Brand new TDR on ebay

[Swashbuckler]

The only thing I can really compare the TDR thing to is fast track tickets at theme parks and airports, it is annoying the way the people who have bought those tickets treat us paupers in the eco queue with contempt and disdain, as they are obviously considerably richer than yow, and their time considerably more valuable.

[Tim Procter]

as they are obviously considerably richer than yow

Mike Stokes is rich..... Very rich.

[gorber]

This is actually quite an interesting debate, it doesn't have to get rowdy and calling people ornithological names.

I run a business, I buy things from wholesalers/distributors/suppliers and sell the things to the public who walk into my shop, I pay income tax, VAT, business rates and council tax even though I renovated a once derelict eyesore in my town to make it a shop with a flat.(irrelevant but I like a whinge) There is a Lidl supermarket around the corner, sometimes they have offers on things similar to items I sell, the price they are charging is less than I can buy it for. Is it wrong for me to go into Lidls and buy all of the available stock to sell at a profit in my shop around the corner? I'm just using a different supplier. I'm paying tax and vat on the profit. I ask because I feel a little uncomfortable doing it because I'm depriving slower people than me for getting it at that price. However I will continue to do it because in business you either sink or swim, I have no backup plan if I sink.

It's interesting because there is obvious revulsion for fatcats, investment bankers, expense fiddling politicians etc but there also seems to be an anti anyone making money in business feeling going on too expressed by some rioters not so long ago, how much profit is fair, how much is abhorrent?

I stand by the ornithological name calling, I really take a dislike to being patronised.

As far as your case goes, in my opinion, I think that the behaviour in the example you gave is wrong, but I understand why you do it and, not that you care, but I wouldn't judge you for it if it were just now and again, as you say.

I presume for most of the products in your shop, you are providing a service to society by distributing products from the wholesaler to customers. If it were the case (which it isn't) of someone setting up that shop and relying on getting to Lidl before everyone else, and only selling the products bought there, then they clearly are a leech on society because they offer no service at all to it, but take resources from it.

I put marketeers in the leech category, because all they do in the vast majority of cases is influence people into payng more for goods than they need to be doing.

Nobody minds people making money, even lots of it, if it is through honest and productive means, but when they are just taking others money and essentially providing nothing in return, it really grates.

[Mark_T]

Am I a bad man for buying all the Lidl stock?

It is an interesting question and we are certainly getting away from the topic of the thread, but here's a perspective from a different angle.

Through one of my business interests we supply products (which we manufacture) to Lidl (and other similar stores across Europe) for promotions such as these. The price points are very low and the aim is to get these into the hands of consumers in volume and in a short space of time at a very low price point with the hope that the customer will then become familiar with the brand and buy other similar products when they see them elsewhere at higher price-points.

So yes, in my case it is deeply irritating if a reseller goes in on day one and cleans out the stock to sell at a higher price thus preventing consumers from enjoying the low price and preventing me from placing the products directly into the consumers hands in the time-frame I expected.

If you want to go in at the end of the time period that the goods are available and buy up remaining stock then it doesn't bother me at all, but acting up front to deprive the customers of the goods at the intended price is 'wrong' in my book.

Fortunately you only impact one store when you do this so the damage is low, but a concerted effort to do this would be very irritating indeed.

[jamiem]

so what do you think then Paul, as a scandalous profiteering leech yourself?

Hahahahaha, post of the year!!!

[gorber]

The only thing I can really compare the TDR thing to is fast track tickets at theme parks and airports, it is annoying the way the people who have bought those tickets treat us paupers in the eco queue with contempt and disdain, as they are obviously considerably richer than yow, and their time considerably more valuable.

But it's worse than that. It's like having people queing up and then showing a 'position for sale' sign when they get to the front, so people can pay them to take their place at the front of the queue. So it hasn't created any value for the theme park and it has made the rest of the queue wait for longer than they would otherwise have done. In effect, the group of genuine riders have paid more, either in queing time or fees to the leech, than they should have and the leech goes away with the fee.

In fact it is even worse than that, because in that example somebody has had to physically wait in the queue. The TDR seller just went about normal life whilst waiting.

The more I think about it, the more loathesome I think he is.

[PeteStewardson]

Blimey people chill out, it's jut a heli!

[Jamin_00]

I could not give a rats ass at what he is doing as I'm not gonna be buying it!

Anyway, the waiting list is only 2 months if you put your name on there now as per his website Henseleit Helicopters

[dani_r]

I could not give a rats ass at what he is doing as I'm not gonna be buying it!

Anyway, the waiting list is only 2 months if you put your name on there now as per his website Henseleit Helicopters

Is it normal for the waiting time to be that short at this time of year?

[Jamin_00]

Not this time last year.

I put my name down October 2010 and the Heli came september 2011

[dani_r]

Really shouldn't be looking at the website....

[Swashbuckler]

I see your point Mark T. But think of it from my point of view, I was here before Lidl, they and Tesco and the like they are branching out so diversely they affect more and more small business people such as myself, we cannot compete with their buying power and methods of pressurizing manufacturers into selling at a very low margin so that their product goes on the end of an aisle, and we go out of business often losing much more than our job. So in the end we will all work for Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Virgin(the lucky ones) and Citibank no matter what, we will all wear the same clothes, drive the same vehicles; ok maybe going into the realms of future fantasy there, but I would put it to you that in fact it is these companies and their methods of trying to create a monopoly that damages society. We wander like drones to the edge of town every weekend to spend our spare cash and often more with the lure of store credit, the bland industrial estates serving to brainwash us to accept the beige existence they need us to live so that the ceos and shareholders can live debt free fulfilling lives filled with luxuries not bought from Tesco or Lidl.
And all because Lidl want to sell indoor/outdoor max/min thermometers. Oi leave it, I don't sell cheap meat and mouldy fruit, don't tread on my toes....innit.

[Mark_T]

This all belongs in another thread in 'off topic', but rather than debate the many points you raise I'll just say that I understand your desire for self-preservation in the circumstances, even if I can't agree with the methods used.

[Rctintin]

Yes I am no longer a nightwalker, actually no longer a walker since I sprained my ankle, more a hobbler

Trip over somthing on the workshop floor did you?

[Swashbuckler]

Trip over somthing on the workshop floor did you?

Ummm no, I actually had a mass tidy up after the ribbing. Of course its back that way again as I had to rush to get the car ready to drive round Lydden circuit last saturday. Which was interesting driving a car that you built for the first time, around a race track (another first). But I will do an update on that shortly. It was that evening after a danger filled day, I was surfing the web for some time when I decided a cuppa was in order. I got up and struck out with my left leg which had gone completely to sleep, I had no time to react and put all my weight on my left foot which was pretty much upside down. It made a cracking noise and I went down like a proverbial SoS and lay there shaking for some minutes. I was convinced it was broken but the xrays say not.