Re: Television magazine


"Dave Walker" <spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:3nem6bF167uoU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> One of todays bank holiday tasks was to fill the van with junk from
the
> loft, so the expedition ventured into the far corners. On top of a
'new in
> box' squarial was a pile of 'Television' magazines from the late
70's,
> early 80's. Apart from noticing how expensive everything was back
then, the
> covers struck me most. They seemed to alternate between a geek
buried behind
> a mountain of test equipment and a bird in her undies smiling to
camera as
> she holds out an obscure piece of TV innards. Times change.

The letters page, as times changed, had various one man TV repair
outfits writing to lament the increasingly uneconomic progress of the
trade. While they were individuals of integrity trying to do a good
job, customers were taking an increasingly hostile view as repair
bills a substantial part of the cost of a new set. I believe this led
many businesses to subsidise the repair side from the sales side just
to keep the customers sweet.

The consequence of this was for many to restrict service/repairs to
the equipment they had sold, since if they did not, consumers bought
cheaper at the sheds but came to them for the service subsidised by
their own customers.

I wonder how the numbers who were forced to change trades/learn new
skills, compare to those in the more publicised aspects of the decline
of the traditional smoke stack industries.

Roger


.

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