Roses chocolates - a bit of a con

Salz

It's also a tradition in our house - in addition I always buy a tin to take into work in lieu of Christmas Cards - this year they are getting a tin of Swizzlers (sp?), so Lollies, drumsticks etc. I thought it would make a change as the idea seems to have caught on so everyone does it now :T

epsilondraconis

The most shocking part of the OP's post wasn't that product sizes are getting smaller over the years, it's that they have some very out of date provisions in their larder. I hope I don't get invited around for a bite to eat.:D

I work from home and if we have any sweets in the house, I can assure you that I'll track them down and eat them. We always buy some tins of chocolates at Christmas (we like to call it our little 'tradition' ); however my wife has to think up more and more elaborate places to conceal them otherwise they disappear. It's a barrel of laughs in our house!

sunnysea83

This is definitely a tradition in my family. I remember when I was a kid and we went to my grandparents for christmas both always bought a large tin of quality streets or roses (usually one had one and the other the other), my parents also do the same and so do I and the rest of my family (aunts, cousins, sisters etc). Its the only time I ever buy or eat roses or quality streets and would agree that its a family tradition in a lot of homes. I think the fact that you can generally only buy these at christmas time would prove that its become a bit of tradition in a lot of households.

I too take a tin in too work and we usually receive tins from clients etc also.

hcb42

margaretclare wrote: »

If I ever ate chocolate at all it would be something like Green& Black's. Cadbury's is more sugar than chocolate, and I wouldn't buy it.

Dont cadbury own Green and Blacks?

~not that I buy any - not a tradition in my house and never has been!

esuhl

peachyprice wrote: »

Perhaps not a 'con', but definitley misleading purely because the tin has remained more or less the same size, the price has remained the same, but the contents have shrunk.

If Cadbury's were still filling the to the same weight they'd cost twice as much and people would not buy so many.

Exactly - they want to sell as much as they can; why would (or should) they do something counter-productive?

I love salmon, but if it trebled in price, I would buy less of it and would probably prefer the packs to be smaller (and correspondingly cheaper) so that I could still afford to treat myself occasionally.

The only thing I can think of that would fix this, would be to require all food price displays to show the price per kilogram too. That way, people would be able to see that their favourite chocolates are, say, £15.20/kg, and it wouldn't be so hard to notice price (per unit volume) increases.

I don't think it's fair to blame Cadbury for responding to market forces in (what they presumably thought to be) the most efficient way. And I think it would be unrealistic to force businesses to only sell products in certain weights, and would cause brand fragmentation and a loss of "identity" if clearly distinct packaging was required between different sizes. Such an approach would seriously damage the economy.

Gigervamp

hcb42 wrote: »

Dont cadbury own Green and Blacks?

Yes they do.

A tin of Quality Street or Roses at xmas has been a tradition in my family for about 40 years.

My MIL goes to church on xmas eve, it's one of her traditions, it's never been mine, but I don't ask her brusquely "Why do you go to church? When did this tradition start? I've never gone to church!" :rotfl:

SwanJon

Sorry for going off topic but

V_Chic_Chick wrote: »

as vegetarian atheists ... we still celebrate Christmas

If your faith is strong enough to call yourself an atheist, why celebrate a Christian festival? Why not celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanza, Winter solstice, Yule etc.

QuackQuack_2

The reason for the reduction in the amount of Roses was explained by a senior member of staff:

"We are now owned by Americans. As a result they take a handful of sweets out of each tin to help them maintain their morbid obesity"

Seriously, Quality Street suck bigger. Some of the sweets are now smaller and the quality of the chocolate seems to have changed. But Nestle don't agree:

"We believe that the popularity of this product shows that we have achieved a successful balance between taste and value for money.

We always try to maintain the highest possible standards for our products and apologise if, on this occasion, you feel we have not succeeded."

Paul Jones - Nestle Customer Relations

I'm glad they feel that way and I'm sure they don't care about the odd fiver that I, or other people who feel 'conned', won't be spending on their product in future.

That said Roses are just over 825g this year - what will it be in 12 months time?

esuhl

SwanJon wrote: »

Sorry for going off topic but

If your faith is strong enough to call yourself an atheist, why celebrate a Christian festival? Why not celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanza, Winter solstice, Yule etc.

Social custom and tradition...?

If your faith is strong enough to know that you're a heterosexual man (assuming you are), why not wear a dress?

I'm atheist and for me the Christmas period is nothing more than something to break up the long winter; a time to spend with friends and family.

Christmas is essentially just the modern form of ancient pagan rituals celebrating the equinox. Most of the iconography is decidedly non-Christian - trees, Santa, stockings, turkey, goose, brussels sprouts, tinsel, crackers, tins of Roses. It can't be considered a fundamentally Christian festival at all. It's just the legacy of the pagan festivals after Christianity tried and failed to subjugate the population into abandoning paganism, then realised that a more subtle Orwellian re-branding excercise would be a better way to control people's beliefs.

Azari

esuhl wrote: »

If your faith is strong enough to know that you're a heterosexual man (assuming you are), why not wear a dress?

:rotfl: :rotfl: