Women’s group stands up – for right to sit down
Saturday 25th September 2010, 2:58PM BST.
The organisation's chairwoman Joy thomson takes a seat in Reid's Pharmacy
IF shops want more feet through the door, they need to put bums on seats, say campaigners.
The Standing Conference of Women’s Organisations, which represents a host of women’s groups, is calling for more chairs to be placed in stores.
They say that a whole range of people need to be able to take a rest while shopping and warn that people are being put off going into town because it has become such a hassle.
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Alternatively they could just shop from home on the internet and get to sit in a nice comfortable chair for the entire duration of their shopping expedition. Indeed they could also have some nice relaxing music playing at the same time, and even partake of a few glasses of sherry whilst deciding which shoes/hat combination to opt for, altogether making the whole experience considerably more enjoyable.
They’d also find that their shopping bill would be considerably cheaper, they would save on parking charges and hassle, and would not have to put up with miserable sour-faced shop ‘assistants’ either.
Well ladies, what are you waiting for? To your keyboards!
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Its not the seats people want, it’s the prices that need to come down first before you can put bums on those seats!
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Spot on Tobias, why pay more for a lesser service and increased inconvenience – think twice shop online ( and save a fortune )
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Good letter spot on internet shoping is by far the best great savings and shop at your liesure from the comfort of home
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#1 Like it Tobias
I hate shopping, but it is a very occasional necessity, and when it is necessary the shops that will get my money have a good layout and friendly staff. As far as St Helier goes they’ve all turned out to be small, independent shops where the ‘staff’ are also the owners.
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Oh yes very well done Tobias, Yeah go on sit at home and shop on the internet, Yeah to your keyboards, Yeah close down town,Yeah See more unemployment as people stop heading into town to spend their money in our local shops, Yeah lets see less money go back into our economy. Well done indeed.
We need people to keep spending locally or Jersey will be in even more of a mess than it is already. If it takes something as simple as putting a few seats in shops to help people then I say why not!! To the furnature shop more like!!
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How sane,.
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Town Shop Worker – that (your) attitude, is precisely why people shop online. I fully endorse the comments made by Tobias. Don’t blame the consumer exercising his right to choose how he spends his hard earned cash.
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In the ‘old days’ before supermarkets in the 50′s and 60′s, shops DID have chairs in them, beside the counter. Usually one or two fairly high-seated bentwood types.
Yes, internet shopping has its uses, but there is nothing like seeing the goods – how do you select dress material, for example, from the internet? You want to be able to see and feel the material, compare it to similar offerings etc. Oh, sorry, no one does dressmaking any more?
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Town Shop Worker 6.
The majority of women will never shop online, simply because most of them enjoy wandering around shops.
You see, many women take great pleasure in hunting for what they want and trying things on.
Also, sauntering out of shops leaving a sea of ‘not-what-I-had-in-mind’ clothes or shoes behind them is an important part of the ‘Art of shopping’…as is discussing over lunch or a coffee (with their day-long-shopping-expedition friends) what they very probably will buy.
So don’t fret Shop Worker, ‘Shopping in shops’ will always be high on a woman’s ‘must-do’ list!
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Some people assume that everyone can shop online but the fact is that there are still people out there who do not have internet access and/or don’t “trust” paying their money over online.Personally I use both internet shopping and the old traditional method!!There are many things that I wish to see and touch before I choose to buy-furniture for example.In this day and age I think that anything that can tempt the customer in such as the offer of a seat for the old or weary,or a smiling helpful assistant is worth having.
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AHH Born Warrior #10
I see you have witnessed Mrs PJG on one of her forages
Trouble is sometimes I am ordered to accompany her.
Usually as a baggage carrier.
Still sometimes we have a pub lunch further enriching the local economy
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My problem isnt that there arent chairs in shops (to be honest i think this is pretty random, If you do a round of shopping in town and you feel you need a rest, go chill in a cafe or something).
My reason for going online is that if your a man trying to buy clothes at a reasonable price over here. Your main shops are Burtons and Next and Topman. If you look at the Womens section next for example. Its huge! then you go upstairs and you have half the size of downstairs and is for suits shoes and casual. You have the choice of about 5 different shirts 5 jeans and 2 jackets. Where as the women section has a whole shop next door just for the shoes alone.
Topman and Newlook – If they didnt label it “Menswear” then you wouldnt know you were in it. Some of the stuff they sell in there is unreal! it wont be long before they are trying to sell us dresses. Seriously how many men are there on this island that wanna buy skinny jeans??
I held out hope that when BHS ground floor was being changed that we might get some more choice there, but no. ITS ALL WOMENS clothes.
I prefer to try clothes on before i buy them but the limited choice and (without trying to offend anyone) very “gay/camp” style of clothes the shops offer men over here, you have no choice but to go online. either that or go to one of the ridiculously priced boutique shops where you are talking £100+ for a shirt!
The number of times i buy clothes from Burtons, go out that night and see 3 other people wearing the same thing!!! Hate it!
Give us more choice in mens clothing. The same as the women have!
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Personally i think there should be more interest on why the Rent on shops is so high in Jersey.
Its not the shoppers that are letting retail down on the island, its the greedy owners of the properties that are the problem.
Until that point is addressed the prices for items sold in the shops will be high.
It is a well known fact that most of the shops are owned by banks and property leasing companies in the UK.
Drop the rents and allow people to drop there prices and fairness will be there for all.
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13 – Spot on mate….Skinny jeans on men!! Hate it, it looks just wrong…and even worse when you see blokes in their 30′s wearing them, lets hope they had their kids early cos they sure aren’t having anymore!
But yes, the men’s clothes shops here are poor, I tend to use the internet to buy shirt/tops/t-shirts for the very reason that everyone has the same gear on when your out. The jeans are not too bad here, some boutique shops have them at a reasonable price
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Boy love all these comments only saying to friends the other day about the lack of mens clothes in the shops here..Too old for burtons, next and topshop( skinny fit everything) to young for BHS and Marks and sparks(grandpa style slacks,Val doonican cardies, jumpers) I shop from home (internet) all the time there are great buys of branded goods at a fraction of the price here and get to sit down with a glass of wine too!
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They are spot-on.
(and I like the fact it’s the Standing Conference of Women’s Organisations asking for seats
)
I particularly like it as a man who is forced to wait around the fitting rooms at M&S while my wife tries on clothes (which is something you can’t actually do on the Internet – “size 16″ isn’t much help to real people). Somewhere to sit close by – so I can make the appropriate “no, your bum does not look big in this” noises when she emerges – would be really rather civilised.
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PJG 12.
Ah yes PJG, the ‘economy-enriching-shopping-expedition’ lunch!
That wonderful moment when you sit down in a restaurant (surrounding by expensive-looking carrier bags emblazoned with the shop’s logo) and gaze across the table at that marvellous woman who shares your life and home…and you smile and think to yourself: “Thank goodness she doesn’t share my bank account!”
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I agree local shops need seats so when the unlucky person shopping in them sees the price tag they can sit down and take a moment to recover before going home to buy on the net and get more choice and save money.
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#13 True. The choice for men over here is pretty rotten (not that I think it’s that much better for women). We pretty much stick to the smaller Jersey shops, we’ve given up on the chains.
#15 There are a rare one or two that can carry them off, but it really is a rare one or two.
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Oh for heavens sake, just give these women whatever they want so we don’t have to read about their pathetic causes.
There really must be more important things going on in the world, really, there must.
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I think the chairwoman doesn’t understand her role correctly.
Also, what is this to do with women per se? So men won’t be allowed to use the seats knowing this lot of left wing, bra burning, Germaine Greer imitators!
I agree with Tobias – shop on line.
Agreeing twice with Tobias in a year – I feel faint, and am in need of a chair!
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6 Town Shop Worker – To the furnature shop more like!!
What is a furnature shop – a place to buy fur covered nature related items?
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#22 I need a seat on the few occasions that the man needs some new clothes, but thankfully women seem to be allowed in men’s changing rooms more readily than men are allowed in women’s changing rooms.
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Mulvie Le Phew 23.
Re: “What is a furnature shop?”
I think it is rather obvious, ‘furnature’ is a typo (so no-one needs to be reprimanded or ridiculed).
However, your comment regarding ‘fur and nature’ demonstrates your intellectual capacity of observation…Very Good Mulvie, top marks for that.
By the way, I made a terrible error in my post (18), I used the continuous form instead of the simple past form of the verb ‘surround’…so, it’s detention for me and a Gold Star for you!
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Leah Holmes @24: I have always been in favour of more women in men’s changing rooms! Just unfortunate it doesn’t work the other way around.
If a woman walked into a men’s changing room when I was in it, I would call that lucky. If I walked into a women’s, I would be called a pervert.
Now that is sexist!
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Real Truthseeker #26
If you shop on line as advocated by Tobias#1 there would be absolutely no chance of you being lucky, or called a pervert.
To live a full life dangerously, or boringly, that is the question.
Many are the times I have spent outside the ladies changing room, arms full of Mrs PJGs shopping while she is trying on a few additions to my load, while I microscopically examine the paintwork on the ceiling lest I should espy a lacy bit and be called a pervert.Sometimes one just cant miss them though.
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‘I think it is rather obvious, ‘furnature’ is a typo’
Pull the other one mate. it’s so obviously an ignorant mispelling which the perpetrator considered to be correct or couldn’t be bothered to check.
Explain to me someone, ‘Born Warrior’ or the slapdash ‘Real Truthseeker’, for instance, how someone can produce an accidental typo with keys that are so well separated but which makes such a passable (for shopworkers, at least) alternative to the correct spelling. The band played “Believe it if you like”!
Rather a poor excuse, don’t you think?
Not that the original mistake really matters a hoot in the grand scheme of things (other than that it conveys a poor impression of the author) but sometimes these feeble excuses need countering.
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Good point PJG.
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C Le Verdic 28.
It is simply an error!
The writer hits the vowel sound he/she uses when pronouncing the word rather than the correct letter. Then, on re-reading, the writer’s brain sees what it knows should be written and not what is written…happens all the time…even to expert writers…namely, Scotoma!
P.S. Unfortunately, there is no hope for me though, I mean, using the continuous form instead of the simple past!
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Once again C Le Verdic (aka – saddo spelling police) chooses to make a fuss over a spelling mistake. Once again in his/her haste to point out the ‘crime’ he/she makes a grammatical error in their first paragraph; obviously an ignorant mistake which the perpetrator considered to be correct or couldn’t be bothered to check.
I could continue with this post and write several more paragraphs about this, but 1) I don’t actually think anyone really cares; 2) I have more interesting things to do, like going to watch some paint dry.
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Big Bean #31
Your too late, I saw it dry earlier!
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Real Truthseeker @ 22
Good that you’re starting to see sense..!
But then, our philosophies are not really all that different…but if you and Truthseeker started to agree, well then we’d all be needing chairs…
C le Verdic
Agree with your statement “it conveys a poor impression of the author” but then it was only ONE minor spelling mistake and ‘furniture’ is a little tricky to spell ….now even the late There Their They’re wouldn’t have bothered picking up on that! (psst! he may have been inclined to correct the erroneous ‘your’ by PG Tips though…
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#26 It’s unfair isn’t it?
#27 The skimpiest lingerie is often next to the changing rooms, I always guessed it was to discourage teenage boys from going near the changing rooms (i.e. to keep them from the area where it’s easiest to steal) but maybe it is a ruse to catch ‘perverts’.
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Leah – yes. Very!
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These women’s groups drive me mad.
Help the Aged is just the same.
It’s like they try to make out all women get tired and need a rest and all old people are bewildered and useless.
They should be banned for promulgating a negative view of women/old folk.
If itwas a man’s group suggesting all shops showed sport on TV and provided free beer…not a bad idea ackchewerley.
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