Times they are a changing...

[Cranfield]

I live in the sticks, quite near a small village that has no shops, but there is a village with some shops (incl a newspaper shop) about 2 miles away.

We received a note in our newspapers this morning, to say that the delivery service will cease mid January 2009 due to increased costs.

There is no alternative service available, so newspapers at breakfast time are now a thing of the past.

 

When I went in the shop this morning to pay the bill we had a chat about it.

The problem is customers don't want to pay higher delivery prices, "paperboys" want real money for doing the job and the number of people having papers is falling.

This all combines to make it not financially viable for the shop to deliver.

 

The Shopkeeper is now concerned that as people from the outlying areas won't be coming into his shop once a week to pay their paper bill, he will lose a bit more business, as they usually buy other things while they are there.

 

Milk deliveries stopped a few years ago, rural Post Offices are closing, public transport out here is almost non existant, private transport is expensive, the list goes on and living in the country is changing.

[seb]

When I did a paper round I did an evening round each day and I got £1 a day for it. If I wanted to buy something I would save up for it.

I thought £6 a week was good back then but these days the kids have all the latest stuff and that wouldn't even pay for their credit on their mobile.

[Mrs Sweepy]

I think were paperboys are concerned

Its the case off the kids just dont want to do it .

Little sweepy do morning and evenings.

His up at 6.30 every morning .

And over the holidays he be doing two morning rounds as the newsagent cant get boys to work for him .

Little sweepy has ask a lot of his mates if they like a paperound but all he gets back is its to early or to cold.

or like Mr Cranfield said not enough money.

Little sweepy gets 13 pounds a week just for one round. And his doing three.

For a 15 year old boy thats a lot of money.

We also live in the village

Are bus service is bad Accept on Sundays when you get the bus every hour

In the year or so my two boys are going to need transport to get to jobs or even college.

And as we do not have buses. That only means one thing.

Both of them will have to have mopeds.

I am having the panic attacks about them on two wheels already .

As most of you that live in villages will know .

Villages roads are not the safest place to be when your on two wheels instead of four.

 

We still get the milkmen but i dont have him as i got fed up with getting my milk at one in the afternoon.

After it had been on the float all morning in hot sun.

We also have the post office . But for how much longer i do not know.

Mind you we do have three pubs.

Four tea rooms And about four restaurants in are small village.

Which is not bad going .

We also have are own PCSO

But at 5ft nothing And weighing about 6 stone.All it will take is one gust of wind. And she will end up as the village next to us PCSO.

xxxxSuzy

[Jim Sarakun]

I too live in a small village and a few of our shops have gone over the years since I have been here. Big stores taking all the trade I'm sure, as they have the buying power to screw the producer on price. Customers too, not being loyal to the small shops, have bought about their demise, though you can't really blame them, as utility and petrol prices keep on rising. We all have to save where we can, and we vote with our feet by using the big stores. It's the elderly who suffer most, small pension, Gordon fixed that one for them, no transport, rarely see a bus round here, so they use Mr Singhs shop, bit over priced, but what choice is there?

 

Thankfully we do still get the milkman and paper boy. Our milkman is early by the way. My eldest, he's 10, would love a paper round, but he is too young, the law won't let him do one. I have suggested he take a bucket and sponge and bang on a few doors and ask if he can wash their cars, something I used to do as a lad for a few shillings. He was talking like £20 a go, but I suggested he didn't mention a price and just let the customer pay what they thought it was worth. As yet he has not found the courage to try it....Bless...

 

I often wonder what the teenagers want the big money for. I suppose it's for the accessories to the expensive computers and blackberries or what ever they are called that parents buy them. Every time I switch on a radio these days there is an advert for condoms, and even when I flick through the channels, same add. Get respect, stay safe, maybe they are buying these. How much are they now? Now I'm not knocking them, but do we really need to hear that add every five minutes. Well I slipped on my wet decking the other day, and really gave my knee a crack, and my neighbor who was watching rolled his eyes and laughed. I was wearing one that I found in my wallet, which must have been there since 1942. Safety and respect I never got.

[MAJ2]

As from January 28th '09, Mr & Mrs MAJ2 will be taking over a village shop/deli/off licence in deepest darkest South Oxon. We will inherit three paper rounds, and with them three paper boys. The current owners have assured us that they have never had a problem getting lads, or lasses, to take the rounds on, and that they actually have a waiting list of youngsters keen to earn a bit of pocket money. I sincerely hope they're telling the truth, as I can't bear the thought of having to deliver the things myself. Mind you, having gone over the accounts (time after time) the wage bill for these lads tells me they're onto a good thing, well above minimum wage level.

 

Personally, I love the thought of paper boys, milkmen (with milk in glass bottles), Saturday delivery boys on bikes, post offices etc etc, and I will do everything in my power to keep these things going. However, as Cranfields paper shop owner has said, one has to make sure that the operation is financially viable.

[mossy835]

when do you all get time two read the paper,

[lurcherboy]

It's a sign of the times we live now live in unfortunately

 

 

 

LB

[Imperfection]

Small shops closing down is how shopping habits of joe public has changed in recent years.Many people choose to buy meat from a supermarket instead of a butcher and same goes for produce & bread.We only have one butchers shop now instead of three and last greengrocer closed few years back.Its the old saying-if you dont use it,you'll loose it.

 

In a nearby village,they used to have a small shop,but local people chose to shop at the large Co-op 5 miles away so it closed down.Villagers now are saying that they miss having it on their doorstep,but they are really the ones to blame for its demise.You could almost call it evolution of shopping,but where will it end?

[jay222]

You think about it. Woolworths has been around for years and years. Who would have thought they would close. However, all the things you can buy in their shops you can buy in Tesco, Asda etc!!!!

 

There are many people who don't even bother going to the shops, they order everything from the web, we are getting a lazy nation with a pace of life that is far too fast.

the problem with woolies is that they were neither here nor there the largest stores still werent big enough to compete with the supermarkets and the smaller ones were too big to be like actual convenience shops and as you already mentioned they sold nothing that couldnt be picked up in nearly all big supermarkets

[staglioni]

Igot 7s 6d for doing two paper rounds and i loved it apart from the mad border collie called timmy i had a hole in corner of my bag and shoot him up the rear with my chrome gat

stag