Consuming Interest
Birth-day Present
By LESLIE ADRIAN Why don't we hear more about them? Why aren't there more of them? In the first place, they are 'very difficult to run, mainly because the customer list is always changing, It is reckoned that the average 'customer-life' is about eight months. Secondly, it is very costly to advertise a service of this kind because there is so much wastage: only some people at particular times want the service. So, if one hears about the ser- vice at all it is usually by word of mouth, by personal recommendation from someone who has already made use of it.
The two nappy services in London are Sun White (3 Hythe Road, NWIO, Tel. Ladbrake 6456 and Kensington 5603) and Baby Ward (169 Millbank, SW1, Tel. Victoria 6776). Basically, the service they provide is the same. You pay an initial £1 for the use of containers or carrier bags; 10s. of this goes to the cost of laundering the bags and replacing worn ones; the other 10s. is returned to you when you stop taking the ser- vice. For a three-day-a-week service the charge is 2s. 10d. a day for up to fourteen nappies a day and 2d. for each nappy over fourteen (mini- mum charge 8s. 6d, a week). Sun White also pro- vides a daily service in Inner London for 16s. a week for up to eighty-four nappies a week.
Both services cover a very wide area in London and go out as far as Pinner, Harrow, Surbiton and Twickenham. Such differences as there are between the two are mostly due to the fact that Sun White is a larger organisation. It covers a larger area than Baby Ward; it provides a daily as well as a three-day-a-week service; it will sew on your identification tapes (with which all 'nappies must be marked) for a charge of 7s. 6d.; it will rinse with a solution of Roccal, a harmless bactericide, which is a precaution against nappy rash, for a charge of Is. .a week; it will hire or sell nappies; it will launder cot sheets, towels, nightdresses and bibs provided they will with- stand boiling.
Washing nappies yourself is perfectly possible, but a terrible chore. Even a washing machine doesn't help all that much. You can't sterilise nappies in a Washing machine, because the tem- peratures are not high enough, and it is not ad- visable or pleasant to put what launderers call 'foul' washing in the same machine as you use for other washing. Detergents are used in wash- ing machines and some of these contain bleach. The nappy services use pure soap, softened water and boiling to avoid the damage that bleach may do to the fibre of nappies, and thus prolong the life of nappies.
The service can start at twenty-four hours' notice if necessary, and I can think of no better present to a mother or mother-to-be.
Is it a waste of money to travel first class by air in Britain? Recently I flew, within the day, from London to Glasgow and back by'BEA Vis- count. I was expecting to travel first class in both directions, but during the return flight I discovered that my ticket was for first-class travel to Glasgow and for tourist class to London. For all that I could see there was no difference between the two flights, but I realised that I had been stupid enough to accept my ticket without checking it. In an attempt to clear my conscience I have been trying to find out what happened, and it seems I was not entirely to blame. I had wanted to travel to Glasgow on an early morning plane in order to keep a 10 a.m. appointment and to return in the middle of the afternoon for a dinner engagement in London, My flights were booked accordingly. BEA's schedules are so arranged that, to reach Glasgow in time, I could not have travelled other than first and, to get back to London in time, I could not have travelled other than tourist.
The fact remains that I did not notice any real differences between the two flights. In flight to Glasgow I got a good breakfast free of charge, but anyone getting up at 6 a.m, to be at the Air Terminal at 6.55 could reasonably expect that. I suppose I Could also have had half a dozen free whiskies as well, but, on the whole, I prefer to start my day on coffee. On the way back I did not expect any more than the tea and biscuits I got on a flight which began at 3.10 p.m. and ended at 4.40.
A first return to Glasgow is i14 10s. Tourist return is £10 10s. 1 have asked BEA to justify the difference and their answer is not, to put it mildly, worth £4.'On a first-class flight, they say, you have the services of two stewardesses and one steward as opposed to two stewardesses only on a tourist flight. Your free baggage allowance is 44 lb. rather than 33 lb. There are extra staff to 'speed you through the airport formalities.' You get free' meals and drinks rather than free light refresh- ments. You are shown a seating plan of the air- craft before boarding and can choose your seat. On tourist flights there is no allocation of seats.
This last point was lost on me as, on my tourist flight, I happened to sit in the same seat as I had chosen for my first-class flight, though I recognise that this could not happen. in every case. The meals-as-opposed-to-light-refreshments argument loses some of its point when you look at the schedules and realise that lunch is not provided on any flight, and breakfast and dinner are provided only on first-class flights which are at times when you would expect to get these meals anyway.
All of which leads me to a conclusion which has now been confirmed for mc, oft the record, by a reputable travel agent : it is a waste of money to travel first class by air in Britain and on most journeys within Europe. If you must travel at particular times then you may have to travel first. The difference will be noticeable mainly in your pocket. First-class travel is only worth while on trans-continental or trans-oceanic journeys where meals are necessities rather than luxuries, when you need the extra room to stretch your legs, and when comfortable sleeping is worth a surcharge.
*- * * Last October I wrote harsh words here—as, well as in a letter to the general manager of the Pullman Car Company—about the 20s. a bottle charged for all wines on the Bournemouth Belle. Not very, many weeks ,later—but 1 discovered ii only the other day—the wines' came down to 13. and 15s. What is more, there are quarter-bottles now available at 4s. and 4s1 6d. The Pullman Car Company deserves our thanks, and readers should draw the moral : if you suffer excessive prices or bad service, let it not be in silence.
Previous page
