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Shelves are
shelves, racks are racks right ?
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After
losing a lot of important documents during a
UK storm (rainwater damage), I opted to invest
in some archive shelving. It should be a simple
enough task. I recall famous names such as Dexion
Shelving, Impex and Spandex but felt these were
probably too much for what I wanted.
Basically
I wanted some medium weight archive shelving
that would live in my stationery closet. I began
shopping close to home and looked in the many
DIY superstores.
They
had workshop shelving but I was put off by the
way the display models had been erected ...
or thrown together.
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Picture
courtesy of E-Racking
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Although
I don't want industrial strength racking, I'd
like good strong British
steel shelving that would hold plenty of
box files, document storage boxes and a few
reams of copier paper.
Shopping
local wasn't a good choice, so I opted for a
thumping great yellow phone book.
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Picture
courtesy of E-Racking
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Quite
often the UK phone directories are not as simple
as they ought to be; let's say you are looking
for Widgets, you go to where you think they
ought to be listed and its says "for widgets,
see Widget Makers" , when you go there
it says " for Makers of Widgets see Manufacturers
and Distrubutors of Widgets". So by the
time you get the number, your mindset is different
from when you first embarked upon the quest.
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However
I picked up the phone, dialled the number (why
do we still say 'dialled' when there are no
dials?) the phone rang (they no longer ring
either!!) and rang, Finally, just as I was about
to put down the phone.
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I
heard some very heavy breathing before
" hallo Acme Superior Shelving ".
. I explained that I was looking for some
office archive shelving...."sounds
like you want racking mate?" ...
I wanted to suggest that they stopped
that kind of torture quite a long time
ago but my inner self held me back.
My
inner self also told me not to buy anything
from this person under any circumstances
but I wanted to know what the difference
was between shelving and racking. Somewhere
along the line I discovered from this
great shelving mentor that if you had
a door on a shelf it would be a cabinet,
if you had a door on a rack it would become
a locker. Apart from immediately thinking
of several exceptions to the rule, I put
down the phone wondering whether I wanted
Shelves, Racking or Lockers !!
I
had no intentions of speaking with another
balligerant supplier of shelves, racking
and lockers. Surf the net! I thought,
I called up Google and with the words
'Shelves,
Racking and Lockers' ringing in my
ears, I typed them into the ever helpful
search engine and just like Goldielocks,
I found the first two not quite right
but number three seemed perfect. The link
took me to UK-Suppliers
and thence to a UK supplier of Shelves,
Racking, lockers, mezzanine floors ( or
is it mezanine?) and even partition systems.
And
just like Goldielocks ... everyone lived
happily ever after except this was a nightmare
as opposed to a fairy tale. Whilst looking
at E-Racking,
it dawned on me the massive scale of industrial
shelving and mezzanine floors. The ability
to convert a massive wharehouse unit that
resembles a hangar into a fully functioning
storage facility before the three bears
can say 'bricks and mortar' (or should
it be the three little pigs?).
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copied and pasted a piece from E-Racking's
website just to underline this; e-racking
is the revolutionary on-line tool for instant
drawings and quotations for pallet racking
and industrial shelving products. Our transparent,
up-front pricing gives you the most accurate
initial quotation for your storage solution.
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Our
on-line design package makes calculating the
cost of anything from a few bays of office shelving
to a full warehouse design unbelievably easy,
and provides an accurate price and drawing in
an instant.
We
do not believe however, that the design of your
warehouse can be done entirely on-line, that's
why we have a team of experienced professionals
who can help and provide the right storage solution
for your needs.
I
felt a small fry with my one shelf for my accounts!
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