Dawlish Discussion

The one stop shop and post office on the strand will be closed all day on Tuesday 5th April.

The shop is getting a bit of a revamp and work commences monday 4th April (not before time i hear you cry) , However some of the heavier work requires the shop to be closed for saftey reasons.

If you know of any Elderly people that make the usual Tuesday trek down to town for their pensions, or anyone who requires post office facilitiesplease let them know that the shop will not be open to save them the trip, or for them to make alternative arrangements

Alternative Post offices are The one at marine stores on exeter road or Teignmouth Main Post office

There are notices all over the shop,but not everyone may have noticed them.

This particular phase of the work will last for one week.

I hope they are also going to repair the rotting frontage and windows and make it something the town can enjoy seeing. Considering that a prominent local councillor owns it..........................

@Vanguard.. yes i understand the whole facia is to be done and the windows and signage, i also undestand there will be two of the days where work is carried out through out hte night.

Got to laugh really,been speaking to one of the one stop staff. The work crews turned up this morning to commence the refurb...only to be met by an official from the council, telling them they needed a licence for the mini scaffold (the little tower on wheels) and our ever faithful parking enforcement Bod to tell em they couldnt use the loading bay. Im told it got quite heated.Hope the council guy was a big bloke looking at the size of some of those workmen.

Seriously though,its like people dont want improvements made to the shops on the strand,people have been moaning for ages about the state of it. wouldnt be suprised if somebody couldnt park in the loading bay again and decided to complain.

I thought One Stop was owned by Tesco

Yes,I believe One Stop is owned owned by Tesco but the premises they use in Dawlish I further believe to be rented from that prominent Dawlish councillor referred to by Vanguard (see second posting above)

Which way did this councillor vote i wonder, when it came to the Tesco superstore planning permission.

The Councillor concerned is not a member of TDC Development Control Committee hence he didn't vote on the matter.

Incidentally, although Councillors, even if they are not members of the Dev.Control Committee, can speak on planning matters (but can't vote on them), this particular Councillor couldn't even do that because of his having an interest in the matter via One Stop renting his premises.

Tesco have owned the 'one stop' group since 2003 and retain the name due to negative publicity that Tesco attracts these days. Also enables Tesco to charge 'one stop' prices.

The post office is not being refurbished at this time as the PO insist that their own contractors carry out this work and there are quite a few security aspects related to the PO refurb. Also the PO require 3 months notice to carry out refurb which surprisingly enought one stop weren't aware of and only found out when they tried to tell the PO that they were going to refurb the property, then they were 'advised' to keep their hands of the po property.

For all your complaints email , mireill.harris@onestop.co.uk this is hr department.Your post office is going to be longer queues.the postoffice is owned by the royal mail if you want to go further.

What complaints? Why do some people feel the need to complain all the time? Lifes too short...

And I very much doubt that any organisation's HR department would give two hoots about a minor refurb!

Andy I agree and it is why I dont bother on here much anymore ..when you see a new subject post, its usually negative, no wonder Dawlish is as it is. Towns that are positive bring 'positivity'. One Stop looks nice and clean and smart to me..but thats good news!

Well said Andy & Wondering, The shop looks clean and bright,and i notice the range of goods for sale has increased too.

@artuksa, tesco purchased t & s stores ltd which had a trading name of one stop,and,far from hiding behind the brand name, set about converting a large number of them to tesco express,including some of them round this area, exminster and teignmouth and chudleigh being examples. one stop,although part of the tesco group,has its own distribution centres in walsall (where its head office is situated) and southampton as well as its own supply chain.

If you have an axe to grind with either One Stop or Tesco,thats your issue,but i like what they have done to the old crumbling shop and it looks a lot better.

Enquiries with the post office reveal that the Dawlish Post office is actually a franchise.

This means that One Stop pay the post office to run the operation and in return,they are supplied with the equipment to do so.

It is not owned by the royal mail,it is owned by One Stop,The Post office simply oversee the franchises to ensure they are sticking to the post office brand and assist with this. The Post office will only be there as long as One Stop wants it to be,when the franchise is up,they may decide to not renew it and then somebody else could take it eg cost cutter or co-op, go into the post office and ask any of the staff who pays their wages,if they are telling you the truth i think youll find it is NOT the post office. You sound a bit like a disgruntled employee to me to be honest or somebody connected to one,far too much inside information there,and according to my research,very little of it correct.

I am informed the refurb that you speak of IS going ahead at some stage in the future.

@ otterale Depending on which day you vist the post office,you either see threee staff sat doing nothing or one staff working flat out servicing a long queue. The resons for this vary on who you choose to complain to if you are unfortunate enough to be in the slow moving line.

I does seem a little odd that you sometimes see staff in the post office staff working flat out while people in the shop are stood drinking tea,or vice versa.it might be a suggestion that all the staff are able to work both areas,ive had the "dont work for the post office" response when asking why a member of staff couldnt help out to relieve the long queue.

Resons vary from:

1. the person in charge has blown the wage budget...........poor management

2. the post office is not being used to its full extent and is losing money....use it or lose it

3. Onestop are just persecuting its staff and the people of Dawlish......disgruntled employee.

Nobody wants to see the post office to close and people losing their jobs,and everyone wanted the eyesore that was onestop improving,on the former i dont have a clue and is obviously an internal issue,on the latter i think they have done a good job and it looks nice.

well that went horribly wrong lol

Try doing it again then !!!!!!

my point was before i obviously made a complete mess of that

Ive made a few phonecalls out of curiosity really,the good people at onestop and the post office were quite informative,well as much as they can be i suppose.

Tescos purchased T & S stores (trading name Onestop,previosly Dillons and previous to that ,supacigs) and,far from hiding behind the name,set abount converting quite a few of them to Tesco Express including some in this area....Exminster,Teignmouth and Chudleigh. This is an ongoing programme of conversions but i understand Dawlish is not one of them

They have their own distribution centres and head office,and the pricing is set by onestop and not Tesco, and is relevent to area and local competition

All three of the shops in Dawlish vary in prices and if you are willing to "Shop around" youll find that costcutter,onestop and co op all have good bargains and prices vary. If you want to pay it pay it,if you dont then dont.

Personally i like the look of the improvemnts to the onestop,its looks much better than the eyesore it was,and i notice the range of goods have improved too.

With regards to the post office, i think youll find that it is actually a franchise post office not a crown one. Onestop pay the post office to run the business,and in return they receive the equipment and support to operate on behalf of the post office. According to the person i spoke to from the post office head office,the one in Dawlish is owned by onestop,and is there as long as onestop wish to carry on running the franchise,should they decide to end the frachise it would then be offered out to tender to say costcutter or co op or anyone really willing to take it on. In the worst case scenario,the post office may decide trade doesnt support the need for one in Dawlish and not even renew the franchise.

If you ask any of the staff who pays their wages youll find if they answer you truthfully it isnt the post office. With regards to the refurb mentioned above,im told it IS going to be carried out in the future,so i guess onestop are committed to the post office in Dawlish.

On the subject of queues getting longer,i couldnt get a straight answer out of anyone. You could actually be forgiven for thinking the two sets of staff dont exactly get on with each other,many a converstaion is overheard at the post office counter,and not much of it complimentary about those working on the store side,and that cannot be good for a working enviroment,ok for the local gossip mongers though

Ive stood in the queue with just one person on the windows,while staff elsewhere stood around doing little and saying"i dont work for the post office" when asked if they could help. ive also gone to the post office with no queue and three of them have been sat doing puzzle books or reading newspapers so i dont know whats going on there.

Depending on who you speak to depends on what sort of answer you get,reasons vary from:

1 the person in charge has blown their wage budget....poor management

2.The level of trade doesnt support more staff and is losing money....use it or lose it

3. Onestop are persecuting their staff and the people of Dawlish...disgruntled employee or trouble making..

I totally agree with Andy Mac and wondering on the complaining subject.

Go ahead and moan ,flood whatever email address with your gripes. Past experience has shown that big concerns are not afraid to decide that the level of complaints become too much of a pain and decide to close the offending establishment,costing people their jobs and losing vital services from the community,but then again,itll make room for another charity shop

P.S to my above

The post office do not own the building that the dawlish franchise is situated in,as we have established,it is owned by a prominent local councillor and rented by onestop,the notice required by the post office relates to the moving of the infrastructure and not the actual building security,those of you that might have gone to the newton abbott franchise post office in costcutter,will note it has open counters not thick glass ones

wow....all this just from simply wanting to let people know the place would be shut for a day....amazing

Those that work in the Post office will be employed by one stop and not Post Office. People complaining about service wouldnt get the place shut down, they would get One Stop higher management , to take a look at the place and if needed replace staff.

I always use the other post office on Exeter rd.

yet another day of waiting in this place waited for over half an hour been quicker to deliver it myself what a bloody shambles.

Should have gone to the Exeter Road, post office.

think you may be right but wanted to tax my car and they dont do it.have to wait till i get back home.

Tax your car on line, it's quick and easy and you can do it at home - without queuing!

Great idea Dawlish Blue, lets cause another Post Office to close down.

This post office is beyond useless. I phoned ahead to make sure they can do car tax, went down there, went to pay and got 'you can't use a credit card'. Fantastic, thanks for wasting my time.