Value for money…or not?

In order to purchase a cup of coffee in 2011 you need a degree in Home Economics & preferably one in Modern Languages… latte's, cappuccinos, macchiato, doppio …what to choose?

Selection made the small option comes in a 5 litre bucket containing coffee that has been heated within the bowels of that unpronounceable Icelandic volcano*. As your fingers melt to the side of said bucket you attempt to drink it resulting in a visit to casualty with 3rd degree burns to tongue and lips and 3-4 days looking & speaking like the Elephant Man.

Ordering food can also be problematic. Recently I was in a celebrity chef's restaurant in London…every dish was a starter portion which wouldn't satisfy a starving weevil…minimum number of dishes to order was 6 at prices so astronomical some Arabs left, as I puzzled at the menu for ants the sycophantic waiter explained about “drizzling dishes with jus” and “we only do duck very rare sir”

I missed their point…I like proper sized portions of food lashed in gravy and I prefer my duck crisp, preferably in a pancake roll with spring onions and a plum sauce washed down with a Tsingtao beer!

My point?…the need for a succinct description of what products are available, are they right for what you want, are they at a price deemed reasonable by you, and are you getting what you expected to pay for.

Many of our competitors believed the solution to a more price sensitive market due to the recession was to jet off to China to source very cheap tiles and mosaics that could be sold at lower prices and significantly higher margins…brilliant…apart from a few problems…

Quality is questionable, lead times are long and if there was a problem when the container arrived in the UK the suppliers, suddenly, could only speak Chinese!

A recent tariff imposed on Chinese imports by the EU to counter dumping has seen these importers having to make a serious decision…do they increase their prices of suspect quality ranges by 70%+ or do they eat a small starter portion of very expensive humble pie washed down with a cup of molten coffee and return to the supply base that has always been the best for quality, service, back up and short lead times…Europe?

Not an issue for us at Ceramique Internationale & tilesandmosaics.co.uk…throughout the recession we have maintained our stocks from the best Italian, Spanish & other European factories. The quality is always superb, lead times are short and if problems do arise the factories want to help.Throughout all of this our prices have hardly changed at all and our service remains 1st class…. The case for the defence rests.

Enjoy the Summer which is more than Andy Coulsen & Rebeka Brooks will be doing…and let's hope a year off at Glastonbury will be enough time for the quagmire to recede and, for those of us who went, to build up enough courage to clean our welly's do it all again in 2013…by which time Rupert Murdoch's empire will still rule the media via satellites high above and the demise of the News of the World will be a distant memory for everyone who hasn't been hacked.

*see May 2010 Hung Drawn & Coalitioned