National hives from China

[Dishmop]

"I bet a few people here can remember the days of apples being stored in the loft."

you mean other people aren't still doing that?

No room with all the special chairs and tables and the rack for the leather equipment.

 

[Winker]

I feel I am being misunderstood. There is nothing wrong with buying bannas and things we cant produce ourselves in this country, as you said trade is very good for Britain. What my issue with is buying things from abroad we can and do produce just to save a few pence rather than support our businesses.

Why would i want to support a British business that is charging me 30% more for exactly the same product than some other business else where in the world? I also find I get better customer service from company's outside the UK. I can place an order for an item in Honk Kong and have it at my door within 2 days. If I place an order for an item in the UK I can wait weeks for it to come.

What a lot of British business seam to forget is that customer support is earned not just given away by the UK public. Also keep in mind that very few things are made in Britain these days. Even great British iconic brands have moved their factories and customer services abroad now. The name of the brand may be British but the product is no longer made here!

Why is the British product no longer made here in the UK? Cause the British company's refuses to support the British people and would rather pay wages to someone in a 3rd world country who is only wanting fraction of the wage. All in the name of greed!

 

[Dishmop]

I agree with that,one of my favourite cars. Better than those Trabants..lol.

Tailor made if you could afford a new one... Even had the option of electric rear seats.
Non working central locking solenoids on Bentley looked like something left over from a WW2 submarine.. I replaced them with a set off ebay for £14.99.

Only part I have ever bought for my Mercedes is a bottom ball joint £23.


Suspension ball joints for RR/Bentley??????????????????????????????????????????????




£159 each!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

No it's not,its a forum for all beekeepers.
I enjoy reading about what the big boy's get up to and so do many others.

(sorry if this is a bit out of date, just been catching up on this thread)

 

[Dishmop]

Friend of mine enquired at a UK dealers about a new German made motorhome.

They gave hime a price, plus a bit more for a few extras and another £2,000 for a right hand drive model. Delivery time about 2 months.
He went on internet and email the manufacturer.

He went to Germany and collected an uprated right hand drive model three weeks later for £7,000 less (including taxes) than he had been quoted here.

Another case of somebody I know bought a Ford Transit in Belgium for about £2,500 cheaper than in UK.. He had to collect it from Belgium. Made in Southampton.
Tobacco made in this country. Strip off all the taxes and duty and it is still cheaper in Europe than in UK.

 

[Tom Bick]

Why would i want to support a British business that is charging me 30% more for exactly the same product than some other business else where in the world? I also find I get better customer service from company's outside the UK. I can place an order for an item in Honk Kong and have it at my door within 2 days. If I place an order for an item in the UK I can wait weeks for it to come.

What a lot of British business seam to forget is that customer support is earned not just given away by the UK public. Also keep in mind that very few things are made in Britain these days. Even great British iconic brands have moved their factories and customer services abroad now. The name of the brand may be British but the product is no longer made here!

Why is the British product no longer made here in the UK? Cause the British company's refuses to support the British people and would rather pay wages to someone in a 3rd world country who is only wanting fraction of the wage. All in the name of greed!

Is that not rather contradictory in one hand you are not prepared to pay for a more expensive product made in the UK but when the company moves abroad to produce a product cheaper and perhaps more desirable to people like yourself you then say its all in the name of greed.

 

[tonybloke]

It isnt a good business if it doesnt yet exist.

Railways and canals werent built with borrowed money.

oh yes they were!!
so was the acle straight, ( britains first PFI road)

 

[drstitson]

of course in the old days you had to deal with a local supplier. now using the internet anyone can source whatever they like direct. so as more business moves away your local supplier, with overheads to cover and less business, gets increasingly less competitive.

hands up anyone who has browsed local bookshop then ordered the book online?

 

[The Cumbrian]

hands up anyone who has browsed local bookshop then ordered the book online?

Nationally 1 in 7 shops are standing empty and I suspect the Internet has much of the blame. Our local camera shop closed. The owner said he had plenty of people coming in for advice on what to buy but ot actually buying. He assumed they went home and bought on line.

Before somebody suggests that the high street shops should sell at compitative prices remember, their over heads are much greater than an on line business.

 

[OXFORDBEE]

It would be helpful if landlords didn't insist on squeezing every penny they can out of retailers....

 

[The Cumbrian]

It would be helpful if landlords didn't insist on squeezing every penny they can out of retailers....

That is part of the problem with Internet sales being cheaper. They can operate from an industrial unit and not pay high street rent/rates.

 

[drstitson]

"They can operate from an industrial unit and not pay high street rent/rates."

or from a tax haven and avoid the VAT too.

 

[Ely]

That is part of the problem with Internet sales being cheaper. They can operate from an industrial unit and not pay high street rent/rates.

Or even from home

 

[AnotherNewBee]

Nationally 1 in 7 shops are standing empty and I suspect the Internet has much of the blame. Our local camera shop closed. The owner said he had plenty of people coming in for advice on what to buy but ot actually buying. He assumed they went home and bought on line.

Before somebody suggests that the high street shops should sell at compitative prices remember, their over heads are much greater than an on line business.

Same story when I had my shop. Customers would come in, check out the stock, then go buy online.

Some of my suppliers were selling, online, to the general public for lower than the trade prices they were giving me.

 

[Tom Bick]

It would be helpful if landlords didn't insist on squeezing every penny they can out of retailers....

So very true I have come to realise that I made a big mistake a good few years ago I should have bought premises rather than the lease and rent road.

 

[drstitson]

what business are you in then Tom?

 

[Winker]

Is that not rather contradictory in one hand you are not prepared to pay for a more expensive product made in the UK but when the company moves abroad to produce a product cheaper and perhaps more desirable to people like yourself you then say its all in the name of greed.

yes its in the name of greed, so the company can make a larger profit margin. You dont see them drop their price since they got the cheep labour in india/China/insert your own counrty here, do you?

 

[Ely]

One of the many reasons we decided to close our pub (apart from my mothers ill health) was because of the local council wanting too much business rates with next to nothing in return. We pay for our own waste services, our own street lighting etc. We once asked them to come and grit the road to our premesis. They refused. A couple of weeks later one of their vehicles got stuck on the ice on our car park. They ended up sending a gritter out especially costing them more. Councils are run by morons that behave like organised criminals crippling small businesses and offering nothing in return and closing them down. They are too stupid to see that if the rates were lower, businesses would stay open and they would still receive their rates and all would be happy with a growing economy. I think the world is being run by a new generation of muppets

 

[The Cumbrian]

I am not sure councils have a lot of leeway in this. A government organisation - Valuation Office Agency controls rateable value which is multiplied by a rate set by another government organisation - The department for Communities and Local Government.

At least that is how I understand things to work.

I would agree that lower rates would enable more businesses to function but it appears to be the government to blame not the local council.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I would agree that lower rates would enable more businesses to function but it appears to be the government to blame not the local council.

So from that, one can only deduce that the government would prefer it if more businesses did not function.
Seems like things are going to plan for them.