Harry's Place

Is this laughing at the poor? Only if you believe that only the poor shop at Poundland.

I am far from poor and I like to shop at the various pound stores as they sell some funky imported stuff – especially cinnamon toothpaste and really cheap canvases.

And it is quite a funny experience shopping there. You should try it Edmund. You’ll have a laugh and get some bargains though I am not sure if they sell bruschetta or guacamole…

I go to Poundland. Lidl’s? Yes. Wilco’s? This afternoon.

You can’t shake off your roots. (Cue jokes …)

I was in Lidl’s the other day and bought frozen goose breast! It roasted well, and I accompanied it with prune and rhubarb sauce.

Is Poundland akin to the 99 Cent stores in the US? If so, I like to shop there, too. The other day, I bought all these name brand USB cords with different color led lights for a buck a piece.

For anyone who is contemplating a bit of DIY, I can recommend Wilkinsons own brand “Wilko” paint. The quick dry, satin finish is ideal for woodwork, it’s water based, you get good coverage and a very nice finish. Not a bit smelly, and you can clean your brushes with water afterwards.

And it’s about the cheapest you can get.

Their emulsion paint is very good, and very competitively priced too.

Whatever you’re buying, the discount shops are always well worth a look. And you don’t have to be poor to be sensible with your spending.

….I am not sure if they sell bruschetta or guacamole…

Hahahaha! Fresh salsa and guacamole at the dollar stores in my neighborhood.

Aldi’s hiking boots are very good too, and excellent value.

In the food line, Aldi’s Beef Wellington is very nice. Their fresh veg and salads are nice but not always cheaper than ASDA. But we got an absolute bargain priced car radio at ALDI and it’s grand. Always look over the bargains, you might come out of there with a computer one day.

ASDA around here offer the best value for money in childrens underwear and socks, and multipacks of cotton knickers. And their raspberry trifle is the best and cheapest. Best range and value in fresh meat and poultry too.

“That’s the thing about Poundland. Everything seems a bit second-rate, metaphorically past its sell-by, imported from God-knows-where by someone with no taste.”

Liberty, if it means anything, is the right to sell people what they don’t want to wear.

Aldi and Lidl are German and thus not really equivalent to the crap shops that the journalist is writing about. I must say that I always think when confronted with such emporia that it keeps thousands gainfully employed in China and contributes to the free market that is so popular.

The Daily Mail has a thing for publishing this sort of daring investigative journalism. As the Enemies of Reason post points out, the Mail printed a very similar article back in January written by that posh bird Boris Johnson oh so gentlemanly knocked-up and who gallantly aborted the resulting pregnancy (apparently).

Anyway, I’m surprised the Mail goes in for this sort of thing so enthusiastically. Yes, their journalists may all be upper middle class snobs of the most detestable kind, but I’d guess quite a significant portion of their readership visit these sort of discount stores to do some baragin shopping.

So why do they keep buying a paper which insists on mocking them? I blame false consciousness, as usual.

The article written by “The Honourable Petronella Wyatt”:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1116591/Adventures-posh-girl-Poundland-How-Harvey-Nicks-fan-cope-cheapest-shop-town.html

I assumed it was a jibe at the worker on £5.69 ph.

Is Poundland akin to the 99 Cent stores in the US?

Yes, except a pound is still worth more than 99 cents, so the items at Poundland are probably of slightly higher quality.

“emporia” – SueR.

Has it come to this? Here, at Harry’s Place?

Surely they’ve got their demographic wrong; I would have thought most Daily Mail readers are regular Poundland shoppers. The middle class are obsessed with saving money. Actually, I go to Poundland myself. Everyone I know does. You don’t expect it to be like fucking Harrods. Investigative journalism would be to find out where the tat is sourced and the pay and conditions of the staff. But the Mail couldn’t give a shit about any of that.

I like the dollar stores, but you have to be shrewd to shop their to good effect. They don’t hold them selves to the strict one-dollar limit that their name implies. Rather many items cost two, three or four dollars. Even five!
The trick is to pause an ask, what would I pay for this at WalMart? Most cases it’s a wash, but the mere concentration of so many low cost items means you are always in arms reach of a good deal. It’s a cleverr and effective business model, imho.

“The article written by “The Honourable Petronella Wyatt” – Jacko.

Oh, well say no more. Her old man went nuts – wrote complete tripe under the banner “The Voice of Reason”. (Note: Any one who claims reason for themselves is mental.) Typical British political trajectory – far left to ultra far right. She is only honourable because Thatcher ennobled Bilious Woodrow for suggesting the mining areas should be cluster bombed during the late strike. He didn’t. Not really. (But he did.)

Aldi – I don’t know them. German? I don’t care if they are Cuban. I shop for price, darling.

Can you explain what is wrong with Emporia?

I love poundland. They’re much better here than in the US.

Yeah my sister loves poundlands and wilko and she’s rich and extravagant, some of the stuff there doesn’t seem all that cheap imo, the small boxes of laundry detergent powder work out much more expensive than tesco’s value (recenty greatly improved imo, the recommended amount used to be massive and the powder didn’t seem to get wet and wash down the pipe effectivly, now it’s just like normal detergent in those 2 respects, the box is smaller now but I get more washing out of it). some of the £land customers do look like they have trouble managing their budgets and/or don’t have cars to take them to the tesco on the outside of town, I guess they’re the pound detergent buyers.
Aldi’s carpark always had more prestige german cars on the carpark than the ‘upmarket’ stores. The rich love a bargain and always did.

Strangely you always get given a free carrier bag at £land whether you need it or not, even if you’re just getting a ten pack of cig lighters, aldi of course never gives away bags and the upmarket stores have started asking if you really need one.

Ah, from the title I thought this might be about the objectively preferred Mayor of London hereabouts, Boris “£25,000 is chicken feed” Johnson.

I like the picture at the blog of Spiderman at a urinal :)

I must say that I always think when confronted with such emporia that it keeps thousands gainfully employed in China ..

You are right – she’s having a sly dig at Martin Jacques.

“I like the picture at the blog of Spiderman at a urinal :)”

You mean the Kenny Everet sketch?

“Yes, except a pound is still worth more than 99 cents, so the items at Poundland are probably of slightly higher quality.”

Yeah, just like our charity shops are the best in the world.

Good value balsamic vinegar and olive oil at Lidl – and dark rye bread for those who like that sort of thing.

Poundland – LED camping lights – those big circular ones that are really bright – £1 a throw – one by the bed and one in the meter box for power cuts. Small aluminium LED torches and headsets.

I also get loads of business stationery there – plastic A4 divided folder with handle – like a mini-briefcase – absolute steal at a quid. My daughter has a nice pink one for schoolwork.

But for cheap basic scoff get yourself an account at Booker.

Boo HP for including this piece. You are like the Labour party in the run-up to a general election suddenly being concerned about working class access to tertiary education, consumer interest rate caps and ‘soft’ jobs for unemployed youngsters. Namely HP you are making out to be prolier than thou!
Pound shops are a worthy subject for indigenous anthropological observational pieces. Even if by snobs writing for the Daily Mail. Go into a pound shop on a weekend and if you are not profoundly moved by witnessing its largely impoverished clientele then you are a smug sad lost soul.
I agree with some of the commentators above that pound-shops provide fantastic value, but I can just as good value from Waitrose (upmarket UK grocer) if I focus on the special offers on toilet paper as an example. The flip side of fantastic value is the somewhat Marxian concept of surplus production. For instance I can’t see how any retail hardware specialist can survive when one can buy twelve screwdrivers for a pound.

Oh that would be it, didnt realise, cheers Zak.

In Ramsgate High Street there is a Poundland and opposite is a 99p store. Both doing a roaring trade last week. I bought an umbrella for 99p. Should I feel guilty or was it a bargain?

Since when has laughing at the poor and poverty been off-limits. This post could have been written by Rik from The Young Ones, a hilarious show that routinely poked fun at impoverished students and their dire circumstances (for those too young to recall, Rik was the po-faced, holier-than-thou Leftie that everyone hated). And who can forget Monty Python’s very funny piss-taking of the anarcho-syndicalist peasants literally living in a shit-hole in The Holy Grail? Get over yourself, for feck’s sake!

Hugh:

“Pound shops are a worthy subject for indigenous anthropological observational pieces. Even if by snobs writing for the Daily Mail. Go into a pound shop on a weekend and if you are not profoundly moved by witnessing its largely impoverished clientele”

I’d rather watch impoverished customers in places where they can actually afford the knock down prices, than watch them hurrying past the specialist retailers in the town centre where they know they can’t afford a damn thing. I’m happy to give the discounters my custom too, and I’m delighted if increased sales help them maintain their value for money. That’s how market stalls work, and that’s why they attract such a broad range of customers.

Only person being snobbish about this is you.

Not sure you’ve really got proletarian culture right here, Edmund. My South-London-comprehensive-educated son used to lambast his mother for going to Lidl, saying that he’d never live it down if people at school found out. He would refuse flatly to take stuff to school in a Lidl or Aldi carrier bag. At the time the family income was about three times the national average.

Asda is one of the best values. Unfortunately, I find myself at Asda High Wycombe, not a place of choice. Now Asda High Wycombe is the Temple of Chav. Overweights, pierced, tattooed, 16-year old mums with twins, multi-ethnic, fag-puffing youngsters – and yet the checkout staff are wonderfully friendly, the food excellent value and sometimes real quality like the Duck Crown for a fiver smoke roasted on the barbecue – fit for a King!

Hmm, Monty!
Truth betold I am very uneasy about the poundshop experience. That is my problem as you suggest. I suppose I am still getting to grips with the absence of an easy easy solution (for instance labour input) regarding a a theory of value.

The stores in 99 Cent Stores in California never charge over 99 cents. And my usb cords cost more than a dollar retail. However, they do make their money by people buying items that really cost a lot less than a dollar.

At the time the family income was about three times the national average

and you still sent your boy to a south London comp? Sheesh…

What a thrifty lot! I’m deeply impressed.
Aldi’s sweet stuff is unbeatable. Try the chocolate – dipped shortbread, with a hint of coconut. Mmmmm.

There’s still a comprehensive school carrier bag pecking order? It was fine fare and kwik save on the recieving end when I was a schoolboy. Bet tesco has closed on sainsbury over the decades tho.

The pound shop (independent definitely no chain here) in Aberaeron West Wales is the best I have ever seen.

Loads of rolls of gaffer tape that would stick Jan Moir’s mouth shut readily.

In fact one roll of black tape would be enough to mummify her and who could complain of budget fetishism for such self proclaimed bored housewives (or is she the nutter?) these days?

Morrisons beats them all in my book. Great fresh meat at very low prices, including the more unusual cuts like chicken livers and hearts which I have difficulty finding elsewhere. Still can’t find chicken spleens here though.

Nursey:

“Still can’t find chicken spleens here though.”

I would have thought a nurse would have known where to look for that. Maybe I’ve got the wrong end of the stick here….

I’ve got a good recipe somewhere for making your own pate. I shall have to look it out and post it here. You can use lambs liver for it, but also needs a measure of Grand Marnier added at the end, so requires a trip to the pub with a mixing bowl hidden under your coat.

All this talk about shopping!

I live in one of the poorer parts of London. Used to get Lidl leaflets through the door, long before I understood that they get the prices down by selling a lot fewer lines than the bigger supermarkets.

I still don’t know where Lidl is. The leaflets don’t have addresses on them!

I learned at a very early age that shopping is the most tiresome of household chores, because you have to leave home to do it. Not an opinion I have ever had a reason to revisit.

Venichka @ 29 July 2009, 8:00 pm

“Ah, from the title I thought this might be about the objectively preferred Mayor of London hereabouts, Boris “£25,000 is chicken feed” Johnson.”

A nugget for your thoughts. The smug blond one described ten times that amount as chickenfeed.

It says a lot about Jan Moir, even more about the Mail and the most about the Mail’s readers. What a cow.

I am assuming that Poundland is like the Dollar stores (of which there are a number of chains) in the United States. Most middle-class people I know shop at these from time to time, including me. Sometimes you can find things there that have either disappeared from other stores, or never showed up there in the first place.

My best buy ever was four gorgeous pottery plates, 2 for $1, which I used to hold the cakes I had baked for the cake walk at my son’s school carnival.

Get back home quicker from an aldi’s alan. Doing away with the dozens of brands of toiletpaper and toothpaste means the shops are smaller and you get round much quicker.

I find my back garden is very good for spuds, Jerusalem artichokes, gooseberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, hops, Bramley apples, medlars, various herbs, sloes, rhubarb, kale, shallots, hazel nuts and squirrel.

Is this laughing at the poor?

Yes, because the writer is chuckling away at the sales assistants, who I can pretty much guarantee will be working class women like my sister who worked in one of these Godforsaken places for a while and was treated like shit. I’m sure she would have loved Petronella Middleclasscunt coming along and squawking about Chanel shoes.

Well it is certainly written for an intended audience whose main experience of such shops is staring at them through taxi windows. I have no real problems with laughing at the poor (or the rich) both are traditional staples of British comedy. I find it much more sinister when those with all the advantages of good education etc spend their time sulking about Iraq rather than doing something to improve the lives of shop assistants or say they have no intention of voting labour and thus damn the poor to another dose of the hopelesness and abandonment of the Thatcher years. To do such things and then complain that people are laughing at poundland is absurd.

I do wonder though if in their way (and with their limited viewpoint) the writer is trying to make a larger point about the alienation and emptiness one experiences in such shops (and even more in large supermarkets.) They always seem like cathedrals of emptiness to me.

I worked in a supermarket for a while when I first came to Britain and by no means was I the only person there with higher education or a degree. The overwhelming attitude of the middle classes was that if you work there you must be thick and can therefore be treated like dirt. The poor and the elderly were in general much more pleasant people to deal with. And let no-one think that shop-lifting is an exclusively lower class occupation either. The difference is that the middle class shoplifters are always terribly indignant and aggressive when caught.

Ah, but the supermarkets in Belgrade in 1998, they were not such desolate places. The only thing that was lacking from them that would have made them truly heaven on earth were Betamax video cassettes of 1970s BBC sitcoms. And British Rail sandwiches. And a black and white TV playing the video for Cliff Richard’s “Wired for Sound” over and over. Good old Slobbo.

It’s August, people. What do you expect to read in the papers when it’s left to to the Oxbridge interns?

I love Lidl. Last week, I got a 25lb can of dog food there for the eqivalent price of 9p a tin, way cheaper than Chum, or Pal, or any of the big name brands. It was such good value that I had to buy it, even though I don’t own a dog.

I think Arthur C has hit right on the problem with lidl – you go in and buy crap just because it is cheap. I now have 4 drills for instance (one of which has sat in its packaging for 2 years…)

Well Graham, you can always do what my dear addicted-to-power-tools partner does: give them to your other half for her birthday!
“What do you mean you don’t need another electric screwdriver, dear?”

Were I to do that I would only get one of her “bargain” electric toothbrushes from Aldi’s in return….

“Can you explain what is wrong with Emporia?” – SueR.

No. That’s how they get you. Look at Bertha Dick (above). Only went in for a packet of crips and soft drink … THEY have got him now. You could be NEXT (or Primark. I go there. Blimey, I am rambling today. I think they might have got me ..)

Aparently the French are just as vile to cashiers. I heard this blogger about being a cashier who turned her blog into a book recount this experience on the radio:

Sam’s many years spent behind a till, overhearing a mother tell her child, “You see, dear, if you do not work hard at school, you will become a cashier, like the lady

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2009/07/memoir-promotes-writer-from-cashier-to-author.html

Yorkshire Trading Company- they are good too.

Having just returned from Tuscany I can confirm that there isn’t a Poundland in Florence, nor is there one in Siena or San Gimignano. I can understand Edmund’s anger at the article, though: It wasn’t about the BNP being racist.