News roundup—15th December 2008


News roundup—15th December 2008

Because retailers don’t have it tough enough this season: The
Communications Workers Union (CWU) has scheduled a 24-hour strike
against Royal Mail for 19th December. As The Mail notes, that’s “the day after
the deadline for posting second-class letters in time for
Christmas and the day before the first-class post
deadline”, as well as many online retailers’ deadline for
guaranteed Christmas delivery. Although workers at just five
North West sorting offices will be walking out, the strike
“will inevitably have serious knock-on effects around the
country, and action could spread”.

“The more a shopper spends online, the worse their
perception will be of stores’ prices,” according to
The Times. “In other words, the less
likely they are to believe a store will beat a given
average.”

Anyone can pay to have his packages gift-wrapped. But only
gifts merchant Firebox.com offers CrapWrapping, as the
Daily Mail reports.

The next time your staff complain about how hard they have to
work, make them read this Times article about conditions at
Amazon’s Bedfordshire distribution centre in the run-up
to Christmas. As one temp worker told an undercover reporter:
“I will never be able to look at Amazon.com in the same
way ever again without thinking, ‘Those poor bastards – what
they go through’.”

BBC News has a three-minute video showing staff at
Scotts of Stow and The Original Gift Co
discussing the run-up to Christmas.

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