Tag Archives: stock control

Coming Home to Roost

16 Replies

Earlier in the week I knocked over a box of medallions, and was most displeased. IT was clearly my fault as it was me who knocked them over, but I couldn’t help thinking at the time that if I’d been allowed to organise the storage space things would be a lot better. When you have run the chaos that relates to spare parts on farms, you tend to develop a skill for stacking and storing.

I had to pick up around 20 medallions, and as I did so, I put them in order and made a safer space for them. Today we sold one and I found it easily. However, I then noticed it should have a certificate with it. There wasn’t one. I checked and double-checked, then checked the rest of the box and another box that held similar medallions. Eventually, having exhausted all possibilities, I checked the floor again. It seems that I had been too hasty in my previous clearance, as several more medallions and certificates appeared, having dropped into a storage box on the floor and lodged in gaps between the stored items.

Two Puffins

Again, nobody’s fault but mine, as I should have checked more thoroughly. Definitely a case of “more haste, less speed”, though, as before, I couldn’t help thinking it would be nice if we had things organised so that we didn’t have to work in the middle of a pile of boxes.

When I get a minute I will sort it all out. At the same time I will discover perpetual motion, cure covid, and organise world peace.

And as my pigs fly off into the sunset, I will reflect on the impossibility of ever becoming organised and turn

my mind to things which are more possible, like submitting eight sets of poetry in the next five days and losing weight . . .

I thought of using chickens in photos to match with coming home to roost, but I ended up with puffins.

Puffin at Bempton

Sunday Slipping Past

4 Replies

It  was Saturday again, and then it was Sunday. Sunday took the form of porridge followed up with bacon sandwiches, a few replies to comments, and a few blogs read. Then it slipped away from me.

Saturday was quite good in the shop. Several customers, several people selling, some eBay parcels and a general feeling of balance. We even saw another pre-Covid customer, as they gradually return to visiting shops. The customer who returned works in a supermarket and avoided Covid until 6 months ago. Then he had it again. This is bad luck, and a sign of what happens when you let your guard down.

Sunday has been OK too. You can’t have a bad day when you have porridge followed by bacon sandwiches. I’ve just had to do a small edit there. I had been writing “porridge and bacon sandwiches”, which is not at all the same thing as “porridge followed by bacon sandwiches”.

That was six hours ago and I’m feeling peckish again, but Julia is defrosting the freezer so we can start the Christmas stockpiling in earnest. This involves kettles, hairdryers, swearing, much poking with wooden implements, soggy newspaper and a multitude of loose peas (in former times I would have done the “escapee” joke, after thirty years it has worn a bit thin). It also involves me being told to stay out of the kitchen.

We have both been surprised by then number of part bags of prawns she found, and have had a conversation about stock control. I believe she hides things. She believes that I never look. There is some justice in this conclusion, though I still say she hides stuff too.

The menu for the next week is going to feature salmon, tuna, prawns and peas. Prawns and pasta tonight, tuna tomorrow, salmon on Tuesday and fish pie on Wednesday at a guess. My brains are going to be well-nourished this week.

Fish Pie

Saturday Report Written on Sunday

14 Replies

We started the day with parking spaces, which is unusual for a Saturday. I packed the parcels while the owner sorted the Large Trade Order (LTO). I have decided that as it will be with us for a while it justifies its own set of initials. “Pack the Parcel” sounds like a party game doesn’t it? My life is one long round of hobbies and party games. I may use that as a title for a post one day.

Elvis on a silver dollar – note the coin design underneath and the Elvis Presley Enterprises copyright notice. He is till a big earner in death.

We had no customers booked in but several rang or just turned up and we ended up with a reasonably busy day.  I also had a big telephone order to pack, a couple of late eBay orders and  some things to post on eBay. I finished off and loaded several things I’d prepared during the week and started on another – a drop-down menu with 38 items. A lot of photographs. Oh, and there was a listing that needed alteration, and coins which had been put in the medallion cupboard (which meant they took a bit of finding). When you have three people, thirteen hundred items on eBay, limited space and a lot of other stock, things do go adrift.

We sold this a few months ago, and sold the bronze version yesterday.

We have passed words on this several times recently. My personal gripe is that three months ago I knew where everything was but the boss decided to have a tidy and things are now in different boxes or different cupboards, and it makes tracking them down very time-consuming. Yes, they are usually moved due to a logical reason, but that doesn’t really help. It’s like cupboard stacking. I stack cupboards so that I can see what is there and get to it with minimal fuss. When you have arthritis you tend to want ease of access.

A Half Puffin coin – see Coins of Lundy

He stacks cupboards like a 3-D jigsaw puzzle s that half of it has to be removed to get access and then put back in exactly the right way. It looks nice and it’s an efficient use of space. Unfortunately it misses the point of stock control, which is, to me, about knowing where things are and being able to get to them easily.

London School Attendance Medals 1890s

Nine times out of ten, we go to the right box and find the item. But if we don’t, I am always reminded of the words “time is money”. This is often the trigger for a rant, but today I am going to smile and pas on the chance. Anyway, it’s not my money, so why should I worry? I’m doing my best and being thwarted by someone squandering his own cash. Not my problem. Stock control is not one of those subjects that tends to crop up in poetry or creative writing classes. May be I should start, it can go with my funicular and Martin van Buren poems.

I now have another poem in mind and need to do that, so will close this and post.

Not all the stock is tasteful . . .

Not the Worst Day I’ve Had

21 Replies

It’s been a lovely Spring day today, I’m told. I didn’t see much of it until 4.00. It was pleasant enough, but slightly frustrating to have spent the rest of it in a room with no windows.

The day was mainly quiet, as the customers had better things to do. This was unfortunate as it gave the boss time to think about making improvements to the stock control system. There are just three problems – they weren’t improvements, there is no control and we don’t have a system.

One of the jobs I ended up with was adding four items to a pre-existing list. Seemed simple enough but took half an hour and a re-write. I will say no more.

There was a bit of excitement late on when two auctions ended. We had a trench art love token made from an Indian rupee, stamped “Mesopotamia”, “Alice” and “1918”.

 

It’s a bit crude, but I’m not sure I could do any better. I’m sure Alice appreciated it. I hope the maker got home uninjured. Don’t be fooled by the photo, it’s only about an inch and a quarter across in real life.

The other item was a silk handkerchief brought home by a member of the 8th Army. It’s a bit of a relic, and it’s falling apart, but several people obviously appreciated it as a piece of history.

The central arch on the handkerchief is Marble Arch, or the Arch of the Philaeni, a symbol of Italy’s growing power in North Africa. It appears on many photographs from the time and even on a medal. Eventually, it was demolished by the Gaddafi regime in 1973.

It might not have been the best of days I’ve had at work, but it certainly wasn’t the worst. I’ve had days that involved freezing temperatures and tons of poultry manure so a day messing about with a computer is like a luxury spa break to me.