turn up hems or make basic repairs is a useful skill.

There is a sewing/yarn shop in this town that does classes in sewing. They are now in premises large enough to have a Class room set up for sewing machines lessons. I would think she would not want to do that in competition with another shop.

There are several "knitting groups" one of which meets in the evening in a pub. For many people these are a social event as well as knitting or crochet. They are not really in competition with each other.

 

[Speicher]

Make certain to use different colour pricing labels.
Think of them as "Reduced" and normal price labels.

Good idea! Thank you. That is easy for volunteers to understand. I am not remotely saying that volunteers are dim, but some people are not familiar with tills, codes etc.

Presumably you can then call the codes on the till with using names of colours instead of The Shop, Donated items, and Miscellaneous Other Crafts.

 

[Tenkaykev]

The Thomson flight from Bournemouth to Lanzarote has just gone over.

 

[Reynard]

Thank you for your reply. The shop is in west Worcestershire.

As you suggest, she could "specialise" in craft items, from threads, needles fabric etc, and books, patterns etc. If you were starting to learn sewing, buying all the accessories you need might be expensive. Inexpensive kit to get someone started is a good idea. Being able to turn up hems or make basic repairs is a useful skill.

There is a sewing/yarn shop in this town that does classes in sewing. They are now in premises large enough to have a Class room set up for sewing machines lessons. I would think she would not want to do that in competition with another shop.

There are several "knitting groups" one of which meets in the evening in a pub. For many people these are a social event as well as knitting or crochet. They are not really in competition with each other.

What about a "repair club" kind of thingy, where people are taught basic (non-sewing machine) mending skills. Like patching, darning, shortening / letting out sleeves and legs, sewing on buttons etc.

 

[Reynard]

A nice win for the Arsenal.

Time to top up the wood bins in the house.

 

[Speicher]

What about a "repair club" kind of thingy, where people are taught basic (non-sewing machine) mending skills. Like patching, darning, shortening / letting out sleeves and legs, sewing on buttons etc.

Yes, another good idea. The Big Sewing shop does lessons, not repairs. That might be an idea for her to think about. It depends how much space she has.

 

[tom73]

I gave up dealing with tax affairs and we employed an accountant who saved more money than he cost. The firm was also well known to the tax people as not ever being outside the law. This had the advantage that we never had any problems or spot checks by the Vat Man either. One was known to some others as the Vat Rat since he picked up the slightest irregularity and created problems for them. We never had a problem and were on friendly terms with them.

It's not worth making waves with the Vat man people don't realise what power they have. If they want to go looking they can just turn up and look. Nothing is off limits every thing is checked line by line , till roll by till roll. They look into every thing and don't miss anything.

My mates boss was the account of the company when the owner died he bought it. He is one of the leading accountants in the leisure industry. A few years ago he even got VAT law changed when he worked out. A formula for calming VAT back on children's bowling shoe hire. Before he worked out a way no-one ever though anything was a miss. Another company went overboard with it though claiming it back on all hire now the Vat man is investing.

 

[oldwheels]

When we had a shop we sold quite a lot of haberdashery and knitting wool plus a host of other stuff.
Tills can get complicated and expensive and we had one antique till for payments for two businesses. We got round the differentiation problem by keeping a book for for one business and the till recorded the other and all payments.
For a small one person business it would IMO not be necessary to have a till as such but just one cash box and a system for recording each sale.
If for example you had different colour labels then it would be necessary to have a separate book for each colour.
This has the potential to get complicated and we always tried to keep to the KISS system [Keep It Simple Stupid].
It would be much easier to buy the items for sale separately and just have one point of sale and one recording system.

 

[tom73]

May I ask for some of your opinions about craft shops and charity shops.

A local person is taking over an existing shop that sells "craft" items. In addition to selling craft items she is hoping to introduce a small "charity" section of items.

She is hoping that volunteers will help on the small charity side of things. She is not sure yet which Charity to support, and thinks it might change over the course of twelve months. I think she should decide on which (two?) charities to support. They should be local ones relevant to the community, for example the Community Cupboard and/or one other, rather than changing too often.

When you have a till in a shop, can you put codes (on the price label) so that the shop has one till, and at least two codes, possible more for different categories. These would be the main shop, the small charity section, and possibly one or two others if she is stocking crafted items made by other people.

Her main strategy is "keep it local". She would like to receive opinions from people.

To be different to all the other Charity shops, I am going to suggest that she accept small amounts of yarn, fabric, and haberdashery etc. Do you have any thought on this, or knowledge of tills?

Edited to add: When I have read your opinions, I will be emailing her with my thoughts, but I am interested in what other people think.

Different codes on the till is a common way of pricing the important thing is having a coding and price tag marker system. That's easy to see and use. The other way is to use some sort of printed tally sort of sheet next to the till. To record sales of individual goods.
Shops selling items from different sellers is not un-common within community settings. like the one we go to in Scarborough they sell locally made crafts from different sellers within a coffee shop.

 

[biggs682]

Had another cuppa earlier
Put a dozen pieces in the latest jigsaw

 

[Andy in Germany]

May I ask for some of your opinions about craft shops and charity shops.

A local person is taking over an existing shop that sells "craft" items. In addition to selling craft items she is hoping to introduce a small "charity" section of items.

She is hoping that volunteers will help on the small charity side of things. She is not sure yet which Charity to support, and thinks it might change over the course of twelve months. I think she should decide on which (two?) charities to support. They should be local ones relevant to the community, for example the Community Cupboard and/or one other, rather than changing too often.

When you have a till in a shop, can you put codes (on the price label) so that the shop has one till, and at least two codes, possible more for different categories. These would be the main shop, the small charity section, and possibly one or two others if she is stocking crafted items made by other people.

Her main strategy is "keep it local". She would like to receive opinions from people.

To be different to all the other Charity shops, I am going to suggest that she accept small amounts of yarn, fabric, and haberdashery etc. Do you have any thought on this, or knowledge of tills?

Edited to add: When I have read your opinions, I will be emailing her with my thoughts, but I am interested in what other people think.

One of the challenges of taking donated items is that you will need a comparatively large storage area, because you can't predict when items come in; our warehouse is twice the size of the shop, and we are still short of space.

You'll also have to be strict on what you take in, or be prepared to throw out a lot, probably about half of what you are given. For example, I filled a skip with donated books last week, and by the time I was done the same amount had been donated again. Also everyone who donates a bike to us will swear blind it's in perfect working order and "just needs a clean".

Our shop runs a sewing/haberdashery section with a tailoring service. It can be done if you are very well organised and good at displaying stock. My colleague also produces a small range of recycled items from donated materials with her clients. I could take some pictures if it would help.

 

[Speicher]

Thank you all for your suggestions, it is much appreciated.

When she posted her idea on the town's Bookface site, some of the comments were not helpful. I will be sending her an email, with my thoughts. If I was able to, I would not hesitate to volunteer my time.

She currently visits craft fairs to sell her items, so she will know about tills. I was trying to imagine it from the Volunteers' perspective. The new shop opens late in January. I expect her priority is selling her own items. Then add the donated items etc.

 

[Reynard]

Showjumping watched. Ben Maher! Wow!

Wood bins topped up.

Now sat down with a and a biskit and listening to more footy.