Newspaper sales at stations

[Shrop]

Yesterday I wanted a paper to read on the train.

My train was due to leave in 10 minutes and I had the right money available, so all seemed well. I offered this correct money to the lady who was handing out drinks, which has always been welcomed for many years, decades even, but yesterday was different.

She told me I could only make the payment via the man who was taking the orders, who was serving a queue of a dozen people, most of whom were ordering drinks, cakes, and having discussions about the format of their purchases.

Now I don't support queue jumping, but many, many customers want to make a quick purchase with their train time approaching, yet they're now forced to wait behind an often sizeable collection of people waiting to make quite time consuming transactions.

Can anyone think of a way around this, other than to arrive at the station 15 minutes earlier, just to make a 2 second transaction?

 

[Iskra]

Digital newspapers or BBC News app

 

[birchesgreen]

Handing out drinks? Is this about free bottles of water or something? Or a kiosk?

 

[Trackman]

Well some WHSmiths at mainline stations had a solution then got rid of them. Honesty Boxes.

 

[462cd]

The old fashioned solution was newspaper vending machines, but they never really took off in the UK and even if they had, digital media would have killed them off by now.

Somewhat ironically, the only physical paper I ever read now is the occasional Metro I'll grab from a station (usually just for the Lidl vouchers!).

 

[Dai Corner]

I expect most if not all those buying drinks etc were rushing to catch trains too.

Back in the day, the assistants at John Menzies at Bristol Temple Meads knew their regular customers and had their paper/magazine ready to hand over as they arrived, taking their money with the other hand at the same time. A very slick operation!

I think there was a newspaper vendor outside selling the Evening Post to homegoing commuters too.

 

[greyman42]

Yesterday I wanted a paper to read on the train.

My train was due to leave in 10 minutes and I had the right money available, so all seemed well. I offered this correct money to the lady who was handing out drinks, which has always been welcomed for many years, decades even, but yesterday was different.

She told me I could only make the payment via the man who was taking the orders, who was serving a queue of a dozen people, most of whom were ordering drinks, cakes, and having discussions about the format of their purchases.

Now I don't support queue jumping, but many, many customers want to make a quick purchase with their train time approaching, yet they're now forced to wait behind an often sizeable collection of people waiting to make quite time consuming transactions.

Can anyone think of a way around this, other than to arrive at the station 15 minutes earlier, just to make a 2 second transaction?

Which station and retailer was this? I always buy a newspaper when i travel and use W H Smiths which operates the same way as a high street store.
Were you travelling from a smaller station with limited retailers?

 

[Shrop]

My apologies, I should have made my original post clearer. I was in the buffet at Shrewsbury station, and one person was taking orders, while another was handing out the drinks when they were ready. Due to the lengthy queue where the orders were being taken, clearly with a fair bit of discussion with each customer, I offered the correct money to the member of staff who was handing out the drinks when they were ready. It was clear that standing in the queue would be likely to take between 5 and 10 minutes, and I wasn't sure I would have this much time available before my train left. I wouldn't have asked to make a transaction in front of anyone else if I'd needed change or had any other questions, but on many occasions previously I've handed over the right money in this manner and staff have been very grateful, not least so they don't have to find change etc.

 

[Llanigraham]

It is quite probable that the person you asked to take the money is not authorised to do so, so would be quite correct in refusing to accept your cash, plus if your item needed to be scanned through their system, which is more than likely, then they would not be able to do this.

And I've no doubt they were also very busy serving coffees.

 

[Sm5]

They still print newspapers ?