HMRC are worse than useless. They investigated my old man for tax evasion a few years ago and he had to jump through hoops to convince them otherwise. He had to pull together a bunch of evidence and gave it to them. At the meeting they admitted that they realised they had made a mistake ages ago, they knew he’d done nothing wrong, but regardless they carried on with the investigation as the onus was still on him to prove his innocence. 😕

THM, er yeah of course. Flaperon – great argument, really well put, thanks for that.

Personally, as you know, I love the free market – so, I choose where to spend my money

that’ll be in any one of the few franchise shops that free market economics has decided should occupy every high street then.

Presumably if the free market allows him abslute control where he spends his money, whenever zulu travels by motorway, plane or train he takes a packed lunch and flask with him then. 😕

unless of course he lives here.

Totnes is of course a town which has always had a surfeit of nice comfy welcoming cafés serving proper coffee, big cakes and interesting teas. More so than the whole of Cardiff had pre costa/starbucks if the above post is to be believed. (It also never had or needed a Lyons corner house.) But then I supose every rule has its exception. 😀

When I was a student there was ooh, three sit-down cafes with comfy seats in Cardiff, places you might want to actually spend time. Their coffee was awful.

But they did a better fried breakfast than starbucks, the decor and the seats may be different but there were always loads of places around where you could get a hot drink and some food.

City and town centres have been made more pedestrian friendly, while work has moved from factories on the outskirts to centralised office blocks, coffee shop chains just rode on the back of changes that were happening anyway.

But they did a better fried breakfast than starbucks

Some people don’t want endless identical fried breakfasts (which incidentally are WIDELY available still). Nerostabucks offer one of the very few alternatives to bacon and eggs. Wherever I go there seems to be bugger all choice at breakfast time.

I’d FAR rather have a ham and emmental croissant and a vanilla latte, for example.

I’ll bet the small market towns of Totnes, Kingsbridge and Tavistock have five different independent places you can get a ham and emmental croissant made to order for you by a real person right there behind the counter for you (as opposed to driven in by a lorry ready made at 7am), and five more places that might not have any have any emmental but can offer you some crazy-ass pumpkin-seed muesli and natural yoghurt or something instead.

Day off tomorrow, perhaps I will ride to Tavy for breakfast and have a look.

PMSL, So you in favour of starbucks because you don’t like homogenisation.

And while there were only 4 establishment in cardiff when you were a student, suddenly endless fried breakfasts are now widely available.

Time to make your mind up about what train of thought you are actually going with.

Totnes also has [ had] the Marshall Arts Shop – which sold arty stuff but made me chuckle

A very odd mix of right wing rich Tory and way out there “Hippy” fruit loops selling you crystals and feeling your aura.

I believe I am meant to call it Bohemian and creative.

I lived there once ////Shudders I dont know which lot I would have killed first tbh

Time to make your mind up about what train of thought you are actually going with.

Wot?

I think you are misunderstanding.

When I was a student there were only four (or so) COFFEE shops in the centre of Cardiff, now there are loads. There were always fried brekkie places, now there are probably slightly more.

There are definitely way way more eating places in general actually.

So you in favour of starbucks because you don’t like homogenisation.

Er again that’s not what I am saying. There is now more choice because we have Starbucks and Costa and the other food chains – they have created a market. Starbucks have not displaced anyone afaik, in Cardiff.

My point about homogeneity is that almost everywhere sells the same breakfast food. Apart from Starbucks.

I was having a very relevant conversation with owner of a small bike shop in Edinburgh a wee while back when news broke that Evans were opening a branch in town. I asked if he was worried this might put him out of business. His reply was that it would actually be a benefit as the size of the potential market would increase and he would target and service customers in a way that Evans couldn’t.

Flaperon – Member
<face palm>

Sorry I am confused. @grum is spot on. The majority of people in the UK work in small businesses, these large companies are being proven to contribute very little. Hats off to Totnes who kept out Costa and retained their small independents.

We need to be clear here Starbucks are taking the p1ss, they boast at investor calls and annual results about how profitable the UK is while declaring a tax loss.

Grum – it’s impossible to tell from your post whether you think that Starbucks is better than Amazon because they employ people who spend their wages locally, or whether you’re defending the local coffee shop for the same reason.

If the latter then I think it’s an excellent point and completely agree; if the former I despair.

Oi JY, I’ll not have a bad word said about Totnes.

Any more talk like that and I’ll have to cancel my hunt tomorrow so I can visit my white witch and get a hex put on you. 😉

Going back to what Bob said HMRC, having dealt with them while running a business, probably rank as the most grossly incompetent organisation in the country. Have you seem the film Brazil? It’s a bit like that, I imagine. Once you enter their labyrinthine system you could spend literally days, being passed from pillar to post, speaking to endless people, in innumerate different offices and departments, and still be not a step nearer to resolving a problem.

I bet the highly paid tax lawyers of Starbucks et al, must be hooting with derision as they imagine these ****-wits trying to unravel their massively complex affairs!

Once you enter their labyrinthine system you could spend literally days, being passed from pillar to post, speaking to endless people, in innumerate different offices and departments, and still be not a step nearer to resolving a problem.

no that’s just rebates.

if you owe them money, (and you’re not a huge multinational with friends in high places) their efficiency is second to none.

You’re not wrong there! We’ve actually knowingly overpaid tax as we just gave up trying to resolve disputes on plucked-out-of-the-air estimated tax bills, duplicated from 3 different offices, all providing wildly different guesstimates! as when you factored in the time it took to (not) resolve the issue, it wasn’t worth either your time, or the stress

I imagine we’re not alone in that! The whole process is utterly soul destroying in a thoroughly Kafka-esque way

Jambalaya, where exactly do you get the boasting about the UK from? I have failed to find it in any of their latest investor relations presentations or the annual report. Indeed the latest one talks about how the EMEA turnaround has only just begun with pretty poor performance?

I was having a very relevant conversation with owner of a small bike shop in Edinburgh a wee while back when news broke that Evans were opening a branch in town. I asked if he was worried this might put him out of business. His reply was that it would actually be a benefit as the size of the potential market would increase and he would target and service customers in a way that Evans couldn’t.

Yeah, you never get a reach round in Evans.