More years ago than I care to remember - when I was a mere strip of a girl, I spent the summer on the West Coast of America. I rarely seemed to encounter other English people whilst I was there, and the most memorable occasion was when I was in Las Vegas waiting in a queue to enquire about the price of flights over the Grand Canyon. Suddenly, from the front of the queue, a loud Northern voice rang out - 'It Costs How Much?' I don't remember how much the flights were but I do know they were too expensive for me to take, and presumably too expensive for the chap with the broad Mancunian accent too.
Yesterday, in W H Smith's, I had the great urge to utter those words 'It Costs How Much?' myself. I'd bought a daily paper, a large bar of Cadbury's chocolate (on special half-price offer), and a 3 metre roll of bubble wrap. The bill was almost £5.00. When I checked the receipt the bubble wrap had cost £2.99. I went back to the unusually quiet check-out and enquired if the bubble wrap had gone up - apparently it had!! I'm not sure exactly how much it used to cost but I'm guessing £1.99 or thereabouts. To add insult to injury, when I went to use some of it this morning I found that not only had the price rocketed, but the quality had plummeted. Right, I thought, time to find an alternative supply. I had once purchased an enormous roll of bubble wrap from ebay and it had lasted me months so I had another swift look and have purchased a 50 metre roll for £6.95 and free postage - bargain! It's not quite as wide as the W H Smith's bubble wrap (30cm as opposed to 50cm) but the Smith's stuff is usually a bit too wide for what I want anyway and I end up with lots of fiddly little bits of bubble wrap which aren't a lot of use. And, anyway, the fact that it is only 13p a metre as opposed to the £1.00 per metre from Smith's more than makes up for that. I'll let you know what the quality is like when it arrives.
Finally, apropros to nothing, here's a couple of little embroidered cards I've just finished making, using one of the transfers from the book Mum found for me in a charity shop.
PS In case you're wondering, they're supposed to be little mushrooms
I seem to be asking that question a lot myself these days, prices are rising so fast! Lovely embroidery!
Posted by: Heather | 07/15/2008 at 11:53 PM
Smiths would be the last place I'd go for any kind of 'office' supplies. They really do take the mick with their prices.
Lovely little mushrooms. Very sweet and simple :)
Posted by: Sharon J | 07/18/2008 at 07:35 PM