On 24 Jan 2021 at 4:33pm I Say Ding Dong wrote:
Well yes I tried. Perhaps hoping to buy a 5W sidelight lamp (bulb to many) in a town the size of Lewes on a Sunday was a mistake. The options including Screwfix included a couple of filling stations and Tesco where you used to be able to get the most basic of car bits (air freshener and the like). No joy at any. Screwfix don't have them as a stock item for click and collect, BP Malling Street have a multi lamp/fuse set that includes several that my extremely unusual Ford Mondeo doesn't require so its a pointless purchase £10 for a lamp that is realistically £1.20 or so. Tesco filling station - See Malling Street (but cheaper). So tomorrow it's a wander around the garages (Avoiding Harwoods my Lottery numbers didn't come up). If I'd need a HID Xenon lamp I could understand it but a sidelight lamp really? Oh for the car spares shop that is now Bills Restaurant or Brian's Lewes Motor Spares in Western Road. Remember folks shop locally, use it or lose it etc. Too late Lewes is fast becoming a joke unless you want a Vegan Loaf or or a vegetarian shirt.
On 24 Jan 2021 at 5:26pm Cedric wrote:
Try the Busy Bee at Ringmer, they usually have them in stock.
Failing that try Colas in Ringmer.
On 24 Jan 2021 at 5:27pm Sparky wrote:
The most obvious place is a car parts shop like CPA bang opposite Screwfix although they're not open on a Sunday.
On 24 Jan 2021 at 5:51pm David Stanley wrote:
Yes Car Parts by screwfix are good and will happily sell you one lamp for £1.99 or similar whereas other places want to sell sets.
On 24 Jan 2021 at 6:49pm I Say Ding Dong wrote:
Cedric, thanks but Ringmer is bit of a hike on a Sunday and I mean hike as of course it's an offence to use a car on the road with a faulty light even in full daylight when lights are not required and the point of my message was the inability to shop locally. Those in Ringmer it would appear are better able to shop for simple items like car lamps than those living in the county town. The nearest option that nobody is suggesting is a walk to the Offham filling station which is actually closer and flatter than all of the locations around Malling Street Brooks Road and the industrial Estates. Shop locally - of only I could.
On 24 Jan 2021 at 6:54pm I Say Ding Dong wrote:
Thanks Sparky - CPA are closed at the moment you have to ring in advance order the part and then collect it from outside the goods inwards entrance. As you say they are not open as it's a Sunday. My point was I wanted to shop locally for something that I needed (100% essential shopping as to use a vehicle at anytime with a failed light is an offence). It just isn't possible to do this for a really simple item yet the town jumps up and down when I choose to cycle to Halfords at Newhaven or Brighton where I know I can get the item anytime because I'm not giving my custom to a local outlet.
On 24 Jan 2021 at 7:01pm I Say Ding Dong wrote:
David you sort of hit the nail on the head, I could get the part from CPA next week. And as I've included in a previous response they are only partially open at the moment. The trouble is I need it today and I would happily buy a set if the set actually included the lamps that my vehicle needs namely HID Xenon for the main running lights - these retail at around £45 in Halfords so will never be added to general lamp sets from filling stations. All I want to do is shop locally but for a simple item needed on a Sunday it's not possible. When will Lewes wake up. If it wants my custom it better do so soon.
On 25 Jan 2021 at 7:59am TheGardener wrote:
Then get yourself a simple car, with simple standard bulbs. Or why not keep a spare set in your car in the first place.
On 25 Jan 2021 at 8:47am Hamlyn Fourteen wrote:
@ISDD Think ahead and carry a spare set. Would you drive without a spare wheel?
Do you have spare toilet paper or do you wait to run out of that as well?
On 25 Jan 2021 at 12:11pm Nevillman wrote:
I understand you are frustrated because the particular item you want is not available on the particular day you want but it doesn't sound like a huge hardship. Not long ago no shops at all were open on a Sunday apart from corner shops. The situation is likely to worsen. Fewer people are buying things like this from shops at all and there will inevitably be fewer shops in the long run. As for a car bulb, it is now so complicated to do it, I leave it to Halfords to supply and fit. There can't be that many people who are even capable of fitting their own anymore so I can understand why the car parts shops didn't survive.
On 25 Jan 2021 at 10:53pm David Stanley wrote:
Seeing as we are constantly hearing about the housing shortage in this country maybe we should use some of the empty commercial property as accommodation .
On 26 Jan 2021 at 8:48am Nevillman wrote:
I'm sure that many of the shops from the bottom of cliffe to the bottleneck were originally houses and the ground floor was converted to a shop. When no longer required as a shop they can convert them back into houses.
On 28 Jan 2021 at 6:17pm Tom Pain wrote:
Do you think the lockdown might be having a tiny effect? I mean with most shops closed it could be limiting your choice a tad.
On 7 Feb 2021 at 6:57pm I Say Ding Dong wrote:
The Gardener wrote "Then get yourself a simple car, with simple standard bulbs. Or why not keep a spare set in your car in the first place." Well Mr Smartarse let me give you a bit more info just to make you look like a total prat. Not that you need my help. It is a simple standard car. It's a 2008 Ford Mondeo. It has the standard bulbs as fitted to the specific model by Ford. Now the small matter of keeping a spare set. I purchased the vehicle on the Thursday - worked Friday and Saturday and spent Sunday double checking everything, tyre pressures, fluid levels oh yes and lamps. That's right at the very first opportunity I sought to put together a suitable set of lamps. There are for your information multiple lamp types including HID Xenon dip beam - these are almost £50 each and I have now got two spares! Those along with the standard lamps came to over £100 retail, that's £100 that didn't get spent locally - especially as a car parts specialist didn't have them all either. Now rather than you giving me advice why not accept a little from me. Shut up when you don't the full facts. There that is so much easier than shopping locally.
On 7 Feb 2021 at 7:15pm I Say Ding Dong wrote:
Tom Paine wrote "Do you think the lockdown might be having a tiny effect? I mean with most shops closed it could be limiting your choice a tad". It's funny how none of the places that might have the requisite items were open and trading. Wow I'd never thought like TP, that perhaps the clothing boutiques, charity shops, bookshops and pubs would have all had a selection of car lamps. Oh if only I was clever enough to think of that I wouldn't have wasted my time try all the places that sell car spares and that are open on a Sunday. I'm so stupid I just wish I was as clever as TP. In fact I think I'll start on some self improvement tomorrow - I'll pop into Flint Owl and book a holiday then go home via St Peter and St James where I'll pick up a couple of pounds of organic spuds.
On 7 Feb 2021 at 7:33pm I Say Ding Dong wrote:
On Mon 25 Jan at 12:11pm Nevillman wrote a considered response. However the point is that you can't buy the items needed in Lewes, the fact it was a Sunday was as it turned out bit of a red herring. Sadly there was a degree of hardship, the vehicle for which the lamp was required had been collected (2nd hand) three days earlier and was needed on the Monday - It is an offence to use a vehicle with a malfunctioning light. I needed a replacement lamp and it had to enable me to comply with the law to be available within walking/cycling range. (Halfords Brighton is 25 minutes cycle from the Prison Crossroads, I now know!)
He is right not all or indeed many shops used to be open on Sundays however in this case there were a number of outlets long gone that once Sunday trading laws came into play were open, Lewes Motor Spares and the Car Parts store that is now Bills (Was previously Tesco I believe) Additionally there were more garages and these all had displays of lamps in the petrol sales area not just the workshop. I'll list Mansfields, Caffyns Western Road, Dixons (Western Road) Ruggs Station Street, Wellington Motors, Malling Street Service Station and the filling station by the Bottle and Basket in Malling Street. There was even a specialist motorcycle outlet in East Street - Redhill motors and of course motorcycles often like the early VW Beetle and others ran 6V electrics and needed 6V lamps. All of these at various times were able to supply lamps, belts, wiper blades, radweld, pints of oil etc. etc. Now you cant buy these things separately in the town, its Halfords so a trip to Newhaven or Brighton. All I want to do is shop locally but the shops in Lewes do not cater adequately. Perhaps the suggestion of reverting many on the high street back to residential units would be a good thing.
On 3 Mar 2021 at 11:38pm IDM wrote:
Going back to the 7 Feb comments about the effect of lockdown on finding the motor spares. Without going into yawnsville SI details, there are two lists. The first includes businesses which have to close; there is nothing here relevant to motor spares. The second is EXAMPLES of businesses allowed to continue open. This includes MOT testing sites, petrol stations and garages (that is, motor repair premises). Businesses offering only motor spares are not in either list; but perhaps there aren't any! So lockdown in itself should not have affected your chances of finding spares - it depends on whether the three exempted businesses happen to sell them.