“Six things I learned this year”

Expert Eye with

John Shepherd

Owner and Managing Director of Partridges

• Is our café a hero or a villain?
• “The battle for optimism and morale in retail”
• “Sustainable confusion”
• “What to do about January?”
• “Is the Christmas boom sustainable?”

We are now just about to enter our 45th year at Partridges. So much has been learned along the way and (dare I say it) quite a lot forgotten. However, in every year that passes there is, it seems, an increasing barrage of information attacking us from all directions, which becomes very hard to process let alone remember. So I thought that, as the year draws to a close, I would share various bits of unusual information that have managed to connect with my memory bank during the last 12 months. Here goes:

1 The Ole Line Dudes is a company that exists in New York to wait in line until your intended purchases finally reach the cashier. Their main business is queueing for iPhones and concert tickets and the like, but I understand they are quite prepared to push the wonky trolley up the queue to the till while the client goes off to have a time out. I suspect these are for shops a lot busier than Partridges!

2 Elvis Presley’s favourite sandwich was peanut butter, banana and bacon according to MSN.com, and Hilary Clinton eats raw jalapenos every day. Donald Trump’s preferred meal is apparently Filet-o-Fish from McDonalds, and Barack Obama is very much a broccoli man. The Food Timeline concluded that the Beatles’ favourite food was honey and their favourite beverage was tea. By the way, Leonardo Da Vinci was a vegetarian.

3 Talking of vegetarians, many people do not know that beer contains a product made from fish according to BBC News in September. It is in fact isinglass – a gelatine made from the swim bladder of fish which has been used since the 19th century as a fining agent to make beer clear, bright and more attractive. Its prevalence naturally causes a problem for vegetarians and vegans, so CAMRA is calling for alternatives.

4 City Pages announced that there is in New York a vending machine created by Pizzametry that aims to make fresh pizzas for customers in under four minutes. I love New York! Forget about Quattro Stagioni – now it is Quattro Minuti.

5 The List Verse recalled the great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist of 2012 when £6m of syrup (worth $18m wholesale) was stolen in a daring raid. It is for this reason that the province of Quebec has created a global maple syrup reserve to ensure there is enough syrup to meet international demand. Apparently it takes up to 13 gallons of maple sap to make a litre of syrup.

6 The LA Times revealed a phenomenon from Los Angeles called the Wine Rave which involves dancing, lights, music, glow sticks and actual wine. According to the mission statement, the aim is to get rid of the pretension that surrounds wine. “A wine rave is a state of mind… free yourself from colour… stop swirling and derobe.” Just imagine how many old school wine connoisseurs would be turning in their graves or even medocs at the thought of that.