[Lammarite]

Some mornings there are still some copies of The Standard left at the MTR station when I get there but more often than not, they are all gone- something I always found strange in that I travel at peak hours.
Yestreday I discovered why as I happened to reach the MTR at the same time as a few bundles of The Standard did.
Not only did I find out why there are rarely any Standards, but it also answered another question as to why there were sometimes lots of old people hanging around and other times none.
When the aforementioned bundles of The Standard arrived I was immediately surrounded by a throng of grey polyester with a definite odour of urine and Siu Mai all headed for the unsuspecting girl in The Standard t-shirt. Within seconds she was 7 deep in wrinklies and at one stage expected her to crawl out from under their legs with clothes in tatters. The scrum continued with no sign of abating so I gave up my attempt at purloining 30 pages of adverts and tender notices for fear of building up too much of a static charge. Plus I had to get to work.
Question answered- I learnt something yesterday.

[KnowItAll]

Was watching a good program a few weeks ago .... newspaper lining makes for good insulation for homeless people in the US.

[kombuchakid]

One copy of the Standard is worth 13 cents
So a Mickey D breakfast means grabbing 120 copies.

I rarely manage to get a copy as the aged brigade gets up earlier then I do.

Initially they would get single copies but now they have figured out where the distributors are and go at it wholesale.

Perhaps the Standard to hire these people to stand in the remoter parts of Hong Kong and give away the paper.

Though I fear in this case the poacher might not see the benefits of becoming a gamekeeper, and just pocket the wage and the 13 cents.

[Sleuth]

Out in the NT, if I look for one by 815, usually not a problem. Anything after is taking a chance.
But we don't seem to have Lammarite's problem. The cost of the train journey would outweigh the worth of the paper.

[Lammarite]

Outside Hang Hau MTR the urban goons were out in force holding the grannies at bay from the newspaper people. As you get off the buses there are 3-4 free different newspaper vendors and it causes all sorts of commotion and I guess people were complaining. The wrinklies looked none too happy!
The Standard says that 1 in 3 of their readers have a degree. Do they mention that the remaining 2 out of 3 have incontinence?!

[Sleuth]

I did notice that the Standard survives for about an hour where I am. Very short window of availability.

[DanielandHayley]

Not wishing to start a debate about the welfare state...certainly not on a Friday arvo anyway!...but it is a little sad, is it not, that the elderly of HK are reduced to this??

On another note, is it just me or has the Standard got progressively worse over the last 6 months or so?! I'm pretty sure that the 'Alex' and 'Dilbert' comic stips are all thats left worth reading...

[Sleuth]

Originally Posted by DanielandHayley

On another note, is it just me or has the Standard got progressively worse over the last 6 months or so?! I'm pretty sure that the 'Alex' and 'Dilbert' comic stips are all thats left worth reading...

They are just following the SCMP down the road of "professional PRC journalism".

[DanielandHayley]

Originally Posted by Sleuth

They are just following the SCMP down the road of "professional PRC journalism".

My thoughts exactly

[lulumay]

why is the standard worth 13 cents?