Coronavirus

[Geoffers]

I expect that many of them are on their daily run to the shops to buy yet more provisions that will eventually end up in the dustbin!

[KAS-118]

Well - you can find out how long your toilet paper stash will last here 😜

https://howmuchtoiletpaper.com

[PaulCP]

We went for one of our usual strolls along the beach from Aldburgh to Thorpness on Tuesday, just a 10min drive away. It was just like a normal March Tuesday with hardly anyone around.

Forward to yesterday and it was like Brighton in the summer. All of the Londoners have started to arrive to take up residence in their 2nd and holiday homes to escape any lockdown in the city now that the kids aren’t at school, with more expected by the weekend.  All the local shops had been raided by the out of town locusts by 5.00pm last night with many not opening today because they now have no stock. 

We have no cases of the virus reported locally up to now, I expect that to change in the coming week or two.

 

I should make it clear that I have nothing against Londoners, but it does get annoying when your temporary safe haven has been invaded well ahead of the Easter holidays. Thankfully we know a few more isolated spots along the coast to be able to escape the crowds

[Kimbers]

Make sure you report anyone like this you see on Ebay. Profiteering from sick children by buying up all the stock and then reselling at these prices is absolutely disgusting. Thanks Simon for the heads up!

 

[C8RKH]

38 minutes ago, PaulCP said:

We went for one of our usual strolls along the beach from Aldburgh to Thorpness on Tuesday, just a 10min drive away. It was just like a normal March Tuesday with hardly anyone around.

Forward to yesterday and it was like Brighton in the summer. All of the Londoners have started to arrive to take up residence in their 2nd and holiday homes to escape any lockdown in the city now that the kids aren’t at school, with more expected by the weekend.  All the local shops had been raided by the out of town locusts by 5.00pm last night with many not opening today because they now have no stock. 

We have no cases of the virus reported locally up to now, I expect that to change in the coming week or two.

 

I should make it clear that I have nothing against Londoners, but it does get annoying when your temporary safe haven has been invaded well ahead of the Easter holidays. Thankfully we know a few more isolated spots along the coast to be able to escape the crowds

Like locusts they move forwards and slowly consume and kill everything in front of them. One of the reasons I love living where I live is that I do not come in to contact with hordes of "it's all about me" London based people. I do work down there most weeks and you can really feel the difference in attitude and the most frequent word I hear is "me"!

 

We took delivery of 80 toilet rolls yesterday. Ordered calmly from our usual supplier online at the usual price we pay. We do a bulk buy every few months. They had loads of stock. No panic. No hassle. No fights. No stress. No dealing with selfish bastard numbfooks in the supermarket and NO impact on anyone else.  It can be done.

[Bibs]

3 minutes ago, Kimbers said:

Make sure you report anyone like this you see on Ebay

While I agree that is savage and disgusting behaviour, what can you report them for? I understand there are 'price gouging' laws in the States, but it's not illegal in this country is it?

[C8RKH]

If you have a choice now, and in the future, I would urge you to think twice before using any Britannia Hotel.  Their actions are those of total scumbags in my personal and humble view and their management do not deserve to benefit from decent people's cash being spent in their establishments.  I think we need to look long and hard at how company's treat their staff, and the actions they take, and we should remember for a long time after this "event" those who operated with compassion and decency whilst they could, and those who behaved like total scumbags. I've stayed at the Coylumbridge several times, but in future, it will be the MacDonald for me, every time.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-51972372

I'm a long term BA frequent flyer. But I will seriously consider long and hard before booking any future flights with them. On the one hand they are reducing staff hours and threatening openly jobs, and on the other, saying to the government the industry does not need a bail out because we have £9bn in the bank!  There stance is, in my opinion based on my limited knowledge, purely cut throat as they are trying to put their long time nemesis Virgin Atlantic to the sword. Totally ruthless and complete scumbags to their staff.

Edinburgh airport has been ripping customers off increasingly over the past few years. Raising fees for parking, drop offs to ridiculous levels, increasing inconvenience to passsengers to shoe horn in more shops and restaurants, and generally acting like a greedy toad cherishing every extra pound they can squeeze out. As soon as it gets tough they lay off staff. Anyone any idea how many highly paid executives and CEO's in these companies are being laid off? They'll be the last to go. The last to turn the lights off after they have hoovered up every last pound in their pay, bonuses and pensions.

On the other hand, when working in London I've been favouring "eat" for coffee but in the future will return to "pret" who have been opening up as usual and providing free tea and coffee to emergency and essential workers. A small, but costly, act and one worthy of praise. For balance, we should and need, to recognise the good, as well as the scumbags.

[tom kilner]

29 minutes ago, Kimbers said:

Make sure you report anyone like this you see on Ebay.

EBay loves the free market😕. Report them to john mcdonnell😀

[Kimbers]

They have been reported and the post disappeared so Ebay are obviously taking it seriously. It's now been relisted at half the price.

[PaulCP]

@C8RKH these are the type of actions (Coylumbridge Hotel) which people do need to remember for the future.

I have also been thinking about the people who continuously raid the supermarkets every morning with long queues outside at 5.30am. Surely, if people are using their loyalty cards, the supermarkets can identify which shoppers are well over buying their normal routine requirements. They have reasonably efficient systems used for direct customer marketing so the ability to take some corrective action is in their hands, although TBF I’ve not worked out what actions they could take 🙄

[tom kilner]

The panic buying on Italy eased off once the idiots found they could buy the stuff the following week anyway.

They will be sat there on the loo with that massive pile of loo paper rreminding them that they are those idiots. 😆

17 minutes ago, Kimbers said:

They have been reported and the post disappeared so Ebay are obviously taking it seriously. It's now been relisted at half the price.

Wow the leopard can change its spots👍

[Bibs]

42 minutes ago, C8RKH said:

As soon as it gets tough they lay off staff

I'm amazed that none of these huge firms have any sort of cash reserve.

With regards to the Britannia Hotel group. I've never heard of them to be honest but I'll be sure to avoid them should the chance to book in the future come up.

Starbucks are offering free hot drinks to NHS, Domino's free pizza and BP are filling up Emergency Services vehicles for free. Co-op have created 5,000 jobs for those who have lost theirs. Some businesses shine, others deserve to fade away in times of adversity. 

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

I’d forgotten about the Britannia Hotel chain. We only ever stayed in one once. We were in Coventry for the Motorfest a few years ago. I was shocked at how horrendous the hotel was. It hadn’t had a penny spent on it since the 1970s. It was the closest thing to living in a council tower block I’ve ever experienced. Never again.

[oilmagnet477]

2 hours ago, PaulCP said:

We went for one of our usual strolls along the beach from Aldburgh to Thorpness on Tuesday, just a 10min drive away. It was just like a normal March Tuesday with hardly anyone around.

Forward to yesterday and it was like Brighton in the summer. All of the Londoners have started to arrive to take up residence in their 2nd and holiday homes to escape any lockdown in the city now that the kids aren’t at school, with more expected by the weekend.  All the local shops had been raided by the out of town locusts by 5.00pm last night with many not opening today because they now have no stock. 

We have no cases of the virus reported locally up to now, I expect that to change in the coming week or two.

 

I should make it clear that I have nothing against Londoners, but it does get annoying when your temporary safe haven has been invaded well ahead of the Easter holidays. Thankfully we know a few more isolated spots along the coast to be able to escape the crowds

Won't be able to move in Southwold i'll bet - here's a free tip for everyone - buy Adnams Brewery shares!!

[Dan E]

Yesterday I told my wife not to start panic buying, when I came in last night from my office Andy Carrol was sitting in the dining room! 

[tom kilner]

Official figures put the 2008 banking bailout at £850,000,000,000, so that's about 25k for every working person in the country,  so reckon we should be ok - I'm expecting a cheque in the post to pay my staff wages bill for the next 3 months.

It will probably arrive tomorrow. 🙂

[PaulCP]

41 minutes ago, oilmagnet477 said:

Won't be able to move in Southwold i'll bet - here's a free tip for everyone - buy Adnams Brewery shares!!

Exactly this, although Adnams are closing all their pubs, restaurants and hotels.

Report in local press this morning, Southwold High St is like Oxford St at Christmas. They say 2 out of every 3 people they spoke to are 2nd home owners just arrived from London due to the schools closure and general situation in London. One actually said “we’ve come to our 2nd home because the air is cleaner around here and we can move about without any fears” 

Beware, next to be attacked is expected to be Burnham (aka Chelsea on Sea) and Wells. 

[Sparky]

This week my local supermarket is seeing profits more than 50% above Christmas week.  Guess there'll be a huge retail slump at some point...

[pete]

Would like to see the banks not charging interest on credit cards enabling a lot of people to only pay the minimum without penalty

[C8RKH]

1 hour ago, tom kilner said:

Official figures put the 2008 banking bailout at £850,000,000,000, so that's about 25k for every working person in the country

I believe you are comparing the global bailout fund with UK population. I thought that UK bailout cost peaked at £955bn - so expect the cheque for £16k.

[andydclements]

Even lower than that,  more like £2,600 if you take the original bailout figure of £137 Bn, or £500 if you only take into account the £27 Bn not yet repaid.

https://fullfact.org/economy/1-trillion-not-spent-bailing-out-banks/

[tom kilner]

9 minutes ago, C8RKH said:

I believe you are comparing the global bailout fund with UK population. I thought that UK bailout cost peaked at £955bn - so expect the cheque for £16k.

Uk Working population <30million

Global bailout was measured in the trillions !

16k I will accept though 👍 let's go for it

[C8RKH]

So 30m work, that means 37m don't!  Great....

[tom kilner]

Housewives and househusbands, kids, students, the elderly and the retired, JobSeekers, idlers, the infirm, the insane, others??

[C8RKH]

1 hour ago, LotusLeftLotusRight said:

I’d forgotten about the Britannia Hotel chain. We only ever stayed in one once. We were in Coventry for the Motorfest a few years ago. I was shocked at how horrendous the hotel was. It hadn’t had a penny spent on it since the 1970s. It was the closest thing to living in a council tower block I’ve ever experienced. Never again.

They do tend to take over hotels and then run into the ground as a cash cow. After a few year of their ownership the hotels are usually a shadow of their former self's. This hotel in Coylumbridge for many years was a Hilton, they must have sold it on. The Adelphi in Liverpool is another one of their hotels that looks like it has been milked to death.