Forum Topic

The Griffin Pub Brentford

The Manager of the Griffin Pub, is offering 50p off your pint if you pay cash. Nigel Farrage says keep using cash. Agree.  Also heard on the News this morning Banks and Building Soc. will be fined by the Government if they keep shutting down. Customers should be allowed to use cash. Good.

Barbara Stevens ● 900d33 Comments

Sorry to go a bit off topic round the digital divide but I was amused at the thought of a traffic cop trying to speak to a driverless taxi in San Francisco :-) (Perhaps the cops will need to learn Python to communicate with the AI algorithms?)https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/cruise-robotaxi-san-francisco-dmv-video/3300564/

Michael Ixer ● 896d

In case you missed it here is info about the Acton Banking Hub opened in June, the first of these in London, opened by the local MP and Martin Lewis.https://ealing.news/news/banking-hub-now-open-in-acton/There was a lot of local lobbying for something to be done about all the banks and Post Office closures.

Philippa Bond ● 896d

https://theconversation.com/demise-of-totnes-pound-wont-stop-this-english-town-pushing-back-against-austerity-115484

Philippa Bond ● 896d

Carl, it isn't just me and yes I've been on here years and actually live in Putney. Philippa lives in Ealing or Chiswick. I've told her before not to answer my posts. If it's about Putney etc, it's about Putney. As for the Griffin Pub, it was a point I was making in general about paying cash.  Philippa is on every other site near enough and probably gets the same answers from Ealing Chiswick etc. End of.

Barbara Stevens ● 896d

Why are you always angry towards Philippa, Barbara? I've been on this forum for a few years but I reckon I must have missed a really juicy argument. Has anyone got a link?

Carl Broadley ● 896d

Ed, they used to do a roast dinner on Sunday but haven't for a few years. My son lived round the corner, so used to go there now and again. Has got a bit more expensive like most places. We went there as he went to make sure his flat was OK. As he lets it, while he's in Sweden.

Barbara Stevens ● 897d

Easy to pass on; nothing marked as vegan :-/ (Unlike Wagamama :-))

Michael Ixer ● 897d

I wish I hadn't googled 'The Commodore Byfleet' as their opening page has made me hungry and they have a score of 5 on the doors too.I've been known to use a low Scores on the Doors rating to duck out of going to some restaurants that I do not fancy.Service charge has always been a bit of an issue in the UK even on paper bills.In some restaurants they leave the card machine with the option to pay a tip or not - if you select yes it gives you the options or several percentages or entering your own.Wagamama now give you the table number so you can pay online yourself if you so wish. They still have benches just like the original Bloomsbury branch in the 90's.

Ed Robinson ● 897d

Picked up some concern about closure of banks from a LinkedIn contact. It appears to be something the Link ATM network are looking at: https://www.link.co.uk/about/news/link-analysis-reveals-importance-of-new-cash-access-protections-in-deprived-areas/ It also appears one can apply for protected status of ATMs, although that perhaps isn't so relevant in London?
https://www.link.co.uk/consumers/request-access-to-cash/suggest-an-atm-for-protected-status/ There's also Cash Access UK which seems to be operated by ten banks and is supposed to work with the Post Office to implement banking hubs and I think liaise with the Link network to ensure adequate ATM coverage.   https://www.cashaccess.co.uk/I haven't had time to look at in details but my contact seemed to be complaining that bank branches were closing faster than hubs and ATM coverage were being expanded to help local communities.

Michael Ixer ● 897d

Dont have an issue with not knowing what I'm spending. Have to say the pandemic has pushed to to using the card as cash a lot quicker than woukd gave been.If you keep a mental check and then check your account regularly theres no orobkem.Suspect the ones that have a problem wiukd have with cash as well.

Andy Pike ● 898d

Even buskers are taking card payments now.But it makes it so difficult to keep a tally and check on how much you are spending when all you have to do is wave a card.  You so often see those sole traders waving the machine in the air too due to lack of signal.  Banks also take less responsibility when things go wrong and there are some bad stories of wrongly keyed transactlons. Suddenly your card can just stop working because your account is drained - something familiar to youngsters nowadays out on the town.  With £100 a day limit to wave away without check that could easily bring you trouble.But even cash has also become more difficult to hold onto with those plastic notes that you can't fold up to keep safe for emergency/fare home.  They are also slippery and can ride up out of a pocket. Fraud isn't included in the crime figures mentioned in Parliament and banks say little if anything about the fraud they suffer inhouse - which has always existed.    And as for access to money on a mobile phone that's a whole another world...

Philippa Bond ● 898d

Even had a beggar in Brighton on friday with a card machine for donations of a fiver ! Had one of the most expensive phones you can get. Needless to say she got short shrift.

Andy Pike ● 898d

Our window cleaner, a sole trader, accepts Internet payments directly to his bank account. 

Michael Ixer ● 898d

Ed, this was foreign, The Commodore Byfleet. Yes remember in the one next to the old R.Dyas in Putney far end of High Street, they used to give you a liqueur.

Barbara Stevens ● 898d

In other countries and some Italian/Spanish in the UK, they might throw in a mystery liqueur which I like. But yes, the mint appears to have vanished in many establishments.

Ed Robinson ● 898d

How do you pay your window cleaner or any other odd job man. In a restaurant in Byfleet we took my family for a meal. My other half paid for the meal. Then the lady put the card machine in front of my other half to pay a tip, did he want to pay 5% 10% etc. He did'nt have a choice really, pressed 10%.  Not like here are some mints put your tip on the saucer.

Barbara Stevens ● 898d

It's also wise to have some cash as a contingency measure when visiting 'spoons establishments as their electronics payments system appears to be a little flaky ...

Michael Ixer ● 898d

"This thread highlights how big the rift is getting in the digital divide"Perhaps but it could also be about creating an more traditional atmosphere where people talk to each other rather than interacting with their phones.I can see several advantages with the obvious one being that there is no paper trail that proves you didn't just stay for one quick pint :)That said I do like the Weatherspoon ability of ordering at the table. However Irish pubs have offered this facility for decades before any apps. The bar staff would come to your table take your order and bring back your drinks and change. Obviously a tip would normally be given.

Ed Robinson ● 898d

https://www.transitiontowntotnes.org/project-groups/saying-farewell-to-the-totnes-poundIt is interesting how it made people reflect on the importance of local community.  I expect they are back bartering amongst the community.  The pandemic meant a leap forward because people were avoiding contact with money as it was not immediately clear on how it was being transmitted.  Plastic was easier and safer.  But banking is a lot more than just having cash for day to day transactions.

Philippa Bond ● 898d

Not sure what's happening to the Brixton pound. Following the move away from cash it would seem it was being reinvented as a digital currency in 2021:https://www.algorand.foundation/news/brixton-pound-algorandI believe the intention was to maintain a 1:1 exchange value with the pound sterling (a form of stablecoin) but I couldn't find anything about an actual launch. 

Michael Ixer ● 898d

Yes, when everything is global it becomes totally faceless.  We need a mix.

Philippa Bond ● 898d

I seem to remember the Brixton pound as well?

Michael Ixer ● 898d

Perhaps we should all grow some food and revisit bartering because otherwise we won't be able to eat when we have no choices.  Perhaps create a Putney pound like the Totnes pound because we need alternatives for when the terminals don't work.

Philippa Bond ● 898d

This thread highlights how big the rift is getting in the digital divide. On here people are debating where it's possible to obtain cash as the number of bank branches diminishes while in my LinkedIn news feed my contacts are posting details of how regulators and central banks around the globe are planning to deal with crypto assets and digital currencies …

Michael Ixer ● 899d

"Yes PO will give cash on a Lloyd's card"Whatever happened to gas from the gas board and electricity from the electricity board?Post Office not far away from me has a decent range of inexpensive tools for sale. I've not tried posting my parcels at B&Q, yet.This "disruptive innovation" is just too disruptive for me.

David Ainsworth ● 899d

Yes PO will give cash on a Lloyd's card

Andy Pike ● 899d

I haven't tried it, but yes the Post Office includes HSBC amongst the banks it provides basic services for, via your HSBC debit card. They have a leaflet that lists most of the banks they provide this service for. Barclays on Putney High Street (closing 1st September) actually suggest using the PO.However the PO is rarely queue free. Wimbledon HSBC is the nearest staffed branch, though Fulham Broadway has a machines only 'shop'.

David Sharp ● 899d

Now that the URR (eastern end) HSBC and ATM have shut, I think our nearest branch is Wimbledon which I guess is 2-3 miles away. I seem to recall there would be an option to access HSBC accounts at post offices. Is that true? Does anyone have experience of this?

Alexander MacLeod ● 899d

BTW Actually we're more interested in the banks not being allowed to all close or all close their ATMs so that when the supermarket tills aren't working we can always have a choice of how to pay.  Brentford already has a bank shortage problem and there are only seven of the new joint hubs open across the country.  BTW Brentford isn't even in the same borough as Putney!

Philippa Bond ● 899d

What has this got to do with the Griffin Pub Brentford. So start your own thread, about alcoholics. I expect most people would be grateful to get a pint cheaper. Also pay by CASH. If you have a problem with alcohol I would stay clear then Philippa.

Barbara Stevens ● 899d

Supermarkets often sell items as loss leaders to pull customers in.  (They do/did this with milk and we consequently lost many of our milkmen.). They can afford and do sell some things cheap and less than cost because of the vast amount that they sell.  I think they should keep alcohol within the alcohol aisle instead of at the entrance to the shop.  I was listening to a phone-in on the radio with those who have given up or trying to give up and stay dry.  I think it is very unfair on those people who have/have had a problem with alcohol and are struggling to stay clear of it.  Social rather than secret drinking is far preferable!Cheap can also bring problems.

Philippa Bond ● 899d

Bit early in the morning for me, 3 miles near a town. Better tell your local pub other pubs are charging less if you pay cash.  No wonder pubs are shutting the price they charge, a glass of wine costs more a bottle in a Supermarket.

Barbara Stevens ● 900d

Not sure he's got it right as you still pay charges for paying cash into the bank.You may have miss heard the bit about keeping branches open. I thought it was more about ensuring atms were available within e miles of people.good luck with that on the Northumberland moors.

Andy Pike ● 900d