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DVD rental firm Blockbuster has become the latest UK High Street firm to go into administration after struggling against internet competitors.
Never used them, but another high street name hits the skids.
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done.
Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H
OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre
I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer
Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett
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Just about to post this with my own similar pun, So I have anyway.
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I didn't know they were still going to be honest.
Their business model has to be completely flawed today.
Why would anyone go somewhere, browse through a limited selection of films, then pay lots of money to borrow it for one night?
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
Shed Petition[ ^]
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ChrisElston rote:
Why would anyone go somewhere, browse through a limited selection of films, then pay lots of money to borrow it for one night?
I've heard a similar argument applied to marriage.
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ChrisElston wrote: Their business model has to be completely flawed today.
There are a lot of business models that are badly flawed today - the problem is that most management work on the basis of "it worked before, it'll work again" and try to tweak it a bit here, a bit there, or get legislation that ignores the real world to try and protect the existing model. It has always been thus...and the companies go under never quite knowing why as they sink below the surface. Their children could have told them they were out of date and out of touch, their workers could have told them. But they didn't listen because they were used to easy money.
They won't be the last, I suspect. Not by a long chalk... 
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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When they work out a way to download bread, Tesco is toast.
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done.
Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H
OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre
I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer
Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett
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If the delivery services ever get their acts together properly, then the era of large supermarkets certainly will be.
Fortunately, the major retailers seem just as incompetent at that as they are at making those self-service terminals they want you to use instead of people... 
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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I don't think I could ever trust some unknown youth to choose fresh food for me.
Perhaps the future is a resurgence of local greengrocers, butchers and bakers with everything else getting delivered from large central warehouses.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
Shed Petition[ ^]
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Given the propensity of filling the shelves with sh*t then I think we could all learn a thing or too about 'Local Shopping'.
I have 'Gerrys' at the top of the road, a butchers.
The quality is excellent, the service superb, and if you want him to trim this or dress that etc, he is happy to do so.
The price is a little more than the supermarkets, but only a little, and the value added is more than adequate to cover that.
No horse meat in his burgers!
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I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave
CCC Link[ ^]
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We have a butchers and bakers in the village that I have started using more and more, and they are very good and very reasonably priced too.
Add in the cost of driving to a supermarket and I would guess there is nothing in it. Plus I now get most veg for quite a bit of the year from the allotment.
I'm also thinking of getting some chickens, and toying with the idea of asking the farmer who owns the allotments for a bit of land to rear some pigs on.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
Shed Petition[ ^]
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Get in touch with Griff.
He has been 'rearing' sheep for ages.
---------------------------------
I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave
CCC Link[ ^]
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You don't need a lot of space for chickens. MIL keeps 3-4 in a small coop and they have maybe 10-15 m2 to sh*t on. Once they stop laying she sticks in the pot.
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done.
Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H
OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre
I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer
Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett
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And if you have more space have more chooks. There's always people who will buy the eggs you can't consume.
I'm fortunate as I have 2 acres (seems like more coz its smack in the middle of a farm). I have about 12 chooks usually and along with 3 pigs they have about 1.5 acres to play about in. I unload 5-6 dozen eggs to co-workers each week. After factoring in cost of chooks (I buy them in as pullets) and feed, etc. the profit is about $1000 a year.
The pigs don't root up the grass as their snouts have been ringed. Some might argue that that's a bit mean but they're happy enough. And when its time the home-kill man will make a visit and two days later I have a freezer full of pork. 
If your neighbours don't listen to The Ramones, turn it up real loud so they can.
“We didn't have a positive song until we wrote 'Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue!'” ― Dee Dee Ramone
"The Democrats want my guns and the Republicans want my porno mags and I ain't giving up either" - Joey Ramone
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Pigs are a problem generally - they root around a lot and can turn a field into a ploughed quagmire in a remarkably short space of time. They are also smelly - not the pigs themselves, they are lovely, clean animals - their urine is really quite nasty, and one of those "leek-like" smells which travels a lot. Neighbouring properties generally complain a lot about them, and that interests the local council. There are also problems with security (they are very smart creatures!) and slaughter. Our local small abattoir (attached to the butcher shop) had to stop handling pigs about 7 or so years ago as they were too big to hang once slaughtered without drastic changes to meet EU and British regulations. You need to look for a good, small local abattoir (as there are even more rules on transporting them)
How do I know this? One of my friends keeps pigs...and tends to swear a lot about regulations.
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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My uncle has a pig or two now and then. He lost one once when the trailer came open on a roundabout on the way to the abattoir.
Fortunately it landed on its head so was just sitting there looking dazed when he went back for it.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
Shed Petition[ ^]
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ChrisElston wrote: Plus I now get most veg for quite a bit of the year from the allotment.
Only most?
You should look into ways of freeing up more space to grow stuff.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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OriginalGriff wrote: If the delivery services ever get their acts together properly, then the era of
large supermarkets certainly will be.
I doubt that will happen.
Clothing follows the same model and it has a delivery model that works yet there are many more clothing stores than supermarkets.
And at least where I am most super markets have large customer traffic basically from 9am to 9pm with that tampering off into the wee hours. But with enough traffic that they remain open 24 hours almost every day of the year.
The delivery model is based on the premise that the consumer knows what they want. That can work with a flat screen TV and perhaps even a movie, but it doesn't work with chips, beer and fruit loops.
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It doesn't have to work with all consumers, it just has to work for enough consumers for it to be uneconomic for have the floor space instead of warehousing, and the staff that the floorspace needs.
As soon as it is more expensive to sell food than they make showing it at it's "best" they will shut stores so fast it will deafen the staff!
Money, and great big lumps of it, are the be-all and end-all for for large retailers.
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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OriginalGriff wrote: As soon as it is more expensive to sell food than they make showing it at it's
"best" they will shut stores so fast it will deafen the staff!
And exactly how long do you think that the direct delivery model for supermarkets has been in place? The answer is - a very long time. It wasn't just thought up last year. And yet the market remains.
There have been some very large advertised rollouts in about the past 1o years. And yet the market remains.
It doesn't matter why people go to the supermarket to buy their food. What matters is that they do. Cost has nothing to do with it because the profit margins for supermarkets in any market with competition has been razor thin for a very long time. Probably close to 20 years. And competition exists in all metropolitan areas which is exactly the area that would be most likely to adopt a delivery model. Except people don't adopt it. They keep going to the store.
The reality is that the market accepts whatever the consumer wants. If consumers wanted the delivery model then it would have already happened. There is no technological break through possible with food itself that would change the existing market dynamics. It would take something completely unrelated to alter it.
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My father-in-law started a video rental business in Lichfield 30 odd years ago.
Blockbuster breezed into town and it shut down shortly afterwards.
The Blockbuster didn't last long though, there has (to my knowledge) been nowhere in Lichfield to rent films for at least 5 years.
I've seen quite a few celebrating the loss of HMV with a similar argument, that 10 or 20 years ago they were responsible for the closing of all the small, local music shops.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
Shed Petition[ ^]
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The only place to rent films round here is the local library!
(I'll give them this though, they are cheap, if not exactly well stocked...)
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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I must admit I have recently started using them since I moved round the corner from one. My missus has started a uni course so it gives me something to do when she's studying and the kids are in bed. I've tried Netflix but their choice is very limited especially with current films. I've also tried movies2K but am not impressed with all the pr0n pop-ups. Sky offer films but for roughly the same price as Blockbuster.
Another thing I like about Blockbuster is the staff are nice near me and they always recommend films they think I would like based on my past choices, they have a very good success rate with this. Although if it wasn't on the way home I probably wouldn't bother.
If anybody can point me to better alternatives I'd be all ears.
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I agree about SKY, but at least you do not have to go out in the wind or rain to get a film.
There is always about 300 or so films on demand, plus all the programmes on iPlayer etc. and they are all free.
It is only the premium movies that you pay for.
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I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave
CCC Link[ ^]
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I never have a problem finding films on Sky with the Anytime+ or whatever they are calling it now, although I am not a big film watcher and definitely not bothered about seeing things as early as possible.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
Shed Petition[ ^]
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I need to upgrade to sky+ I've only been meaning to do it for something like 3 years now and never got round to it. Apparently the way to do it is phone up to cancel as you haven't been offered a new box and when you get through to the cancellation team they are the only ones who can authorise a free upgrade. It's going through this hassle that has put me of but this might be the push I need.
As for the wind or Rain, I pass by the store on my way home, so if anything it gives me a chance to get a break from the weather for 5 mins.
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