huge vending machine replaces village shop

[Mechanical Menace]

Complain to the geniuses that made 30+ hours disproportionally expensive.

I don't think £30 per full time employee on minimum wage is that bad. £18.60 if that person only just falls into paying national insurance at 24ish hours a week. You have places like some Mc'Donald's franchises avoiding paying any single staff member a penny more than £154.99 a week to avoid that. Then if someone gets another part time job to make up the slack they are suddenly earning enough to pay NI, so their employers do too, so they lose said jobs...

That isn't the results of any new costs either, it's the results of new loopholes. I'm sorry but while your argument there may be valid in some places in some situations it's not in this one.


And don't get me started on the whole working tax credits thing, those really are just a corporate subsidy disguised as a handout to the worker.

[zapta]

I don't think £30 per full time employee on minimum wage is that bad. £18.60 if that person only just falls into paying national insurance at 24ish hours a week. You have places like some Mc'Donald's franchises avoiding paying any single staff member a penny more than £154.99 a week to avoid that. Then if someone gets another part time job to make up the slack they are suddenly earning enough to pay NI, so their employers do too, so they lose said jobs...

That isn't the results of any new costs either, it's the results of new loopholes. I'm sorry but while your argument there may be valid in some places in some situations it's not in this one.

And don't get me started on the whole working tax credits thing, those really are just a corporate subsidy disguised as a handout to the worker.

People engineer a system that penalizes employment and are then surprised that potential employers include it in their considerations. That's so divorced from reality.

As for this vending machine, chapeau to the engineer/entrepreneur that made it on his own dime. I wish him and his small business well.

[lewis]

People engineer a system that penalizes employment and are then surprised that potential employers include it in their considerations. That's so divorced from reality.

Indeed. Consider also the taxes on employment versus the tax deductibility of buying machinery. Employ 50 workers to hand solder boards and you have to hand over lots of money to the government. Buy a pick and place machine, and you get it knocked off your tax bill. So what's a business gonna do?

As for this vending machine, chapeau to the engineer/entrepreneur that made it on his own dime. I wish him and his small business well.

Agree absolutely totally.

[Mechanical Menace]

People engineer a system that penalizes employment and are then surprised that potential employers include it in their considerations. That's so divorced from reality.

Nah, I'm not surprised at all. Just saying how it's not always due to employing people incurring new costs but sometimes trying to suck up to crony capitalists. It really seems like we unfortunately can never actually get a pro free market balance worked out, everything seems to go too far socialist or corporatist...

As for this vending machine, chapeau to the engineer/entrepreneur that made it on his own dime. I wish him and his small business well.

He'll have had startup and development grants. But as much as it's doomed to failure (in that locale anyway, the reason it managed to go 12 years without a shop is there's not enough call for one in that dying community) I wish him well.

[lewis]

He'll have had startup and development grants.

Maybe, but not necessarily. My business has grown to where it is today without any external funding whatsoever.

But as much as it's doomed to failure (in that locale anyway, the reason it managed to go 12 years without a shop is there's not enough call for one in that dying community) I wish him well.

The shop probably closed down and never re-opened because of punitive business rates, punitive rents, and punitive employee costs. It's happening everywhere outside of London, not just in 'dying' communities.

[McBryce]

I doubt he designed it at all. Holland and Belgium are full of these kind of huge vending machines, some even cook/heat the food for you first. It may be new to the UK, but I'd say he just imported a commercially available device from somewhere else in Europe.

McBryce.

[Mechanical Menace]

He'll have had startup and development grants.

Maybe, but not necessarily. My business has grown to where it is today without any external funding whatsoever.

Have any employees? Do any of them claim working tax credits? Help towards child care? I bet you anything there's something the government funded that you wouldn't be able to have set up your business and keep it going without.

The shop probably closed down and never re-opened because of punitive business rates, punitive rents, and punitive employee costs. It's happening everywhere outside of London, not just in 'dying' communities.

Not including supermarkets there're 6 shops within 10 minutes walk from me. So no it's not happening everywhere at all. What does where I live not have in common with Clifton? A population worth mentioning. The town Clifton is a part of only has a population of 7-8k. It's rapidly falling and ageing population was only 2000 people in 1999. So it's not "dying" it is dying. In fact it's brain dead and on life support. Places like that should give up and die already. If they did it on their own money fair enough but they get a lot more tax payer money per person in than they put in.

If rates are punitive move town. If rent is punitive find another location, or do you think private landlords shouldn't be allowed to charge what they can for their properties? If employee costs are punitive they can't afford their staff so their business isn't viable should be going bust anyway.

[lewis]

Have any employees? Do any of them claim working tax credits? Help towards child care? I bet you anything there's something the government funded that you wouldn't be able to have set up your business and keep it going without.

You're twisting my words. Nobody has given or lent me any money to start or grow the business. We've had no (quote) startup and development grants (unquote).

But to elaborate your point, which is not the one I was making: The 'government' has provided education and security for me and my employees, but it also takes a vast amount of money from me and them via taxation, and will continue to do so at ever increasing rates for the rest of my life.

Not including supermarkets there're 6 shops within 10 minutes walk from me. So no it's not happening everywhere at all. What does where I live not have in common with Clifton? A population worth mentioning. The town Clifton is a part of only has a population of 7-8k. It's rapidly falling and ageing population was only 2000 people in 1999. So it's not "dying" it is dying. In fact it's brain dead and on life support. Places like that should give up and die already. If they did it on their own money fair enough but they get a lot more tax payer money per person in than they put in.

If rates are punitive move town. If rent is punitive find another location, or do you think private landlords shouldn't be allowed to charge what they can for their properties? If employee costs are punitive they can't afford their staff so their business isn't viable should be going bust anyway.

Yes, we should all move to London.

Google "Death of the High Street", it's happening throughout the UK for a huge variety of reasons that should be well known to you. And in a free market, it should happen (don't get me wrong, I'm not sentimental about it).#

The idea of this machine is to provide a service to a community where no other service is viable. And if it works, I'm all for it. Got to be better than executing the villagers.

[AF6LJ]

Funny in Washington state where the new minimum wage went into effect the workers are asking for fewer hours to retain their welfare benefits.

And is Kalifornia, the unions ask for a special waiver  ;-)

http://www.latimes.com/local/cityhall/la-me-union-exemption-20150726-story.html#page=1

Indeed they do, so much for equal treatment under the law...
A very smart man once said, "The day the people of this country realize they can legislate their own paycheck; that will spell the end of America.".
Thank You Chuck Harder.

[AF6LJ]

Funny in Washington state where the new minimum wage went into effect the workers are asking for fewer hours to retain their welfare benefits.

Here we have a lot of problems with people not getting enough hours to get tax credits etc so end up on the dole. Companies will take people promising 30+ hours then only give people 16ish so they don't have to pay their share of the national insurance and tax for "full time" staff.

You know what the answer to that is, I am not going to get into it here, people deserve the government they will put up with, including all its problems.

[Mechanical Menace]

and will continue to do so at ever increasing rates for the rest of my life.

Unless you're upper middle class upwards, in which case your tax burden is on the down and down percentage wise and has been since the 80s. Your business rates will be lower now than then too.

Yes, we should all move to London.

Why should I, I like Yorkshire very very much.

The death of the high street is a overhyped myth. City centre retail is dying, but the same shops are on retail estates not far from them. Local "town streets" are doing better than ever. It's not like the high street has anything that isn't at the least a massive franchise on it anyway so that isn't relevant to uncivilised backwaters not having a shop

The idea of this machine is to provide a service to a community where no other service is viable. And if it works, I'm all for it. Got to be better than executing the villagers.

I wouldn't suggest executing them, was just pointing out what you just did, that the reason there's no shop there is because the community couldn't support it, not like you claimed and they were taxed out of existence.

[lewis]

Unless you're upper middle class upwards

Unfortunately not, working class through and through.

Yorkshire

uncivilised backwaters

 

the reason there's no shop there is because the community couldn't support it, not like you claimed and they were taxed out of existence.

Being taxed out of existence is one of the reasons why the community couldn't support it.

[Mechanical Menace]

Yorkshire

uncivilised backwaters

 

I've never owned a whippet, flat cap, nor a kestrel. We have a world class ballet company and symphony close by, inside water closets and wall to wall carpet unless we've nice wood floors. This isn't South Yorkshire

the reason there's no shop there is because the community couldn't support it, not like you claimed and they were taxed out of existence.

Being taxed out of existence is one of the reasons why the community couldn't support it.

Maybe, probably not. And communities like that which receive more tax money than they pay so they can pretend it's Victorian times without the filth, child prostitutes*, and us working class folkes about can't really complain about high taxes.


*Actually scratch that if any Radio DJs live there.

[lewis]

I've never owned a whippet, flat cap, nor a kestrel. We have a world class ballet company and symphony close by, inside water closets and wall to wall carpet unless we've nice wood floors. This isn't South Yorkshire

Ha! Made me smile. [I can't talk anyway, I'm in Norfolk  ]

[zapta]

I doubt he designed it at all. Holland and Belgium are full of these kind of huge vending machines, some even cook/heat the food for you first. It may be new to the UK, but I'd say he just imported a commercially available device from somewhere else in Europe.

McBryce.

That's not what the guy says:





Edit: after watching the above video, Youtube suggested this one:

[McBryce]

People claim anything is "their design" even if they only designed a tiny part of it. I still think he bought an existing machine and his part of the "design" was the dodgy looking shop and brick wallpaper.

Bryce.

[kwass]

Big vending machines are an old idea

You bet! I used to go to this place for lunch when I was a kid, it was around until 1991.

http://exhibitions.nypl.org/lunchhour/exhibits/show/lunchhour/automat