Ben Park

They don’t even start in January anymore. They start from 6am on Boxing Day, depending on the shop. I’ve never quite been sure about whether or not they’re worth bothering with. I’m skeptical as to whether or not they exist, or it’s just a massive ploy to trick people into buying things they don’t really want. Is anything really any cheaper?

I remember buying a video recorder in the January sales, years and years ago. It was £200 before Christmas, so I waited til Boxing Day to see if it would be reduced. On Boxing Day, I walked into an electrical store and bought it for…exactly the same price it was in December. Maybe there were others discounted, but I had already chosen which one I wanted, so that wasn’t any help to me. (more…)

From the title, you might think I’m about to rip into the contestants, but you’d be absolutely wrong. I’ve disappointed you there, I can sense it.

I used to enjoy The Apprentice, and I’ve blogged before about the show’s questionable moral points and prize. Partly as I’ve been busy, but partly as I think I’d find it really annoying, I’ve not really been watching this series of Young Apprentice. However, I was half-watching something else last night, and switched over mid-way through the episode, to discover they’re still doing that fucking stupid task with the Yellow Pages directories. Does Sugar have shares in them or what?

The task goes like this: (more…)

Recently I’ve had a change of credit card. I’ve had a new card, and a new pin. Not because I wanted it, but because one bank bought part of another bank, and my card transferred to another supplier.

As a result of this, I had some queries, which I sent to my old bank. I messaged them several times very near to the transfer date, through their online secure message system, and each time, they replied within 4 hours – in plain English, with the tone similar to the one I had used to contact them. I contacted them via their online system, so they replied via their online system. Well done them, especially considering they were probably receiving lots of questions from other customers about what happens to their direct debits after the changeover, or whatever. (more…)

I did a bit of business research a few years ago, into different methods of advertising. As part of this, I looked at costs of advertising in various places, including the Yellow Pages. Because I’m sad, I’ve continued looking at the number of pages when each arrive. So did you know it has been shrinking, continually over the last few years? I don’t mean the book has gone from A4 to near A5 (although it has), but the number of pages.

Here’s the proof from the Bristol directory (number of pages include indexes, contents, etc.):

• 2008/2009 – 1584 pages. It contains for the first time, a new takeaway menu section – with whole takeaway menus. 25 pages of takeaway menus.
• 2009/2010 – 1256 pages. After a year of heavy advertising (huge billboards, etc.) about the restaurants and takeaways section, there are now 23 pages of takeaway menus. 2 down from last year.

Big billboards. One of many.

At this point the book shrinks. It was 29.5 by 21cm (A4, pretty much). From 2010/2011, it has shrunk to 17cm by 24.5cm.

Shrinkage.

They also introduce the “Name Finder” – an A-Z of all the companies advertising.

• 2010/2011 – 1064 pages. The takeaway menus now amount to 11 pages. 148 pages of the total is A-Z company index.

And this year’s, which arrived a couple of days ago:

• 2011/2012 – 784 pages. The takeaway menus 14 pages. 135 pages of the total is A-Z company index.

I’m assuming a few of these businesses have migrated online, but the book has shrunk by more than 50% (in pages terms), in 4 years.

In the interests of fairness, I should add it isn’t just the Yellow Pages. Here’s the Thomson Local, Bristol:

• 2006 – 504 pages of adverts, 176 pages of A-Z of businesses.
• 2009 – 340 pages of adverts, 144 pages of A-Z.
• 2010 – 250 pages of adverts, 98 pages of A-Z.

Also shrunk by just over 50%, in 4 years. I think we all know that people are searching online these days, and I imagine people are buying smaller adverts and/or spending more on Google Adwords, etc., but the A-Z section is telling. The rate of decline is quite something.

Despite this, the local magazine where I live – Bishopston Matters – seems to be thriving. I don’t have all the back issues to compare, but I think it’s getting larger each issue. Certainly seems to be retaining advertisers well. Is hyper-local the new local?

I’m only a viewer. I’ve never been on the show. But from watching  a lot of it, it seems that despite this being the 9th series of the show, some people are still making mistakes which surely seem obvious to viewers.

I understand that each nerve-wracking negotiation can drag on for hours, before being cut down to a couple of minutes of entertaining TV, but unless it’s been edited into an unrecognisable state by the BBC, surely these days there can’t be any excuse for seemingly making some of these errors. With that in mind, here’s my top 8 tips for being successful on the show (in no particular order).

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