Brochure - 20060522 - Vol 1 No.2

The Corner Store
Vol.1 No.2 May 2006

Changing the Concept of your local Store.

Eddy cleaning up the outside of the shop on Sunday 7^th May

– when you are in a hole, stop digging.

Latest Events

We were so surprised that on putting out a few leaflets we saw them disappear within the day, and then putting out another 100 and their disappearing within two days, we are now changing the format of our brochure. I doubt that it will stay like this, but the intention is to issue a new one each month. You can also view the latest, and previous, brochures on our web site.

What we are

We are proud to be an independent local store supplying a friendly and community-based service - a somewhat endangered species but it means that we can stock the more 'interesting' and exotic items, rather than have to buy the 'prescribed' (and no more and no less) range of goods which is imposed by the major franchises.

At the same time, we realise that price competitiveness is key to succeeding . We try to achieve this by keeping prices as low as possible and by supporting local Businesses as much as possible, supplying high quality Local Produce wherever we can.

Brochure - 20060504 - Vol 1 No.1

As many of you will have noted, we have now changed the colour scheme of the shop - thanks to those delightful people who broke most of our windows early on 1st January, and have opted for a more green policy.

We are proud to be an independent local store supplying a friendly and community-based service - a somewhat endangered species but one we are determined to keep going. It's a bit of a struggle remaining totally independent but it means that we can stock the more 'interesting' and exotic items, rather than have to buy the 'prescribed' (and no more and no less) range of goods which is imposed by the major franchises. At the same time, we realise that price competitiveness is key to succeeding. Our aim is to supply a selection of goods at a sensible price.

We support local Businesses as much as possible, and aim to supply high quality Local Produce wherever we can.

We also deliver locally free of charge – usually on a Friday but at other times by arrangement.

23/04/2007 - Fly Tipping

23/04/2007
Finalised the arrangements for next Monday - table at the restaurent is now booked. Completed the data for the annual tax return - that was a bit of a problem. Must try and do it weekly for this year! (Easier said than done). Now to start working out how we can pay the bills.

Having banged on last year about the bi-weekly rubbish collection policy of Taunton Deane, I hear that the collection schedule has now been endorsed by "The Government". Despite the fact that we had flys galore last summer, in their "wisdom" they say that it doesn't make any difference and makes us recycle more. It would help if the council would actually allow us to recycle more than the odd bottle or two which we dump into our Green Bin. I can see that I will be prone to "fly tipping" this summer - I just need to buy a few fly papers and locate them by the dustbin and we'll have a pile of flys to tip.

15/04/2007 - more family matters

15/04/2007
Big push in the morning to get the laptop configured, cooked lunch and then left around 15:00 to drive back to Sussex. Despite meeting around 200 motorcyclists on a "Bike-fest" outing arrived just after 19:00. Talking of the motorcyclists, I pulled into a petrol station and there must have been about 40 of them refuelling. They were mainly aged 40 - 60, so I guess it was the "rockers" re-union, and they all seemed to be a really pleasant bunch of people enjoying an outing on a really hot Sunday afternoon. It took a bit of organisation to keep the pumps clear, but all worked well and there was not too much of a holdup whist paying for the petrol.

16/04/2007
Mainly telephone calls, plus setting up "The Office" in the dining room.

17/04/2007
Meeting with registrar in the morning, and then the Undertaker in the afternoon.

18/04/2007
Solicitor in the morning - Mum walked down on her own. She gets back and then says that if we can get down to the bank we can organise the release of Dad's private funds. Get there in time and everything goes through OK (I hope!). We were going to have lunch at the Sports Club but they had a special funeral lunch organised but it gave us a chance to view the facilities. Went on to have lunch at the local hostelry instead..

14/04/2007 - more family matters

14/04/2007
After a lot of organisation, able to drive down to my parents. Dad very ill, but appears to be OK for a couple of days. Left again at 15:00 before the nurses were due to arrive for his third set of treatments for today. Got home at around 18:00 only to be rung by my Mother to say that he'd died at 17:08.

10/04/2007 - Family matters

10/04/2007
Been in touch with Social Services again today after a discussion with them last Thursday. All I can say is that at least I have a direct line to the Care Worker for my parents, she is being very sympathetic and helpful, and will be visiting them on Thursday. In addition, having stirred the local GP out of his surgery, a nurse is visiting my father with more hekp being offered.

09/04/2007 - General Wingeing

09/04/2007
Easter has come and gone - thank the heavens. Decided to check whether it is possible to put a windmill in the garden. Living in a conservation area this is proving problematicle, if not impossible. I think we'd spend more on getting planning permission and buying the kit than in just keeping all the lights, televisions, cooker, various other bits of electronics, the computers etc. etc. etc. fully charged and giving us a decent level of life - and don't event ask to talk to the local electricity board since their "Help/Wait desk" is incapable of talking the language, let alone being able to help. The only positive thing is that they are very good at keeping you waiting. I didn't understand that going green meant being naïve and paying out more.

Rob and Joe arrived yesterday evening - had glimpses of an interesting idea of theirs. Bad news is that Ed's brother in law died, plus his daughter is about to be evicted following a court hearing on Friday.

Don't you just love the way that "The Government" is full of spouting on with statistics and about what we should do, and then puts everything in the way of not letting you do it - or even penalising you for doing it? (This is a rhetorical question).

29/03/2007 - More radio exposure

29/03/2007
Yet another interview for Somerset Sound. This time he interviewed Ed and also Lynda.

22/3/2007 - Reminiscing on Gordon Brown's antics

22/3/2007

Well, the budget has come and gone, and I am rather underwhelmed by it. I cannot see how taxing the least paid more, and the smallest businesses more, can contribute to the wealth of the nation! In addition, although I understand the reason behind the "Gas Guzzling" increase in road fund licence costs, I can see it affecting the local farmers who are on of the few groups who drive off-road for professional reasons, as well as carrying unmentionable things in their 4 x 4's or trailers.

We had a staff management meeting this evening. It cleared a few outstanding issues but generally went successfully.

21/3/2007 - The Joys of Spring

21/3/2007
Spring is here, Spring is Here, Life is skittles, Life is Beer - with apologies to Tom Lehrer on this the Spring equinox!

It's Budget day at 12:00 - and I'm listening to what the Chancellor will be saying whilst spending his not inconsiderable salary on telling us again later. It seems that, apart from only collecting our rubbish every fortnight, we will now be charged for it to happen at all. So, is it cheaper to to drive our precious waste to the local dump abd dispose of it ourselves, or to pay for it not to be collected not as frequently as we would like, and pay for? Talking of paying for it, I'll put a '£' down if our Counciil Tax goes down. I know I shouldn't be gambling - even in Manchester or Blackpool - but I think the pound in my pocket is fairly safe.

And now, with more apologies to Tom Lehrer, I'll continue sliding down the razor blade of life.

19/3/2007 - Radio Personality

19/3/2007
Give Somerset Sound a chance and they'll be round! Not only do we have to be 'Nag Free', but now they've interviewed us to be the "Corner Shop of the Area". We were featured in the ''phone in' this morning. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to go out and bribe all the locals to support us, although I hear that there was a certain amount of support. Let's hope that Somerset Sound aren't using a premium rate telephone line!

13/03/2007 - Repairs and maintenance

13/03/2007
Workers started on roof today - not sure that it will work out since they cocked-up the repairs to the guttering and had to be called back. Time will tell as to whether the roofing repairs will work!

05/03/2007 - There's nowt so queer as "folk"

05/03/2007
We had a delivery to do today which was slightly "out of the ordinary". The delivery was to one of our regular customers, but who said that he wasn't allowed to use a tin opener. Amongst other things, Ed had to deliver two tins of peas to him, together with our tin opener, and open them before he left.

21/02/2007

21/02/2007
Eddy did an interview on Somerset Sound today regarding what he was giving up for Lent. We had all (Lynda, Sally and myself) conspired against him yesterday and put his name forward to the researcher from Somerset Sound who came round looking for suitable victims.

12/2/2007

12/2/2007
Bl**dy cat woke me up at 04:00 yowling - what she'd been doing I don't know and didn't find out. It started again at 04:30, and then she was there on the stairs to greet me at 06:00 and expecting to be fed. It wasn't fed until around 08:00 - I just didn't feel like giving in to her. Report me to the RSPCA if you wish to!

Excuses

We have bread delivered daily, and until recently we had a rather eccentric driver who delivered to us, and who was a little erratic in the time he would turn up but there was always an excuse as to why he was late. Here are a few of his most recent excuses:

26/1/2007 Set the time on his alarm clock, but it didn't come on.

27/1/2007 Arrived early - Can you imagine it?

29/1/2007 Knocked down a child on a bicycle

Apart from this, in the past we have had:
1) Hit by a car as he was coming out of the local Health Farm - landed in the ditch and wrote off his van that time
2) Nobody at the Bakery when he turned up
3) Slipped in the snow and slid into the ditch at the side of the road
4) Wrote off a van for the second time in the last year - he has now been replaced by a driver who is prompt, efficient and reliable!

A Tale of Simple Country Folk - as seen from "The Corner"

As an introduction, we run a Convenience Store in a village in the South-West of England. Life ranges from frantic to manic - forget the tranquil country life-style, it doesn't seem that way from our viewpoint. Anyway, I'll do my best to publish the good and the bad tempered by a slightly wry viewpoint.