CVs - again.

wessie wrote:
[Aldi & Lidl]

Aldi's non-branded real ale is pretty good too. Brewed by Batemans
IIRC.

 

And jolly nice they they were too.

But yeah, the Aldi slurping wines include some pretty good stuff,
especially given that some of it is less than 2 euros a bottle...

 

I actually disagree a lot with that - insulation is a worthwhile thing
to be putting in.

Most of the problem is over-complexity in house construction which
translates into trying to craft build things on site rather than
pre-assemble them. This is being sorted out but since builders basically
do things exactly the same way as when they apprenticed you have to wait
for a lot of them to retire first.

 

Doesn't he always?

 

I've worked in the private sector for over 25 years (just) for a mixture
of small, medium and multi-national companies and haven't once been made
redundant, put at risk or told to reapply for my own job. I've worked
in that time for six employers and have always left through choice.

It would take more than one bad sales quarter to shift me from my
current role. If/when it happens it will be because of a change of
company strategy.

 

wrote:

12 years and five employers here but otherwise the same on all counts.

I've seen people laid off around me, mind, and none of the companies
I've worked for in the past are still around - generally absorbed and
then closed down - so maybe I just have a knack for bailing out at the
right time.

 

Redundant once, because the whole company was bought out and jobs
shifted 250 miles - I was 19 so that wasn't really a viable option.

Have been through 'Consultation periods' about every 2 years with the
current mob, but never actually put 'at risk'.

One thing I have noticed is that working for a large corporate for a
long time has given me a more negative view of the jobs marketplace
that I started out with.

 

I think that's age.

 

I don't see what you mean by that - any essentials that I've popped in
there to get have always been available (save eggs on one late
afternoon, and a particular variety of bread - equally, once and late
in the afternoon.

I'm a definite convert to both of the German-owned stores: they're
never as rammed as the big supermarkets, there's always car parking
available without having to trawl through a maze and if you select
reasonably carefully, you can eat well and for less than shopping with
the big boys.

I'm with you on the till thing, but my local stores always seem to
manage to open a second (or on occasion, third) till when the queue
gets much beyond the end of the conveyor. As for the fresh produce,
you're spot on: we've noticed that their veg actually tastes like they
should - the first properly peppery radishes in years, for example -
and it all lasts so much better. We got severely hacked off with
Tesco, for example, when cucumbers would start to liquidise themselves
two days after purchase. It seems that all the produce from the big
supermarkets is intended for immediate consumption (except the green
bloody bananas) and will start to self-compost as soon as you get it
home. A product (hah!) of chilled storage, I guess.

The smaller German shops probably benefit from lower customer
throughput in that they can display significantly smaller quantities of
produce without running out, yet it does seem to last for several days
before going off, which is a stark contrast to the Tesc/Sain/Wait
experience.

I started going to Aldi and Lidl purely to grab their bi-weekly
specials, seduced into crossing the threshold by lures of cheap
compressors, cordless tools and sandpaper packs(1) and on a whim took
some of their edibles home as well. They went down well, and they
became preferred sources of stuff like bread and crumpets, snacks and
German specialities ... and now the majority of the 'big shop' stuff is
sourced there. I wouldn't say that they're the be-all and end-all, but
I think the big boys would do well to keep an eye on their expansion
over the next couple of years.


1. I bought a 'detail sander' for cheap in Lidl. It came with a
single delta-shaped sheet of velcro-backed abrasive. I used it and it
worked well, so I looked for more abrasive. Even buying multipacks of
the things would have worked out at ~60p per sheet and I really thought
I'd been bitten. Fortunately Aldi came to the rescue and as one of
their specials, thrashed out 30-packs of the very things I was after,
which came in at ~7p a sheet which makes use of the sander a viable
proposition.

 

well, let's start by clarifying that I've never been in a Aldi. And
only recently used the (recently-ish opened) Lidl in Enfield Town.
What I was getting at is that there's never the same thing on the same
shelf from one week 'til the next.

Our local Lidl doesn't have a carpark at all, but it's 5 minutes walk
from my house, so not really a problem.

sure - it's definitely cheap, and nothing I've ever bought from there
has been of poor quality.

You mention that the "big boys"' fresh produce self-composts quickly.
This does, IME, depend on the given store. Our local Tesco, M&S and
Waitrose are all fine in this regard, but yeah, generally they're more
expensive than Lidl (though Tesco Enfield Town has a lot of good fresh
produce offers on at the moment).

 

It isn't just newbuild, though. My mate Big Nick bought a barn to be
converted and the hoop-jumping was something to see. It isn't like the
thing was out of place(1), or would be detrimental to anybody's visual
amenity, nor would it increase the overlooking of adjacent properties,
being halfway up a private lane (the middle of three such) which was
already quite densely built up. He wasn't allowed windows in the rear
elevation, for a start - and when the architect went to Velux roof
windows the size was cut and the spec (to maintain u-value) went up
equally drastically.

But the insulation demands left me flabberghasted: thick polystyrene
slabs in between layers of poured concrete floors, rockwool batts
between stone outer and plasterboard inner walls. Roof insulation I
expected, but not the batts between the joists as well as sheets over
the joists and below the underdrawing. It added thousands to the build
costs and complication and it is just as well its a big barn, as it
effectively raised the floor level, dropped ceiling/inner roof levels
and brought the walls in to boot. The place is still enormous, but
probably 10% smaller as a direct result of all the insulation.

Mind you, it is damned warm in the winter, although he's now found it
is also damned warm in the summer, too.

Until this project, I didn't realise that disabled access has to be
provided to this sort of reconstruction: prohibition of floor level
variations, that sort of thing. They even dictated the height of the
step at the entrance door, and he still has to construct the required
ramp to the back door. Surely a disabled person with half a million to
spend would be capable of looking elsewhere if any particular property
didn't meet their spec? I'm not unfamiliar with the quirks of
regulatory fiddliness, but that seemed a bit extreme.


1. OK, across the lane is a magnificent 16th Century
stone-under-thatch farmhouse (the owner of which Nick bought the barn
from) but next door is a 100-year-old brick-built barn with a
corrugated iron roof and opposite that a 1970's brick construction
four-bed detached, with a very conventional attached double garage. A
veritable melting pot of arcitectural styles, then, into which any sort
of construction would disappear in short order.

 

It could be that they're still settling final positions for the various
products. There's so much psychology involved in product placement
it's untrue. Apart from that, there's the weekly specials, the
bi-weekly specials, the 'special purchse' stuff that all has to be
given prominent positions, that perhaps in that case the regular gear
gets shuffled backwards. Or they could be fucked in the head, of
course - or just shite at running the place and keeping it stocked.

Ah, the blessings of deep urban life. The upside of our rural mid-Beds
idyll is the lower density of shops and housing. The downside is that
there's fuckall in walking distance unless you want to pay top dollar
at the farm shop up the road or the Post Office on the village green.
Excluding that sort of outlet, the nearest supermarket is Tesco
Flitwick, which is six miles or ten minutes drive away. Car parking in
this context is as vital and heavily weighted in the overall assessment
as the quality and comfort of the toilets in the preferred pub.

Again, as a result of your residence in the heartland, your stores
might get it quicker. Although I understand from inside sources, that
all Tesco stores operate on "just in time" for pretty much everything,
but certainly "fresh" produce. Four deliveries a day, an artic load at
a time, our Tesco has available to them. Having said that, the level
of mis-management gets worse by the week there, with established
product lines disappearing to be replaced by yet another variety of
overpriced exotic mushrooms, or stuffed and marinated olives, or
extra-extra-extra-virgin cooking oil ... while the shelves for
neccessities remain bare and the gangways obstructed with roll cages
abandoned by hard-pressed staff acting as personal shoppers.

The very bottom line is that I(we) detest shopping of any sort,
especially the bread and milk and bogroll type shopping. The faster
and slicker we can get in, do it, and out - the better. At the moment
Aldi and Lidl suit our criteria: not overpriced, decent gear, nice open
store interiors and quick to get around and out. More power to their
Aryan elbows.

 

weirdo.

 

The return on investment is worth it though: any new house will have
stupid amounts of insulation put in but the pay back in heating bills is
extremely quick: it's a far better buy than solar panels for instance.

If you want to have open-plan living in a barn-type space then you have
to conform to a certain level of thermal design: otherwise it will be
cold and draughty or else the heating bill will be stupid. It's only
these modern insulation & draughtproofing techniques that make it possible.

Probably too much solar gain - has he got a lot of south facing windows?

 

I'm also a convert to home delivery. I actually enjoy shopping but when I
started to commute to Cardiff by bike I found the home delivery option,
especially for bulky items, to be more convenient.

Ocado don't deliver here but I can order directly from the local Waitrose
store, Asda, Tesco or Sainsburys. Like you, I usually wait for a money off
or free delivery voucher before using any of them. An order once a month
usuually suffices.

So, with bulky items taken care of I just do top-up shops wherever I happen
to be. Lidl have a store on the edge of Studentville in Cardiff or I have a
small range of shops including a greengrocer, Tesco Metro etc about a mile
from home. Cardiff Central Market is a 10 minute walk from my Cardiff base
so I sometimes pop over there at lunchtime.