Ready Steady Blog » Eastleigh

The ‘Staycation’ Lures Holidaymakers

Vari McLuskie — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:41:49 +0000

Nearly a third of holidaymakers were lured by the prospect of a ‘staycation’ this summer, choosing to take their holidays closer to home in the UK or staying put at home.

People changed their holidaying habits this year, with almost 30 per cent stating that they took fewer holidays in general. Around 20 per cent indicated they saved for one long trip, while a further 20 per cent prefer shorter breaks and less long holidays.

Despite the recession, families understand the importance of taking their holidays. They are simply changing the way they take a break. Many holidaymakers get excited at the prospect of staying closer to home, preferring to explore the delights on their doorstep, which is great news for the local economy.

Change and survive That’s the message from local businesses

Jacky Kearns — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:35:35 +0000

A third of local businesses claim to have changed their product and service offering over the past six months according to our latest study.

Firms believe that redesigning and packaging their businesses in a different way has been a critical survival strategy to tackle the recession.

However, just under 50 per cent of businesses have cut back on staff – including redundancies, wage and bonus cuts, recruitment freezes and unpaid leave – to save money. In addition, marketing seems to have taken a blow with 15 per cent reducing yearly spend. A massive 70 per cent have also cut back on staff incentives to stay with the company.

The study shows how determined some companies are to beat the recession come what may. Taking positive steps to evolve their business strategies, combined with implementing cost-cutting measures, are pivotal to their survival and success.

However, two thirds of companies are not changing any aspect of their business offering and a third has no recession strategy in place, which we find quite surprising.

Typically business owners can save tens of thousands of pounds every year by relocating the contents of their commercial warehouse or office storage space to a self storage facility, reducing rental costs by up to 90 per cent.

Twitter

Dominique Van Roey — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:28:13 +0000

This week I’ve had my induction to the wonderful world of twitter and have started tweeting on behalf of ready steady store.

We will be posting daily updates on the progress of our events and news. Follow us on selfstorageUK

Helping Children in the Philippines

Dominique Van Roey — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:30:11 +0000

We have teamed up with The Philippine Community Fund to help collect valuable supplies to build the largest school in the world made from recycled shipping vans – a first of it’s kind. The school will be large enough to offer education to every child who is working on the Philippine open dump sites, making child labour a thing of the past for these children. On 28 April, we helped fill containers with school and office furniture, building supplies and tools to be shipped to the Philippines.

Ready steady store is also currently home to hundreds of pairs of Wellington boots. 90 per cent of school children are child labourers on the open dump sites in the Philippines and the Wellington boots will give their feet protection from the garbage and flood waters that settle where they live during the rainy season.

Great work from the Eastleigh store!

Spread a Little Happiness this Easter

Dominique Van Roey — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:34:21 +0000

I just wanted to say a big thank you to all those who came to the stores on Pancake Day for our charity pancake toss. We raised over £300 for local carers charities! These charities are dedicated to providing respite and support to people caring for another person within their home and are fully deserving of our support.

Congratulations to each of the winners of the pancake flip competition – your ipod shuffle prizes will be in the post shortly!

We’re now gearing up to our Easter charity event.

This Easter, we are supporting local refuges near each of the stores. Help us by donating chocolate Easter eggs for children staying in our local refuges. Simply bring your chocolate eggs to the stores nearest you and spread a little happiness this Easter.

Whilst you’re in store, make sure you also enter our Hunt the Golden Egg competition for the chance to win a family pass to Alton Towers or Chessington World of Adventures.

ready steady store will be collecting Easter Eggs from 9 March to 9 April 2009, Monday to Friday, between 8am and 6pm or between 9am and 6pm on Saturdays.