The Archers - Freddie is getting OUT: will Russ hop it? Helen is falling DOWN: is Lee still in the frame? Tom is heading UP: will Natasha be the boost his sausage needs? (Thread no. 101

[DadDadDad]

We're still here and still discussing TA (The Archers). We welcome newcomers and old hands, so if you have a question or a point of view, please dive in. No spoilers - if you've seen info on future storylines, there's a separate Radio Addicts thread for that.

I loved all the name changes on the last thread. Don't forget to change back! (If you want to).

Who's going to get Russ out of LL? Freddie? Lily? Elizabeth? Or is it Freddie who will head off?

Sounds like it might be something Susan could do?

Susan runs the village shop and the post office, I think she used to run the estates office. I would have thought she was well able to contribute to running and expanding retail side.

Wasn't it Shula who managed the Estate (in the 90s)?

I don't remember Susan ever doing so - but I've had the odd break from listening ...

As for getting involved in the new business - I guess it'll depend on how Susan feels about Natasha at the relevant moment. Or who it will enable her to feel superior to ...

We get a weekly organic veg box from a local farm. I can go onto their website and add other items to the basic box. Ecover products, free range eggs, organic chocolate, nuts etc etc. Apart from being an app, rather than a website, I can't figure out the difference between what my veg box farm has been doing for years and what Natasha is proposing.

I struggle to understand the situation with beef from the Angus herd. Surely they're not selling it elsewhere whilst buying in beef from elsewhere for the shop? If they haven't got as far as slaughtering any of the herd yet, wouldn't it be pretty automatic that, when they do, they would use at least some of the beef for the shop? I don't understand why any of this is a novelty.

I can get James White organic fruit juice delivered with my veg box, if I want.

I remember Shula doing some sort of Land Agent exams and working in the estate office, yes. Did Betty Tucker possibly work in the Estate office as a secretary at one point? I always used to get her and Susan confused when my listening was more sporadic. Or was Betty the Doctor’s receptionist?

Who's going to use the app, and who, under Susan' guidance or otherwise is going to fill and deliver them?

Susan worked in the doctor's surgery.

I struggle to understand the situation with beef from the Angus herd. They used to sell the Brookfield beef in the shop, but now they are going to sell their own.

who, under Susan' guidance or otherwise is going to fill and deliver them?

Maybe Susan would pack the non-veg component and then the veg and delivery would be much as they do anyway?

Riverford has been doing the online organic veg, meat & more delivery for decades - I've been a customer for at least 10 years.

I get veg, meat boxes, bread, milk eggs & kefir every week & can add on loads of other stuff if I choose.

Yes, kefir. Hard to understand why Tom couldn't make a go of that. It's hugely successful.

I think it was down to the fact he has the attention span of a 3 year old.

And Natasha is not particularly interested in it.

Did Alistair go to the same business school as Tom? Surely he would have had some discussion with LJ about what his role would entail before signing on the dotted line? He's going to be calling up Anisha for a job at this rate.

Josh was cruel to him. But spot on!

I thought it was rather ridiculous that they thought that Tom and Natasha had taken out a huge loan to do this app, but bridge farm would use it for free!

Also Tom's next question after finding out about the credit card should've been whether she had any more debt! I foresee loans, many loans! (Sorry mystic bore, I'll give the crystal ball back now!)

Alistair is such a wuss. Most sixty-somethings who have been in a senior position would make the right noises to new-boss and then do exactly what they wanted to do regardless, whilst thinking "stuff your appraisals".
And fancy getting bested by your forty-years-younger nephew!

Has Alistair ended up with any profit from the sale of his business? It can't all have gone on repaying the Anisha-made-me-do-it loan.

Though I daresay the SWs are as hazy on this as I am ...

He may have had a small profit ... that then immediately disappeared in the divorce settlement.

And isn't Shula buying him out of his share of their home? (What with every Archer except the Northumberland branch jumping around the chessboard I've entirely lost track of the Stables money-go-round.)

And what Natasha wants …

Am I alone in looking on Tom and Natasha as the Archers answer to Harry and Meghan?

*Wasn't it Shula who managed the Estate (in the 90s

Shula managed the land/estate aspects as the land manager.

Susan managed the office, clients, day to day stuff with buyers/service suppliers etc. Pretty much as she has done in the shop/post office and other random jobs I can't remember. She is an obvious person to help running an online business as despite the fact she irritates me to hell she does actually try to keep up with trends in business and what customers want. Something which Pat'n'Tony seem to have lost in recent years.

Most sixty-somethings who have been in a senior position would make the right noises to new-boss and then do exactly what they wanted to do regardless, whilst thinking "stuff your appraisals".

Yes that was my reaction. I also can't understand how someone whose career to date has consisted of selling services and who was married to someone whose business was selling services is apparently unable to comprehend the concept of selling of services being critical to the success of the business.

He must be the only vet in England not greeting his customers with an insurance policy (usually after a horror story of vets bills and poor sick pets dying for want of treatment).

Yes, kefir. Hard to understand why Tom couldn't make a go of that. It's hugely successful

Because they don't deliver it, they don't sell online and they are not reaching enough of the market who will buy it and they were not growing their market. Natasha's comments on all that were spot on. Veg boxes are a means of distribution for all their products, especially since the closed the shop in the town.

I share your bafflement about Alistair's reversion to someone who's just starting out and doesn't have the experience to challenge what he's being told. Also, with five days to go, he appears to only just be discovering both that he will be working with another vet (whom he's never met) and what some of the expectations around his role are.