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The FifeServe Diary
Petrol Prices Hits £5/gallon
Welcome To FifeServe
On the 1st of May, 2008, popular four star and unleaded petrol prices finally reached the magic figure of £5 per gallon. On the garage forecourt, petrol pump price displays now move faster than the quantity indicator and that speed difference is increasing.
Forecourt prices rose to around £1.10 per litre for unleaded petrol with diesel exceeding the £1.20. By comparison, unleaded petrol sold for ninety-four pence per litre just one year ago current estimates suggest petrol prices will reach £1.50 per litre around this time next year. Filling the tank on an average car could cost a whopping £84! Statistics suggest an average family has to budget an additional £34 per week merely to meet increased fuel costs involving transport.Commuters to local cities, where wages are typically higher, might discover how a lower wage in their own locality can actually yeild more affordable income and a better lifestyle.
On average, a two pence increase in fuel cost adds £600 cost per annum for each and every truck on the road and helps explain why shop prices are rising sharply. Knock on effects already affect postal services with some companies seeking to use telephone sales rather than junk mail. Others seek to entice customers into 'paperless billing' practices using email and Internet rather than paper delivery. Of course, these make great sense if you're selling something like electricity, gas, mobile telephone services and broadband, but grinds to a shuddering halt whenever delivery demands physical movement and shipment of goods. Until now, online shopping has presented many enviable prices and reasonable rates of delivery, but in coming months, Internet retailers will be compelled to revise costs involved in fulfilling orders - a bargain price in Kent may not be so great when shipped to Aberdeen.
Does our modern World sometimes seem a little crazier to you these days or is it that we're all just getting older, wiser and more experienced? Aren't there times when even basic common sense is challenged with amusing or even bizarre results? Are we progressing or regressing? Are we reaping whirlwinds sown over generations? How does this affect the price of beer - or bread and milk for that matter? Should we be concerned about what is now happening to our high technology based society?
This is the website where we dare to be different and consider the World at Large from a different and radical perspective. The topics are mostly presented with a mix of light-hearted banter and serious messages. Many articles found here are just for fun but there's a very serious side too with thoughts and ideas concerning the inevitable changes that will occur in the next few decades. FifeServe is not meant to be an authorative guide on anything really but maybe, just maybe, we'll light the torch of common sense for the good of all!
FifeServe is about thinking 'outside the box' and exploring where we've been, where we are and where we might be headed. All futures begin in the present and the present is influenced by events of the past. Given this insight, we can predict some aspects of the future with reasonable accuracy and it won't harm anyone if we occasionally speculate a little from time to time. It might even clarify some of the things taking place in your life and why prices are escalating across the globe. You might even discover how other people are currently experiencing worse living standards in areas formerly regarded with envious eyes as being rich and immune to global influence. All we're asking for at this point in time is an open mind able to consider argument from a logical viewpoint. After all, it may serve your local and personal interest!
Unfortunately, this tends to suggest how few people will actually bother selling lower price items they no longer need or want and may simply dispose of them because the overall price, including shipment, may prove too expensive for potential buyers. A lot of this stuff is likely to end up in landfill at a time when some of it is highly desired. Advertising on E-Bay might attract a lot of interest but if it's a fairly common item then the cost of shipping might easily stop the sale dead in its tracks.
Things like push-chairs for young children is one example that readily springs to mind and how one of these could easily serve the needs of several children in different families. In Fife, there are probably lots of these around and no longer needed, and yet the cost of shipping it anywhere makes any kind of second-hand sale less likely. Having said that, there are many young parents in Fife who would feel blessed if they knew where such an item could be bought second-hand and had the means to collect it. The trick is how to make this important information available and link potential buyers and sellers together. In the process, both usually end up happier, wealthier and have performed a service to the environment too.
As stated elsewhere on this web site, our mission is to help provide everyone with a better life in Fife and from a practical perspective whenever possible. Within the next few days, we're opening a classified adverts section on this web site simply marked for sale or wanted and where residents of Fife can advertise goods at no charge whatsoever! All we need is a description of the goods, a contact name, an email address or telephone number. Please note though, this facility is for private sales only and FifeServe accepts no liability for dispute arising from subsequent transactions. The ancient adage of 'caveat emptor' or 'Let The Buyer Beware' is strongly advocated whenever goods are offered for sale. In cases, where goods may appeal on accounts of visual ammenity, a single photograph may help with the sale. For now, we're happy to include this with your advert at no charge!
In closing then, we've made a start and illustrated how we can help people live a better life in Fife and there will be a lot more helpful stuff to come as time progresses. Watch this space!
House and Home
From earliest times of human existence, there has been three basic components essential for the continuance of life, namely food, water and shelter. Centuries later, despite technological advance, there are many people seeking affordable places to live. Right now, even as you read this, there are people bedding down on roundabouts else seeking shelter in poor conditions. Today, in modern Scotland, the Shelter charity estimates there is a shortfall of affordable accomodation in Scotland equating to around 32,000 flats and houses. It's a hard issue to address since the 'right-to-buy' directive of the Thatcher administration allowed former tennants to buy their homes at massively discounted prices; the profits of which were siphoned into central government coffers rather than local agencies more able to assess local demand and future need.
Listening to national news broadcasts might suggest that every house in the United Kingdom is somehow now depreciating at a rate more akin to a motor car with growing levels of rust and wear but this simply isn't true in many areas. Thus far, house prices north of the border have been relatively unscathed by the over-inflated values charged in other parts of the country. In Fife, regions like Kirkcaldy and Leven, saw price rises equating to around 23% last year. Property prices in Glenrothes typically rose at 8%, the lowest in the region, while the Fife average was about 19%. Overall, the demand for housing in the region outstripped availability and despite financial wobbles in the marketplace, and where 100% mortgages have been consigned to the scrapheap, new housing is being built on former industrial sites and begging the question as to how a new generation of people will earn money to pay for these houses.
Interestingly, Britain has the highest rate of home ownership within Europe whilst the majority of citizens in Europe choose to rent and are thus more flexible regarding employment opportunities. Mortgages are typically regarded in the same way as any other loan and DIY stores are less common in many countries as a consequence.
The Supermarket Rebellion
Back in 'Good Old Days', the art of shopping was synonimous with visiting a local town with a paper list and strict budget. The tailor would profer examples of style and material but rarely in the exact sizes. He'd offer more exacting fitment in a few days and we'd readily accept this and receive the goods in due course. Service of this kind was commonplace yet rare in modern times. The modern supermarket variant, by contrast, panders to those in the mainstream and ignores all others. The 'one size fits all' and 'pile high and sell cheap' philosophy has largely superceded the kind of quality service we once took for granted. The High Street is no longer the place of mercantile diversity and wonder it once was and has typically been replaced by ugly concrete 'profit centres' usually based in the suburban outskirts of many cities and towns. Free car parking and reliance on car ownership forms an important part of the package.
Samuel Walmart was a pioneer in this kind of development and the shopping empire he started now employs more people on the planet than any other organisation in the World. Walmart, known as Asda in the UK, employs more people than British Telecom, the NHS or even the Chinese Army! It's the Number One employer in the World! By comparison, the Chinese army ranks third in the league and the British National Health Service (NHS) occupies the fourth position. In terms of supermarkets, Tesco is Britain's largest retail organisation, yet small compared to several international competitors. Last year, more than 50% of Tesco profits were due to overseas interests and outlets.
In recent months though, the effects of what can be best be described as recession even when the word is whispered, has prompted tangible and measurable change in the retail marketplace. Big players like Sainsbury, Morrison, Tesco and Asda are losing out compared with Lidl, Aldi and Netto and with serious implications regarding formerly solid brand names.
Although hard to measure with exactitude, it's clear how many British people have recently dumped brand name snobbery in favour of lower prices. Aldi, by example, is the largest retailer of baked beans in the UK and surpasses Heinz by large measure. In almost every sphere of life, formerly reliant brand names are being deemed as luxurious and expensive while a growing number are discovering how different and cheaper brands are equal or even superior to what they used to buy at higher prices.
Gone are the days when Lidl and Aldi were regarded as stores restricted to German goods with anti-english names and origin. These days, the sleeper has woken and recognised how local deals with local suppliers means produce on the shop floor at cheaper prices. Perhaps it's a lesson for other retailers, still hell bent on profit centre mentality, to follow.