Pasties travels 250 miles to get delivered next door

[Lt Kije]

Listen to this, and please give opinions

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8954000/8954266.stm

[Bill]

That's the way the pastie crumbles.

 

If Ginsters can only make them down in Cornwall, then they have to be transported to the main supermarket depots which in all probability will be at a centralized location.

 

At least buying them here in Warrington they won't have clocked up too many additional food miles so we can enjoy our pasties with a clear conscience.

 

Bill

[Dizzy]

My initial opinion is ........ why on earth do you listen to radio programmes about pasties Lt K

[Bill]

 

 

Bill

[asperity]

The pasties will not be the only items delivered to that store from the depot, and there will be pasties being delivered to other stores from the same depot. So if you were to calculate the overall transport cost for pasties averaged out over all the stores supplied from that depot, then obviously it's the ONLY sensible way to do it. After all a truck is going to be transporting pasties from Ginsters to the depot anyway. And another truck is going to be transporting a variety of goods from the depot to the store next to Ginsters anyway.

[Lt Kije]

why on earth do you listen to radio programmes about pasties Lt K

 

You mean you don't listen to radio programs about Pasties Dizzy

[fugtifino]

Think the Prof covered all that, Asp. Still does seem bonkers though.

 

You mean you don't listen to radio programs about Pasties Dizzy.

 

You mean, there are other types of radio programmes?

 

I listen to http://www.pasties.fm, it's the only station for all your pasty news needs.

[inky pete]

Still does seem bonkers though.

 

 

How's it bonkers that the manufacturer and the retailer choose the most cost effective method overall of distributing a product to their customers across the whole country?

[fugtifino]

Er, the fact that this particular consigment of pastry comestibles had to travel over two hundred and fifty miles instead of a few hundred yards in order to get from A to B.

 

You can show me as much working out as you like, but it still sounds bonkers.

[Lt Kije]

Would it have not been more cost effective to hand deliver

[Bazj]

Would it have not been more cost effective to hand deliver

 

probably some European rule somewhere which would forbid that Kije!

[Lt Kije]

I think not Baz

[inky pete]

When the pasties arrived at the shop near to the pasty factory, they will have been brought by the same vehicle which delivered lots of other things from factories much further away. Probably the same vehicle which also made mixed deliveries to a number of other shops in the area. The share of the total transport cost attributable to the pasties alone was probably less than it would have cost to spend even 2 minutes thinking about alternatives - never mind actually implementing any of them.

 

Does anyone really believe that the supermarkets would know of a cheaper and more effective way of organising their logistics, and then deliberately fill the motorways up with un-necessary lorry journeys?

[asperity]

Would it have not been more cost effective to hand deliver

 

If it was more cost effective to do that then a commercial operation would do it that way. As they don't do it that way then I think it's safe to assume that it isn't cost effective.

If the same operation was put in the hands of the public sector you would find that the pasties would be delivered at three times the cost and after their best before date.

[fugtifino]

Yeah, like I said, inky, you can justify it as much as you like, but it still sounds like a scam worthy of Milo Minderbinder.

 

If you and anyone else had listened to the item in the link, you'd have heard a tesco spokesman describing this as a "quirk" of the system. "Quirky" isn't a long way from "bonkers" for me.

 

I understand that the economics of logistics prove that this is the best way for these people to do business with each other.

 

It still seems bonkers though.

 

I remember the days when people on here used to wibble on about "common sense" and "joined up thinking".

 

Crazy world, eh?

 

[inky pete]

Common sense is a lot less common than you might think.