Lockdown #2

[melmerby]

3 minutes ago, LBRJ said:

Talking of "premium products" and price differentials I have it on the very best authority that the tea bags offered by the patron saint of the High St and those from a well known supermarket chain's "own brand gold" are (or at least were) almost exactly the same.

The difference was that M&S insisted on their product having its own bespoke production line.

AFAIK Asda Wheat Bisks are Weetabix in a different box.

They even have the same registration inside the pack

[ejstubbs]

1 hour ago, hayfield said:

the difference between a £5 bottle of red wine and a £10 the dearer one is worlds apart

 

If you pay £5 for a bottle of wine in the UK then about £3 of that i.e. 60% is tax and duty i.e it's nothing to do with the wine, or the supply chain from vineyard to off-licence shelf: the money goes straight from your pocket to the Government's coffers.  Taking in to account the other - genuine and unavoidable - costs involved in packaging, transporting & retailing the wine, the actual wine only accounts for about 30p of the £5 paid by the consumer.

 

On a £10 bottle tax and duty account for less than 40% of the price paid, and after other costs you're paying roughly nine times as much for the actual wine.  That's why even non-eonophiles can usually tell the difference.

 

Source: https://www.bibendum-wine.co.uk/news-stories/articles/wine/vinonomics/

Edited November 5, 2020 by ejstubbs

[hayfield]

2 minutes ago, ejstubbs said:

 

If you pay £5 for a bottle of wine in the UK then about £3 of that i.e. 60% is tax and duty i.e nothing to do with the wine: the money goes straight from your pocket to the Government's coffers.  Taking in to account the other - genuine and unavoidable - costs involved in packaging, transporting & retailing the wine, the actual wine only accounts for about 30p of the £5 paid by the consumer.

 

On a £10 bottle tax and duty account for less than 40% of the price paid, and after other costs you're paying roughly nine times as much for the actual wine.  That's why even non-eonophiles can usually tell the difference.

 

Source: https://www.bibendum-wine.co.uk/news-stories/articles/wine/vinonomics/

 

Thank you for explaining the true value of the wine you buy. The other element of course is whether you like the style of the wine. but a totally different topic

[monkeysarefun]

5 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Rugby? Who cares, I'm not in NSW or Qld. No one outside those 2 states show any long term interest. OK, you'll have some escapees from those 2 states, or from Wales/Northern England, in Victoria.

 

You Melbourne type, you - getting League and Union mixed up. Rugby LEAGUE is the game followed here, Union is that other version played in posh private schools in order to look like they are at Eton or whatever. No one follows that here either!

 

 

Edited November 5, 2020 by monkeysarefun

[Ravenser]

3 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

You Melbourne type, you - getting League and Union mixed up. Rugby LEAGUE is the game followed here, Union is that other version played in posh private schools in order to look like they are at Eton or whatever. No one follows that here either!

 

 

 

 

Can I stir the pot and mention the existence of London Broncos/Harlequins and the Sydney Swans?

[monkeysarefun]

2 minutes ago, Ravenser said:

 

 

Can I stir the pot and mention the existence of London Broncos/Harlequins and the Sydney Swans?

I've never heard of the first ones but I remember when the Swans moved up here in the 80's. How we all  laughed at their tight little shorts!

 

[Ravenser]

17 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

I've never heard of the first ones but I remember when the Swans moved up here in the 80's. How we all  laughed at their tight little shorts!

 

 

London's rugby league team. Been around for about 30 odd years, and even managed a Challenge Cup final once

[Bernard Lamb]

3 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

They are doing a job of work which they cannot do from home, social distancing and PPE will have to be adhered to also, just the same as factory/office workers who cannot work from home.

Very funny. A battle scene with very long swords I suppose and full face armour or gas marks. Just adjust the story time line to suit. I have no objection to them working. They have some very large studios in the vicinity but I do not want to find such  a gathering in the open country where I usually go for my exercise. 

Bernard

[adb968008]

Maybe we should have a wine thread.

 

I’m a whisky person myself, bought and paid for. I’m not going to be a wine snob.

 

With wine, I generally try, if I like it I buy, price only comes into it, if it starts getting expensive (£15 or above) in retail.

 

My starting philosophy, is to look at the shelf, if one has multiple rows, partially empty, my guess is someone else must like it and it must be reasonably popular, so I will try it.

 

Ive generally landed on Argentine Malbec, Jordan wines, or Kanonkop in South Africa (chameleon and black magic), Brunelo from Italy, Rioja from Spain, sauvignon blanc from New Zealand / France and Sancerre... beyond that i’ll try and buy.

No means will I pick a top shelf over a middleshelf, its basically..if I like it, i will look for it again...

 

you may note I specifically called out Jordan Wines.. story behind it.. There is a fantastic steakhouse in Sandton, Johannesburg called the butchers shop. They do their own label wines “Picks Pick”, of which I tried one, paid c£40 at the table, (expenses is a different rule to my personal rule ;-), but £25 in the restaurant retailers wine cave, thought it good.

I recognised the distinctive bottle & cap in the super market, realised it was Jordans Black Magic, £15.. hey ho..ive saved myself £10 a bottle... same bottle, content and year.

 

From Jan 1st, South Africa has lined up a trade deal, that will see wine exports vastly increase to the UK. People aren't going to drink more though. I doubt niche names will be part of the quotas either. 
 

I expect a lot of “cheap stuff” brands labels to appear, retailers taking advantage of bulk generic barrel imports, local cellar bottling, freshly set up with a UK aligned price tag, and corresponding reduction (and increased price) of now harder to get in bulk EU wines. I’ve already seen more “winecellar” adverts on TV recently...

 

History repeats itself, and can be summed up in 1 name..

Le Piat D’or...

 

no one in France has heard of it i’m sure.

Look for a “chose your storyline” version to appear here next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 5, 2020 by adb968008

[Nearholmer]

Sophisticated bottling - the “easy grip flagon” allows these two to knock it back by the gallon, like cider.

 

 

And, when a doctor suggests a glass of wine to a young lady patient, you have to ask whether he’s heading in front of the GMC ethics committee sometime soon.

 

 

Edited November 5, 2020 by Nearholmer

[stewartingram]

I've had family in the Fens who worked in the vegetable packing factories. I've worked myself for a short while at Tesco (.cm driver) and spoken with lorry drivers in the works canteen. In both cases I've had proof that own-brand labelled goods are often the same - ie identical - to big-brand labelled goods, though there are a few items (and it is a few) with (or without) certain additives, and this can happen either way.  Toilet paper, crisps. petrol, bread, beans, you name it, all labelled differently. In addition, quite a long while back, we regularly shopped at a premises in Wisbech, where the operator worked from a block of lockup (domestic type) garages. Local council refused him permission to redevelop them, so he replaced the walls, then the roofs (may have been the other way round!). His stock was bulk buys from warehouses etc, dented tins, smoke damaged, damp cardboard boxes, wrong labels, surplus stock etc. Nothing wrong with the goods inside though - we went there for about 10 years. There were 2 gates in, one visit saw a Luton van back in the 1st gate, and another in the 2nd gate. They wheeled the cartons across the tailgates from one vehicle to the other. I can't remember the labels or contents now, but it went like this: Heinz beans going to be relabelled as Nisa peas, as the canning factory had put wrong labels on! You could only buy goods by the box, not individual tins. Again, too long ago to know the real prices, but a 15p tin in Tesco etc we got for about 3p (or equivalents back then.

Anybody that tells you this doesn't happen everywhere is sadly mistaken. It does, I've seen the proof.

 

Stewart

[Nearholmer]

Yep, I’ve visited a biscuit factory that mainly supplies its own label ranges to ‘corner shops’, but the top-end of their own label range, the ones with really thick chocolate coatings, are also supplied under the label of major ‘premium’ store. These aren’t just biscuits, they’re sold under two labels biscuits.

[kevinlms]

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

I've never heard of the first ones but I remember when the Swans moved up here in the 80's. How we all  laughed at their tight little shorts!

 

My wife was devastated when the Swans were banished to Sydney, under that Doctor, with his pink helicopter and all that sort of nonsense. Personally, I hate the game.

[Ron Ron Ron]

3 hours ago, adb968008 said:

Maybe we should have a wine thread.........

There’s already one going in the “Bachmann” section.

People whining on about the cost of some of the new RTR models.

 

 

.

[adb968008]

3 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Yep, I’ve visited a biscuit factory that mainly supplies its own label ranges to ‘corner shops’, but the top-end of their own label range, the ones with really thick chocolate coatings, are also supplied under the label of major ‘premium’ store. These aren’t just biscuits, they’re sold under two labels biscuits.

its  happening right here in our hobby...

Hymek...

https://railsofsheffield.com/products/36278/Heljan-3528-oo-gauge-class-35-hymek-br-early-blue-small-yellow-warning-panels-d7004-locomotive
 

Premium  Hymek

https://railsofsheffield.com/products/40894/efe-rail-e84001-oo-gauge-class-35-hymek-d7005-br-two-tone-green-diesel-locomotive

Its all about the packaging.

 

 

Edited November 6, 2020 by adb968008

[rockershovel]

4 hours ago, stewartingram said:

I've had family in the Fens who worked in the vegetable packing factories. I've worked myself for a short while at Tesco (.cm driver) and spoken with lorry drivers in the works canteen. In both cases I've had proof that own-brand labelled goods are often the same - ie identical - to big-brand labelled goods, though there are a few items (and it is a few) with (or without) certain additives, and this can happen either way.  Toilet paper, crisps. petrol, bread, beans, you name it, all labelled differently. In addition, quite a long while back, we regularly shopped at a premises in Wisbech, where the operator worked from a block of lockup (domestic type) garages. Local council refused him permission to redevelop them, so he replaced the walls, then the roofs (may have been the other way round!). His stock was bulk buys from warehouses etc, dented tins, smoke damaged, damp cardboard boxes, wrong labels, surplus stock etc. Nothing wrong with the goods inside though - we went there for about 10 years. There were 2 gates in, one visit saw a Luton van back in the 1st gate, and another in the 2nd gate. They wheeled the cartons across the tailgates from one vehicle to the other. I can't remember the labels or contents now, but it went like this: Heinz beans going to be relabelled as Nisa peas, as the canning factory had put wrong labels on! You could only buy goods by the box, not individual tins. Again, too long ago to know the real prices, but a 15p tin in Tesco etc we got for about 3p (or equivalents back then.

Anybody that tells you this doesn't happen everywhere is sadly mistaken. It does, I've seen the proof.

 

Stewart

 

Somehow, a retailer working out of a block of lock-ups in Wisbech fails to surprise.... 

 

Why would you be surprised, about goods from different retailers, having common origins? The system works like this... the processor buys from the farmer (producer) and plans on a certain production tonnage. The processing and canning is scheduled on that basis. The producer harvests the crop, and sends it to the processing plant. 

 

The plant management monitors the tonnage received, and informs the processor accordingly. The processor, these days, also receives information from the farmer or agricultural contractor about tonnage harvested. 

 

The information then passes through a complex system  of evaluation. Total tonnages are monitored; decisions are taken about quality and compliance with specification. Produce judged surplus, is sold on a “spot market”, sometimes while the lorry is still on the road, sometimes after canning, usually before because it isn’t easy to re-package frozen or boxed goods. Other distributors buy on that market (either pre, or post-processing) to make up shortfalls or take advantage of over-production which is temporarily cheap.

 

The Man From Del Monte, he say all sorts of things, and the end result is that a maximum of what has actually been produced, ends up put to some use or other, even if it’s animal feed or just dumped (although this last is rare). Goods damaged in transit, or rejected by supermarket buyers, or just over-produced because the cheapest option was to complete the batch, end up with “secondary market” suppliers in lock-ups, or (these days) sold to retail chains which specialise in that market. 

[rockershovel]

5 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Sophisticated bottling - the “easy grip flagon” allows these two to knock it back by the gallon, like cider.

 

 

And, when a doctor suggests a glass of wine to a young lady patient, you have to ask whether he’s heading in front of the GMC ethics committee sometime soon.

 

 

 

I seem to remember Monty Python covered this subject? “A wine for laying down, and avoiding”, wasn’t it? 

[Hroth]

8 hours ago, adb968008 said:

its  happening right here in our hobby...

Hymek...

https://railsofsheffield.com/products/36278/Heljan-3528-oo-gauge-class-35-hymek-br-early-blue-small-yellow-warning-panels-d7004-locomotive
 

Premium  Hymek

https://railsofsheffield.com/products/40894/efe-rail-e84001-oo-gauge-class-35-hymek-d7005-br-two-tone-green-diesel-locomotive

Its all about the packaging.

 

 

 

Just Bachmann selecting the more popular livery and adding their margin.

 

[melmerby]

7 hours ago, rockershovel said:

 

I seem to remember Monty Python covered this subject? “A wine for laying down, and avoiding”, wasn’t it? 

Oz Peppermint Beaujolais.

"Cleans you out at both ends."

 

It actually had a marked effect on Australian wine producers, who decided the time for jokes about ther product was over and time to start serious winemaking.

Edited November 6, 2020 by melmerby

[Joseph_Pestell]

8 hours ago, rockershovel said:

 

I seem to remember Monty Python covered this subject? “A wine for laying down, and avoiding”, wasn’t it? 

 

Dame Edna, I think.

[chris p bacon]

9 hours ago, rockershovel said:

 

I seem to remember Monty Python covered this subject? “A wine for laying down, and avoiding”, wasn’t it? 

On holiday in the USA a few years ago we were with some Australians, the US guide produced a box of Californian wine which was described by the Australians as a "Gins Handbag", it then had to be explained to the American guide that "Gin" was short for Aborigine. She thought this was abhorent until one of the Australians pointed out they they got their indigenous people drunk while the Americans shot theirs.

Edited November 6, 2020 by chris p bacon

[hayfield]

2 hours ago, melmerby said:

Oz Peppermint Beaujolais.

"Cleans you out at both ends."

 

It actually had a marked effect on Australian wine producers, who decided the time for jokes about ther product was over and time to start serious winemaking.

 

As it happens one of my favorite Sunday Lunchtime drinks (does not send yo asleep) comes from the Beaujolais region, Chirouble, I prefer it to the slightly more expensive Flurie, but I doubt if those who love full bodied reds would agree however both still affordable, especially when the retailer offers them at a 25% discount. Certainly not wine snobbery or expensive when on offer.

 

I have learnt to look at what the supermarket has on offer, rarely paying the standard shelf price which I believe is the inflated price.

[boxbrownie]

17 hours ago, rockershovel said:

 

 

... these are known locally as “brownies”, the dried composting peat used for the purpose being quite unlike anything found out in the fens! 

 

Most of the East Anglian potato crop is bought by big processors like McCains and Findus. There are also huge, starchy cannon-balls grown for the “crisps and snacks” trade, primarily Walkers. Peterborough has a serious, regular problem with unpaid gang workers, this time of year.. 

That’s the beauty of the Fens, a quick shake going up the grader and the spuds are clean 

 

 

[boxbrownie]

17 hours ago, melmerby said:

AFAIK Asda Wheat Bisks are Weetabix in a different box.

They even have the same registration inside the pack

Same factory line, usually adjusting the sugar and salt (as well as any added vitamin content) slightly is enough to differentiate between branded and premium.

[boxbrownie]

16 hours ago, Bernard Lamb said:

Very funny. A battle scene with very long swords I suppose and full face armour or gas marks. Just adjust the story time line to suit. I have no objection to them working. They have some very large studios in the vicinity but I do not want to find such  a gathering in the open country where I usually go for my exercise. 

Bernard

Not funny at all, even the actors would have to keep to the regulations, hence there is very few large productions going on presently and even the soaps and TV prods are using cleverly placed screens and using visual effects to place actors looking normal.

 

The production your talking about would have had to get all the correct permissions to film at that location and your exercise was not a consideration.....sorry. 

Edited November 6, 2020 by boxbrownie