PeterC coughed up some electrons that declared:

On Sun, 14 Jun 2009 07:21:03 +0100, Tim S wrote:

I do wonder what thee companies are doing though.

All they have to do is look at each other and replicate the obviously
good bits, add their own sugar and hey presto.

Well, SF's site is good but BbQ's is lobody useless (and that makes me use
Wickes more) - now there's a lack of synergy.

Yes, it pains me to have to go there...

Which I usually only do to print off some "price match" evidence before
going to the builder's yard.

Again, for a simple example of what works: Sainsburys' website. You can
search for "bog roll" (I kid you not) and get 3 pages of toilet paper. Of
course, all other sane search terms, including typos seem to work too.

It's a classic case of British disease. I often wonder, why, when something
clearly works, why all organisations in the same domain do not at least
attempt to emulate the good and solid parts.

Same with government. There are lots of little things I've seen done abroad
and in different boroughs here that make me wonder: why doesn't Kent or T
Wells council simply solve problem X with solution Y, especially where
solution Y is simple and cheap (or self funding)?

Like Munich: they leave bicycles everywhere. You phone up with your bank
card and pay a rental charge. They give you an unlock code. You ride bike
anywhere in the city. When you've finished, you lock the bike up wherevere
you please (sensibly of course). Perhaps that would be lethal in London but
there are plenty of UK cities that are largely traffic calmed where it
would be a great idea. Self funding too (at a level the council can
choose). Capital cost - bugger all.

Take Harrow council in London. 2 recycling bins: one for garden and blue for
*everything* else bar food. One other bin for remainder.

OK - that takes a concerted effort to set up the council end of things for
mixed recyling, but it is patently such a bloody obviously good way of
getting people to recycle (ie make it EASY for the customer, and take
everything) instead of this fannying around with "here's a bin for paper,
but don't put gift wrap in it, or the wrong sort of cardboard", "here's one
for plastics, mostly", "here's a bin for gardening waste - oh, now you can
put food waste in - but only types X, Y and Z", "as for glass - that's
heavy and bulky - you can feck off and carry that yourself to Tescos".

Not sure how we ever had an empire.

Cheers

Tim