#hk72posts — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #hk72posts, aggregated by home.social.
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We've just got a new sign to go outside the shop announcing that we have a bookshop upstairs. This seems to have resulted in an influx of people coming upstairs to have a look around, because "they didn't know we had books upstairs". This is despite the fact that there has been a sign outside saying that we've got a 3,000 title book department upstairs since it opened almost eight years ago, and a little sign in the window near the book display saying "More books upstairs".
Mind you, the new sign is just text on a background, rather than text beside a photo of bookshelves. Maybe that's it - the simpler the better, and yes, upstairs is virtually all books, except for 2 bookcases of CDs, DVDs, and records.
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Not quite sure how this happened, but I got home and announced that I couldn't buy any sausages at Morrisons, because there were absolutely no sausages at Morrisons (chiller cabinets completely empty, for some reason), and this resulted in us having take out* pizza for dinner.
*Technically delivered pizza
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Okay, that is thunder I can hear in the distance. It isn't raining right now, but probably will again soon.
Can't believe I'm so excited about rain (although I am trying to work out when I can go for a walk, and the answer seems to be "Not yet.")
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RAIN!
It's raining now, and from the look of the forecast, it's going to be raining until 16:00!
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Just caught sight of a notification saying "Rain stopping soon." Rain, what rain, it hasn't even started!
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RE: https://mastodonapp.uk/@HollieK72/116981584394837251
This is the last time we had any rain, and it wasn't that much. We are forecast a bit of rain on Thursday - will find out if it actually happens.
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TG Jones (formerly WH Smith) has just started a closing down sale in Droitwich.
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I passed the 1 million steps mark with NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenisis - or general walking around) yesterday - 1,006,416 steps.
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Was idly wondering why I felt rather tired after sorting through 17 bags and boxes (mainly boxes) of books this afternoon, but now that I've totted up the figures, it makes sense: 262 books to the warehouse as donations, 225 books to the warehouse for ragging, and 118 books for processing at our shop - a total of 605 books.
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Today's wtf moment was finding 15 cannabis leaves inside a Salvador Dali book that was sent to us by the warehouse. I think the last time I found ONE such leaf was a decade ago ...
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📚 Best Month Ever 📚
July's book sales were the best we've ever had - we sold 938 books for £2,509.98! 🥳
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July 2026 Books Read: 14
The Memory Police - Yoko Ogawa
The Library After Dark - Ande Pliego
The Ending Writes Itself - Evelyn Clarke
My Inner Child Wants To Murder Mindfully - Karsten Dusse
Everyone In This Bank Is A Thief - Benjamin Stevenson
The Caretaker - Marcus Kliewer
The Last - Hanna Jameson
Abandon - Blake Crouch
Departure 37 - Scott Carson
The Final Twist - Jeffery Deaver
Hunting Time - Jeffery Deaver
South Of Nowhere - Jeffery Deaver
God's Junk Drawer - Peter Clines
The Killer In Room Five - Sam Holland
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Go Ahead Drink Your Coffee - Don't Snort or Inject it.
Caffeine is poorly water-soluble in its pure form, making it a bad candidate for injection. It also does not dissolve well in blood or mucus membranes, making snorting or injecting inefficient and painful.
Caffeine mainly works by blocking adenosine receptors, preventing drowsiness. It has a milder, slower stimulant effect compared to dopamine-releasing drugs like cocaine, which flood the brain with pleasure signals. Snorting or injecting caffeine would not significantly increase its euphoric effects, unlike when cocaine or meth is snorted or injected. In addition, snorting caffeine would cause severe nasal irritation and burning. Injecting caffeine could cause severe cardiac arrhythmias. Even when used in a hospital by prescription (e.g., intravenous caffeine for neonatal apnea), it is very carefully dosed to avoid toxicity.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/addiction-outlook/202503/go-ahead-drink-your-coffee
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Just got a notification that we should be getting some rain soon - in about half an hour. Got really excited, and thought that yes, the air smells like it could be raining soon. Looked out the window, and the rain is here - apparently half an hour early! 🤣
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Did something happen in the sportsball? Just heard a neighbour shout and clap.
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Today's "What on earth?" donated item was an Avocado Love Heart Keyring. At first glance it was quite innocuous - nicely packaged in a small, square box, with a lot of packing material ensuring it doesn't get damaged in any way. The keyring itself looks sturdy, and the avocado halves with a heart-shaped stone, and a heart-shaped hollow are cute, if a bit baffling. Apparently it's a little gift to remind you of a big event - slightly weird, but maybe it has a market. Unfortunately, if you let the keyring dangle, it doesn't default to showing the heart-shaped insides, but the two avocado-shaped outsides, and gives off a totally different vibe. All the same, we have decided to put it out on sale, securely locked in the counter-top display case, and will not be selling it to any under-18s, even as a joke.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/meta-morphose-METALMORPHOSE-Avocado-Original/dp/B0DG971JP7
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If you're going to describe a book as being a post-apocalyptic And Then There Were None, it should actually follow the conventions of that book, and most of the people should end up murdered in one way or another, not be concerned with one person trying to figure out one particular murder, a few people dying along the way, and the majority of the survivors making it out to safety at the end. Sorry, Irish Times, have you even read And Then There Were None, or did you not read the book you were reviewing?
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Popped into the charity's main flagship shop to see what it looks like after a six week refit. First impressions are that they're really trying hard to make it look like a boutique shop, and not your standard, run of the mill charity shop. Clothes are on the left hand side of the shop, and have been split into several very colour-coordinated small bays. On the right hand side near the entrance is a donation point, and the tills are now at the back, near the spiral staircase. The right hand side of the shop has wooden shelving units with individual items displayed on each small shelf, and a new goods area. Upstairs still has a cafe occupying half the space, but the bookshop now has 2/3rds of the remaining space, and there's a new vintage goods area. Bookcase shelving has been rearranged so that there are 8 shelves for paperbacks and 6 shelves for non-fiction and hardbacks. Overall, fewer items for sale, so probably higher prices.
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Now that we've had notice that we have to raise our paperback book prices from £2.45 to £2.65, it appears that the decision wasn't really thought through very much (what a surprise!). After the initial email, we've had a further email to clarify that we don't need to reprice everything on the shop floor if that's not feasible, but can filter in newly donated and priced stock as we fill up shelves and cull old stock. Then there's been another email to ask us not to just stick a new sticker with £2.65 on it over the sticker with £2.45 on it, but to take the old sticker off first (no kidding!) or change the 4 to a 6 (which isn't a great idea). And finally, they've said that the warehouse is complaining that they're getting a load of culled books priced at £2.45 and they have to reprice them. Some shops with fewer books have obviously decided to cull and restock in one go so they are up to date and look good.
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Good news on the "expensive book" front, though. On Saturday, one customer queried the price of a book we had on display in our cabinet, suggesting that we'd got the price wrong, and then asking if he could use our computer to search for the "real" price. No - he couldn't. Then on Tuesday a couple were interested in the book, but then started to raise objections, including that it looked in too good condition for a book from 1976, that it didn't smell like an old book, and could they use our wi-fi to check the price? Again - no. This is a hardback book in a slip case, by the way, and at least three of us have researched it online, separately. We know it's not the less expensive 1979 edition; that's a different colour.
I relayed this tale to one of my fellow volunteers on Wednesday afternoon, who said her husband might be interested in the book, as he likes the author and his family had some connection to the author, and hey presto, he's going to buy it!
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Not to be cynical, but the fact that we've been asked to raise the prices on paperback books just before the charity's main flagship shop reopened after a six week refit seems to be a remarkable coincidence. They are going to have reopened with all books at the new price, but apparently we have to change our prices to fit in, or maybe to help pay for the refit. On the other hand, all we need is the front of our shop repairing and decorating - still no word on when that's going to happen.
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After getting the news that we've got to raise our paperback fiction prices to £2.65, it's good to find out that at least we don't have to reprice everything on the shelves, and only have to put out new stock at the higher price.
It's a relief to know that we don't have to reprice about 1,000 paperbacks in General Fiction, Crime, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, and Literature, just the smaller amount in the stockroom. It will take some of the sting out of the price change, both for customers, and for us. There's also the knock-on effect that if Fiction paperbacks have gone up, we also have to do the same for Non-Fiction, and consider how we price hardbacks.
I'm still not entirely happy about it, as I think we're coming uncomfortably close to the cheaper end of the discount book trade, but there's nothing I can do about it. It will be even more important to make sure that we put out good quality books, and have a good range.
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Saw a green woodpecker in next door's garden earlier today. Didn't get a photo, because it was on the lawn, and would have probably looked like a green blob on green grass. TIL why Professor Yaffle from Bagpuss had that particular name - he's obviously a green woodpecker.
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A customer approached me to ask about a book we have on display in our glass cabinet.
Customer: You're asking a lot of money for this book.
Me: We research valuable books, and the asking price reflects its value.
Customer: Can I use your computer to look up it up and check prices online?
Me: No, if you wish to do some research before buying, then you need to make your own arrangements.I'm really not sure why he thought we'd be willing to let him use our computer to show us that our price was not what he was willing to pay. I did wonder if he might have been a collector or a book dealer, but if he was, he appeared either clueless about the book's actual value, or was pretending in order to get the book dirt cheap. Sorry, that was a bad way to go about negotiations.
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Just found out that we've got to put our book prices up, via an email sent down "from on high". Currently we have to price paperback books at £2.45, but it's going up to £2.65 soon - once they've sent out the new signs announcing the new price. We don't have any choice in the matter, and will have to reprice quite a considerable amount of books when it happens. Current plans are to do Fiction first, and then Non Fiction as and when we have time, but that's still about 1,000 books on the shop floor to do "immediately" and a few hundred in the stockroom. At the moment it feels like we're pricing ourselves out of the market, but we'll just have to do the best we can to provide good quality books.
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Watching "If I Hadn't Met You," and I'm struck by the sheer number of trees that line the street outside the protagonist's house.
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Filled in the volunteer survey from the hospice today. In the "List 3 improvements that would make your volunteer experience better" I put:
Review and improve stockroom storage at our shop - we could do with better shelving, etc.
Better warehouse understanding of shop requirements for saleable items, and what makes items unsaleable - they do manage to send us stuff that isn't fit for sale, and it's very very annoying, especially if we sent it to them for ragging.
Consideration of the fact that we try to adhere to pricing guidelines, but also need to price for our local demographic, and for items like books and CDs, it's very much down to the volume we can sell - increasing prices can be counterproductive, and we're up to a good average of £2,000 per month on books, which would have been a pipe dream in earlier years.
Not sure that this will be listened to, but at least I've said it.
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Just got back from a shopping trip, where I successfully bought t-shirts, but didn't manage to buy any jeans. TIL that in addition to the slim, skinny, boyfriend, and mom jeans that I knew about, you can now get barrel jeans and carrot jeans. Yes, barrel jeans bulge out in the middle, and carrot jeans taper. No, I didn't feel motivated to try any on. Who wants to look like a barrel or a carrot? Couldn't they have found better names for them?
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Oh, apparently I didn't block all instances of that tag bloke on sight. That was careless of me.
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This is the first year that I've tried tracking the number of books donated to our shop, and what happens to them. It's not the full amount, as it's only the books that I've been able to count on the days that I'm in, but it's still pretty impressive.
Books donated Jan - June: 17,414
Sent to warehouse as potential donations (in saleable condition, but not relevant to our shop): 7,372
Sent to warehouse for ragging (not in saleable condition, but may make a few pence per kilo in recycling): 4,766
For processing in our shop: 5,276
Thank you to everyone who has donated - we couldn't do it without you!