If, hypothetically, you were a manufacturer of custom-built mobility aids

[kaberett]

... would you site your showroom and workshop:

(a) near well-serviced public transport links,
(b) somewhere with decent pavements,
(c) five miles from a train station that's only accessible while staffed, because while unstaffed they turn the lift off,
(d) on an industrial estate with few (poorly surfaced) pavements, fewer dropped kerbs, and non-existent maps, or
(e) c and d, for bonus points IN THE SNOW.

You know. Hypothetically.

(I am mostly amused. I am also very firmly of the opinion that I am going to find a mother or a partner or a someone to drive me back out there for collection rather than public transporting it again, not least because the cheaper route turns out to contain Lichfield Trent Valley station, which for reference is a terrible idea and Not A Friend. In case you were wondering.)

Comments

[pseudomonas]

I have a picture somewhere of a shop of mobility aids and devices for people with bad backs in Lausanne, on a street about 40° off horizontal.

[pseudomonas]

(to be fair, few streets in Lausanne are much flatter)

[ewt]

(f) anywhere I could afford to pay the rent, as people who need custom mobility aids are going to need them whether it's easy or hard to get them.

But, sigh.

(I am sad to have missed the snow. I am getting to the point of seriously considering blowing off a bunch of commitments in order to take a train to a place with snow so that I can make a snow angel. London is broken.)

[kaberett]

So the mobility aids in question have a base price of £1500 if they're the specially reduced knockdown-price ex-showroom models and get very, very rapidly more expensive from there. My usual supplier manages to do just fine on managing points (a) and (b) and they're entirely a reseller, rather than the actual manufacturer, which is why I'm... a Little Unimpressed.

(There wasn't enough snow to make snow angels in -- just enough to be cold and slippery and make my hands stop working, alas! Which I suspect will either be helpful or Really Not, as information goes.)

[catyak]

So if they're reselling it to you for £1500, the manufacturer is probably selling it to them for £750. The manufacturer's workshop has to be located where they can afford to pay the rent on the property and where their staff can afford to live/work. It's probably relatively easy to get to by car.

[kaberett]

I reiterate that they are the manufacturer.

[davidgillon]

Oh, *headdesk*

But colour me unsurprised.

[vass]

*groans hollowly*