Internet shopping.

There was a fairplay article in Wednesday's JEP about Patrick O'Lynn buying a tile cutter online, and saving himself £500 and a wait of two weeks for the item. And it was delivered to his door.

Patrick put a lot of work into buying this product, he knew exactly what he wanted, even down to the model number, he checked out all of the local stores, and spent an hour online before he found what he wanted at a price he was prepared to pay.

If he had been in the UK, he would probably have had to order the goods online then too, the only difference being that delivery might well be cheaper, or free, and he would have to pay VAT.

Internet shopping is touted as meaning the death of local stores, but even before the Internet people used catalogues to shop for goods unavailable in the island, or organised shopping trips to France, England, or yes, even America.

I hear a lot about how the Internet is going to change the face of traditional shopping, but what is so traditional about shopping? Not all that long ago it used to be the custom for some sellers to hawk their goods on doorsteps.

A tile cutter may be a good proposition for buying online, but some goods just are not suited to the Internet. Clothes are sold online, but most people still want to feel the material and try the goods on when they clothes shop. People want to look under the hood at a second hand car. People want to squeeze their loaf and sniff their melons.

Where to buy

I have been looking for a washing up bowl. The only place I could find one was in Woolies. None of the supermarkets seemed to carry them, and "The First Place" is closed, hopefully temporarily. I kept thinking that there are 80,000 to 90,000 people in this island, making lots of households with at least one washing up bowl per household. Is Woolies the only place to sell them?

I can buy a washing up bowl online, if I want to spend £40 plus on a designer article. There are some places that sell your basic washing up bowl, but the postage would double the cost of the bowl.

Maybe this is why there is such a lack of the bowls for sale in the island, they take up a lot of shelf space, and make little profit.

Incidentally, whilst researching online I found a 2000 BBC report on bacteria in the kitchen in which an "infection expert" spoke of the bacteria breeding capabilities of washing up bowls. He also said that washing up should be done with bleach. What a yucky thought. Bleach may get rid of germs, but when it comes to lumps of dirt, it just makes them invisible. I bet he makes his wife do it though.

05/01/2007 Update. Walking through the co-op in town heading to the furniture department I noticed they carry cream washing up bowls. The Woolies ones are silver. So, now I have found a choice of colours at least! I hadn't thought to look in the co-op homeware store.

Shopping Locally

My Mother visited the Island this weekend, and after having lunch at Big Vern's last week, I had noticed that their plates and mugs are produced at a local pottery located at 7 Belvedere Terrace. I used to live at 7 Belvedere Terrace, so whilst my Mum was over we visited the pottery and I bought a beautiful dish for grating garlic or ginger upon. Theresa was there and as well as talking about the house and how it has changed over the years she introduced us to her creations. I wanted to buy lots, but being stoneware the pottery is not cheap and at this expensive time of year I could not treat myself to anything more than the dish I bought.

I notice that the pottery is a member of Genuine Jersey. The Genuine Jersey website has a large list of members upon which I notice Classic Herd Ltd, the Quenaults' business. I used the rare opportunity of having some free time last week to pop into the Quennaults' farm shop where I was surprised to find a large number of luxury biscuits and relishes. A farm shop seems an odd place to buy Christmas presents, but there you go! I did buy some bacon, soup, spare ribs and the Jersey Brie and those we have so far eaten were good. The Brie has a much more solid texture than Brie from France or Somerset, but was very creamy. The farm shop is quite large and when I visited I was the only person buying, although they were re-stocking the sausages which indicated plenty of customers earlier. I do wish the Quenaults every success, and will be shopping there when I can, although I can not see myself buying many of the luxury biscuits, sauces etc. I am hoping that next year they may sell new potatoes that have not been through the grader.

Grading new potatoes bruises and dries them, and should be made illegal. Potatoes that have not been through the grader are more tender and seem to stay fresh longer than those that have, but I have a dreadful job finding any. The only way to be sure to get some is to befriend someone growing them! Eating potatoes that have not been graded is like eating the potatoes we enjoyed as children.

Another service award

This time to Boots where a member of staff noticed how much I was spending and suggested I take my Boots card to a card machine they have in the store whereupon I printed out a voucher entitling me to £4 worth of Boots points if I spend more than a certain sum that day. The lady, who was not English/Jersey, was very helpful in other ways as well, but they are too boring to detail. Thank you Boots for the £4 extra sitting on my card. It will come in useful in January.

Service to be proud of

Jersey recently came 10th from bottom in a customer service shopping survey of the Channel Islands. But I had a lovely experience today, and would like to give a gold star to the lovely lady who served me at Hallmark cards in King Street.

Not only was she helpful and pleasant whilst I paid for my cards, but when I was cheeky enough to ask for a second free 2007 datebook she happily popped another in without hesitation. Then I remarked upon a 2 Euro chocolate coin on the desk amongst some sterling ones and she handed it straight to me, insisting I kept it whan I protested. My smile lasted all the way back to my car.