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SONIC BOOM

If you thought that local retailing was the only industry to be thriving during lockdown, you’d be wrong. If a press release from a West Midlands manufacturer of sound insulating foam is to be believed, the sonic foam industry is also filling its boots in the pandemic.

The company, called eFoam, says sales of sound insulating products have increased by 240% under lockdown. The reasons offered by the company for the sonic boom include noisy neighbours, Zoom calls and people working from home.

Charlie Barrett of eFoam said: “Pre-pandemic, our acoustic foam was being purchased mainly by recording studios and musicians such as drummers, who were converting garages or spare rooms into practice studios to help insulate the noise. But now we are receiving enquiries from people saying they need something to insulate their home from noisy neighbours, as they haven’t slept properly in weeks.”

TESCO MAKES A BOOBOO

As a very data-driven company, Tesco has made great use of its extensive Clubcard data – but with so much data to manage, mistakes can happen. A good example is a Tesco loyalty club customer who was less than impressed to receive a new card addressed to Mr Tit Wank.

Apparently, a certain mister John Morton of Bordon in Hampshire assumed it was a prank but opened the letter it to find a genuine Clubcard bearing the name.

Morton promptly got in touch with The Sun, as you do: “It left my wife and I very upset as we’re loyal customers. I don’t think we’ll be shopping with them in future.”

THE CLOUD FOR EVERY SILVER LINING

PPE is a touchy subject these days. Iffy insider dealings, friends of friends making fortunes from securing contracts to provide it, half of it being unfit for purpose. All of that fun stuff. But there’s another sinister side to PPE. Yes, PPE made it possible for us all to go outside, but one cloud to that particular silver lining is an environmental one: apparently an astonishing 53 million disposable face masks are sent to landfill every day in the UK.

We’ve all seen the masks carelessly strewn across supermarket car parks and lying in the gutter, and new research from TradeWaste. co.uk suggests that the total number of masks discarded carelessly could be even higher than the landfill figure.

A survey of 4,500 people found that only 10% of the 58.8 million masks at use on any given day in the UK are re-used. The other 90% are simply disposed of, either carefully or not. Now there’s a thought...