HUBBERS DOT COM BLOG

I am redesigning my site. In an ideal world it would be finished tomorrow night but I am out for a few nights so I guess I will do the rest when I have time :)

Having made quite a few trips to the post office recently I have had many an hour in long queues to ponder ways that they post office could reduce the size of it’s queues.

Ignoring the obvious idea of employing more people at busy times … I though the best idea would be to have a machine that could handle regular postal duties.

THE HUBBERS POSTMACHINE 3000^tm

The Hubbers Postmachine 3000^tm is an all in one weighing, payment processing, stamping and package collecting machine that could be installed in post offices and other postal outlets all over the country.

The first part of the HP3000^tm (might need to have a word with Hewlett-Packard about the name) is a weighing shelf to weigh the package. A touch screen would allow the customer to select destination, postage type etc. The machine would then take payment from a credit or debit card. Finally any stamps or stickers (airmail, customs declarations) that are needed could be printed. The customer would then place these stickers on their package and drop the package into a slot on the machine or a larger collection area elsewhere in the post office.

The machine could even be programmed to deal with other day-to-day post office tasks like collecting bill payments, selling foreign currency, selling insurance or issuing forms etc.

Every post office would have several of the HP3000^tm that would operate alongside some regular chair moisteners post office workers who could specialise in larger packages or more complicated enquires.

Stop Press!!! They Stole My idea!!!

I saw this in the Post Office on Saturday 4th of October . It’s bigger than I would have built it and it looks like it was designed by students in a woodwork class at high school but it’s basically the same idea. Also I bet it doesn’t let you do all the other things I thought of like bills and currency :)

MUSTARD CHEESE

My other good idea I have had recently is “mustard cheese”. I think this would be a really cracking flavour if done well. I have found one place that sells Mustard Cheddar on-line and when the Mutarde (Rachel) gets back from Africa I will ask her if she thinks it is any good.

I am currently reducing clutter around my flat by selling my old DVDs and books on Amazon’s marketplace. Today I sold ‘Die another Day’ for 13p. Normally this works out to be marginally profitable as Amazon give you more for postage that items cost to post. But on this particular item Amazon charged almost all of the sale price and the postage as commission. The breakdown is as follows:

Buyer’s Price: £0.13
Shipping: £1.21
Amazon Commission: £-1.04
Your Earnings: £0.30

Amazon states:

Individuals selling at Marketplace pay a GBP 0.86 per item completion fee, plus a closing fee of 17.25% of the sales price (11.5% for Electronics & Photo items) for each item sold.

Which seems steep and it makes it unprofitable to sell (or buy) really cheap DVDs or books on Amazon. This is a real shame because in the past I have bought a few 1p (plus postage) books from Amazon.

The postage for this DVD would cost 66p so I have cancelled the order and now the DVD is going to one of the charity shops on Finchley Road which is a much better idea. I guess in this way Amazon are doing a good thing. By making it unprofitable to sell the nickel and dime stuff they make it much more likely that old books etc end up in charity Shops.

Amazon have also built this excellent site for swapping books called ReadItSwapIt.

Today when I rode to work it was SNOWING!