Business Watch by Eddie Walsh
So how has the
retail scene changed recently? The Natural Health store, 13 High Street
has closed for good. That was the shop with posters obscuring the
windows. Welch The Florist which has traded on Market Place for many
years has transferred its business to its Stapleford branch. The freehold
of the premises is up for auction on 13th August.
The biggest
change locally was the opening of The Company Shop at Chapel Street on the old
Focus site. It is run on a membership basis. See www.companyshopgroup.co.uk. It has a wide range of discounted groceries but
check the use by dates. 80 pence for 4 pints of milk seemed cheap but
it had a use by date for the next day. A six pack of Jack's Crisps
for 50p had a 16 day use by date and crisps normally are dated up to 3 months
ahead. And, alas, just like Aldi, Asda and Tesco they allow kids to sit
within trolleys.
This pathetic
little government is going ahead with HS2 at a time when the cash could be
better used co cope with the virus crisis. And the 500 million earmarked
for a tenner off a meal could have paid for free hospital parking for NHS staff
for two years.
When Rowlands in
Midland Street closed a few months ago customers who had not chosen another
pharmacy were transferred to the nearby Boots. This had the advantage of
late opening and a window to collect scripts from. However, the queue
system was not adhered to by the Methadone clients who regularly went straight
to the window saying they did not want to queue for 30 minutes if their order
was not ready. For an easier life, staff tolerated this. I moved to
another pharmacy after witnessing constant queue jumping.
The annual ISA
allowance of £20,000 is certainly very generous and, of course, only useful to
those who are already well paid. The chancellor could well cut that in
his review of Capital Gains Tax. The current CGT is £12,300 up by £300
from last year. This is reasonably generous too and could be tapered
back. CGT applies to the amount of profit you can make from selling an
asset before any tax is payable. Or he may impose a wealth tax but that
would not snare the billionaires as their wealth can easily be moved abroad.
Finally, does
anyone know of a premises with a good dance floor which is available on a
Thursday Night or a weekend afternoon?
No comments:
Post a Comment