THORNTONS - shame on you!!!

sunflower_2

just been to a wedding fair in a shopping centre, they had a chocolate fountain and to sample it u just had to donate some money to the childrens charity

anyway my son wanted a go - but he was told he couldnt because Thorntons had complained that they were giving away free sweets upstairs to their shop

the shopping centre management had therefore told them they could only display the fountain and collect the money for charity - but couldnt let anyone sample the sweets/choccy from the fountain

how awful and tight of Thorntons? and its for charity aswell!

louise540056

That's terrible- although doesn't surprise me much! I used to work part-time in a Thorntons' shop/cafe and there were some awful tricks to entice customers!!

Horasio

Shame on Thornton for enticing us with high fat, naughty but delicious confectionary. Actually, it isn't as good as it used to be.

I am intrigued by their tricks tho'.

hollydays

i dont really understand .Explain please!

hjb123

I think thats awful - I would complain to Thorntons and see why they did that.

Hollydays - think what its about is there was a wedding fair on, a chocolate fountain on display and if you wanted to have a dip of the chocolate you paid some money to charity, Thortons complained and got it stopped so you could only look at a giant fountain of running chocolate! - Thats the way I understood it!

Lady_K

Well that has put me off Thorntons thats for sure. What shopping center was it?

hollydays

morally very poor.

wobbley

Thornton's are a business and as such like to make money through sales. They will no doubt pay horrendous rental and council tax for a store in a shopping centre. Usually in centres the types of business are controlled to promote healthy competition but not to saturate (at least they should be). If someone opens a stall or store close by that gives away sweets or chocolate then it's going to impact on the sales at Thornton's. Imagine someone doing the same business as you opening up just down the road and offering their services or product for free, wouldn't you be concerned.
Anyway, if it was the NSPCC that was the "Children's Charity" - they're a business anyway. I don't know how they get away with claiming they are a charity. All they ever do is print a few leaflets and put the odd advert on telly. Most of the money donated to them goes on anything but helping children.
Chocolate is bad for children's teeth anyway so consider it a lucky escape!

anewman

wobbley wrote:

Anyway, if it was the NSPCC that was the "Children's Charity" - they're a business anyway. I don't know how they get away with claiming they are a charity. All they ever do is print a few leaflets and put the odd advert on telly. Most of the money donated to them goes on anything but helping children.
Chocolate is bad for children's teeth anyway so consider it a lucky escape!

I obviously diverge from the original topic. Apologies to anyone unhappy about this.

I have to agree unfortunately. They put all these shocking adverts on TV trying to instill negative feelings in viewers in order to solicit donations. Unfortunately abuse happens behind closed doors and the nature of abuse makes it private and unless the NSPCC has some sort of psychic abilities to reveal which children are going to be abused I don't think there's much they can do. Yes, they will be a business as they need to legally run as a business to be able to employ people to do their work and organisation etc etc, and I am not certain how far you have to go and do things to retain charitable status.

I for one would like to hear what money has really done for children than see a shocking TV ad. It would be nice to see real children/adults (who used to be children) who have escaped and overcome extreme difficulties and problems in their lives - and see a direct link between the money. Numbers would be nice too.

Only thing I am aware they have done worthwhile is to raise awareness of the abuse of children.

gregg1

sunflower wrote:

just been to a wedding fair in a shopping centre, they had a chocolate fountain and to sample it u just had to donate some money to the childrens charity

anyway my son wanted a go - but he was told he couldnt because Thorntons had complained that they were giving away free sweets upstairs to their shop

the shopping centre management had therefore told them they could only display the fountain and collect the money for charity - but couldnt let anyone sample the sweets/choccy from the fountain

how awful and tight of Thorntons? and its for charity aswell!

For the record, I have just come back from our local shopping centre and my daughter wanted to try the Thornton's chocolate fountain. When we got there, this kid in front was stood right up close to the fountain and SNEEZED straight into it. Needless to say, Thornton's chocolate fountain is off the menu for us from now on - maybe you had a lucky escape. I also do not like some of Thornton's stores way of having the loose chocolates completely open on the stands (they used to be behind a glass cover). So many times I have seen people go past and cough and sneeze near em. Yuch!!!

wobbley

gregg1 wrote:

For the record, I have just come back from our local shopping centre and my daughter wanted to try the Thornton's chocolate fountain. When we got there, this kid in front was stood right up close to the fountain and SNEEZED straight into it. Needless to say, Thornton's chocolate fountain is off the menu for us from now on - maybe you had a lucky escape. I also do not like some of Thornton's stores way of having the loose chocolates completely open on the stands (they used to be behind a glass cover). So many times I have seen people go past and cough and sneeze near em. Yuch!!!

I don't know if it's still there but there was a stall in the White Rose Centre in Leeds with a chocolate fountain. It had a sign up saying that if you stuck your fingers (or anything else!) in the fountain it would cost you £400 as they would have to stop, empty, clean and sterilise it.