Poet.

On Wednesday evening, some major changes were made over night to the layout of the large Morrisons supermarket in Erith. Principally these lay around the changes to the high value alcoholic drinks area of the store. The rising tide of shoplifting in the UK has prompted supermarkets to adopt innovative strategies to protect their stock and staff. With retail crime on the increase, retailers are turning to technology and enhanced security measures to deter thieves. Consequently, the high value products are being secured behind glass and steel cabinets with coded buttons that customers need to press to summon a member of staff to open the security cabinets and allow customers to remove bottles of rum, whisky, vodka and gin and also champagne. The reason for this is that many supermarkets and other retail stores have been suffering from high levels of shoplifting. The new security measures are designed to reduce or indeed prevent shop theft from happening in future. I and others have serious doubts as to how well this particular issue will work. Principally, due to the fact that Morrisons are not increasing the number of staff available and existing stuff will have to go from other duties to helping customers when they need to access any of the high value alcoholic drinks. I am aware that staff are not happy about the situation but there is little that they can do. As you can see from the two photos above, click on either to see a larger view. The new security cabinets are quite intrusive and will make shopping difficult for some. Additionally, there are several new CCTV monitors installed in the area immediately around the high-value drinks area. I believe this is also to try and discourage shoplifters. How well this will actually work? I do not know as I'm aware that some shoplifters do not care if they're seen as they do not believe that they will be challenged or stopped when leaving the store with the stolen goods. The reason that the shoplifters tend to go after these high value items is because they can sell them on at a discount in order to raise money for illegal drugs and other such substances. My main concern is that a lot of what supermarkets call "shrinkage" comes from people not scanning things on self-service, checkouts or otherwise misrepresenting what they are buying. I know that Morrisons are not alone in deploying these new techniques, but it does strike me that they are possibly trying to crack a nut with a sledgehammer. It also strikes me that honest customers will be inconvenienced by the new security measures and may choose to take their business elsewhere including possibly buying online instead. Now that Morrison's is no longer a family-owned business but is part of a large American investment organisation - private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, it does occur to me that their owners are not really concerned with pleasing customers as they are with trying to protect their bottom line in a increasingly competitive retail market. While these measures aim to reduce shoplifting, they also raise concerns about privacy and the potential for wrongful accusations. It is crucial to strike a balance between security and customer experience. Comments to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The local area has been the birthplace of a number of prominent people, one of whom I have not written about previously. Thanks to Ian for suggesting this to me. Award winning poet Wendy Cope OBE was born in Erith in 1945. Her father was the general manager of the Hedley Mitchell department store.  She was educated at West Lodge Preparatory School in Sidcup and Farrington's School, Chislehurst. Growing up in Erith, a place often overlooked, Cope found inspiration in the ordinary. Her childhood experiences, the people she encountered, and the nuances of everyday life would later become the rich tapestry of her poetry. While the town might not have been a muse in the traditional sense, it undoubtedly shaped her down-to-earth and relatable voice. After graduating from St Hilda's College and Westminster College, Oxford, Cope spent fourteen years as a primary-school teacher. In 1981, she became Arts and Reviews editor for the Inner London Education Authority magazine, Contact. Five years later she became a freelance writer and was a television critic for The Spectator magazine until 1990. Five collections of her adult poetry have been published, Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis in 1986, Serious Concerns in 1992, If I Don't Know in 2001, Family Values in 2011, and Anecdotal Evidence in 2018. She has also edited several anthologies of comic verse and was a judge of the 2007 Man Booker Prize. In 1998, she was voted the listeners' choice in a BBC Radio 4 poll to succeed Ted Hughes as Poet Laureate. When Andrew Motion's term as Poet Laureate came to an end in 2009, Cope was again widely considered a popular candidate, although she believes the post should be discontinued. Carol Ann Duffy succeeded Motion as Poet Laureate. Cope was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours. In April 2011, the British Library purchased Cope's archive including manuscripts, school reports and 40,000 emails, the largest email archive they have bought to date. The papers also includes 67 poetry notebooks and unpublished poems. Cope commented "I wanted to find a good home for my archive. The timing was dictated because we had to move home, so we needed some money to buy a house, and the space. So this was the moment. I asked Andrew Motion what I should do, and he told me someone to approach at the British Library. I wasn't sure they would want it, but they did." In 2013, after 19 years of living together, Cope married Lachlan Mackinnon in a register office, although she has stated that she would have preferred a civil partnership. In January 2019 she was the guest on BBC Radio 4's long-running programme Desert Island Discs. Her book choice was The Compleet Molesworth by Geoffrey Willans, her luxury item was writing materials and her favourite track was Bach's "Concerto for Two Violins and Strings in D minor". Despite her slight output, her books have sold well and she has attracted a popular following with her lighthearted, often comical poetry, as well as achieving literary credibility winning two awards and making an award shortlist over a fourteen-year period. She has a keen eye for the everyday, mundane aspects of English life, especially the desires, frustrations, hopes, confusions and emotions in intimate relationships. Dr Rowan Williams is a well known fan of her work, writing that: "Wendy Cope is without doubt the wittiest of contemporary English poets, and says a lot of extremely serious things". In 2021, the poet and critic Rory Waterman published the first critical book on her work, for the Writers and Their Work series. While Erith might not be the first place that comes to mind when thinking of literary hot spots, it is undoubtedly where Wendy Cope's journey began. Her success is a reminder that inspiration can be found anywhere, and that even the most ordinary lives can yield extraordinary art.

The photo above shows Millers Pie and Mash shop in Albert Road, Upper Belvedere - one of the few such shops to still sell cooked eels. Back in 1981 there were around thirty eel fishermen, over half of whom made a living from fishing in the River Thames off Erith. The irony is that eels have become rarer, and their price has subsequently risen to the point that nowadays very few traditional pie and mash shops sell jellied or stewed eels, as they have become too expensive for their main customers, who often are retired people on a budget. Several recent TV cooking shows have given the impression that eating eels is moving upmarket, and that smoking and barbecuing the fish is becoming increasingly popular. Bearing in mind how eel fishing has formed part of the historical culture of Erith, it is remarkable just how little the humble eel is celebrated locally. Perhaps something roughly analogous to the Whitstable Oyster Festival could be set up in Erith? After all, the Oyster Festival has been tremendously successful and brings visitors and business to Whitstable, to the point where it is now the commercial and social highlight of the year. Perhaps something like it could be established for an "Erith Eel Extravaganza" could be set up? What do you think? Over two decades ago, we had an Erith Multicultural Festival, which involved lots of food stalls along the high Street, and dragon boat races on the river, along with a big firework display in the evening. Perhaps an "Erith Eel Extravaganza" could be organised along similar lines? I concede that we might have a bit of an image problem; you think of oysters and you think of James Bond, whereas when you think of eels, you think of Alf Garnett. Eels have been a working class staple food since Roman times, and ironically until relatively recently, so were oysters, but over fishing of oysters caused them to become rare, and consequently they went up market – exactly the same thing is happening to the humble eel nowadays. Is the time right for an eel revival and a new image? Should Erith be nailing eels to the mast (poor analogy, but you see where this is going). Should we be celebrating the Erith eel, or is it just a sad footnote in history? What do you think? Do give me your feedback; you can Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

All types of high street retail and customer service companies are experiencing severe operational and financial difficulties, due to a number of factors, including the cost of living crisis and the move to online purchasing by many. The latest local store to face closure is the Carpetright outlet in Dartford; Carpetright filed a notice to appoint administrators earlier this month, after struggling in the face of weaker demand and a major cyber attack in April. The company employed 1,852 people and operated 273 stores across the UK before entering insolvency. Administrators said it will retain workers at its head office for the short term as it winds down operations. However, it said 1,018 workers will face immediate redundancy across its stores. The nine Kent stores set to close are in: Ashford, Canterbury, Dartford, Gillingham, Gravesend, Sevenoaks, Sittingbourne, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells. 

An online scam that first surfaced back in 2016 appears to be running again. Email users are getting unexpected emails that claim the sender found their email address in an old book. The email asks the user if they are real and what kind of relationship they have with the book. An example can be seen here:- "Hi there;  My name is Jean Rafon, I’m from France. Last week I Bought an old book from street here in Paris and i found your email inside of it, i’m curious to know if this is a real person, and what relate you with this book! Looking forward to hearing from you! Thanks Jean". This is a hook for an online scam, since the same email has been sent en masse to a number of different users. This fake Email can be the precursor to one of the following 1) A Romance scam, where the scammer strikes a relationship with the victim using this email as a form of bait, and over time gains their trust. From there, victims are often instructed to send money to the scammer who then disappears (or asks for more money!) 2) A Malware scam, where the victim and scammer exchange an number of emails before the scammer convinces the victim to click a link to a malware infested website. 3) A Phishing scam, where the scammer sends the victim a link that is designed to steal the login information of the victim. Whatever the specifics of the scam, this is clearly not a genuine email, and thus it should be ignored. I do these things so that you don't have to.

Local independent domestic appliance retailer Wellingtons Electrical has won a major national industry award for the second year running. The vendor, which has shops in Northumberland Heath and Bromley has recently been awarded the Independent Electronics Retailer (IER) Award for Customer Service across the whole of the UK. In their press announcement, Wellingtons wrote:- "At Wellingtons, we pride ourselves on our excellent standards and customer service second to none. Year on year we are acknowledged by our industry as being one of the best! We've been up there on the podium every year, thanks to our great team who consistently give their best, so you have the very best experience when you shop with us. Our accolades include awards in the ERT (Electrical Retail Industry Awards), IER (Innovative Electrical Retailing Awards) and local Above and Beyond in Bromley awards. We’ve also been Euronics Retailer of the Year - and it is an honour to hold that title. We are proud of our industry partnerships too. These include Siemens, who we partnered with at the Grand Designs Show.  We are the only Rangemaster Design Centre in the Southeast of the country, as well as being a Neff Accredited Appliance Retailer and a Miele Partner! We continue to work together with all the top brands to ensure we are bringing you the very best in appliances, knowledge, and commitment". 

The end video this week was actually shot yesterday in Bexleyheath Broadway, where there was a large exhibition on what was called "Superhero Day". Feedback to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.