The Times wants your thoughts please

[GeraldineMumsnet]

The Times is doing a light-hearted piece on the re-emergence of pick 'n' mix post-Woolies in shops such as WH Smith, M&S etc and would like to know your thoughts.

Did you breathe a sigh of relief when you thought it had gone or did your children regard it as a treat? Did you regard it as a treat? Any thoughts gratefully received.
Thanks
MNHQ

[BitOfFun]

Oooooooh, The Times, eh? Bet nobody minds that

[CMOTdibbler]

I really don't like pic and mix - people always get their grubby fingers in it, and it ends up costing a fortune

[PitysSake]

we never went there as Wooolies
all contaminated wiht urine and snot.

kdis love it though ( obv) anwywhere else - we have had TWO new sweetshops openign in our town since - one a franchise of Mr simms old sweetshop and one a rough market stall type affair conveniently close to the cinema, where I belive water cost more than petrol.

[TrillianAstra]

I love the sweets in a pick n mix (mmm, foam bananas!), but I wish they had hanging scales that you could use to check how much money you are spending.

[BitOfFun]

My only pic 'n' mix anecdote is that my younger brother used to lick the sugar off the cola bottles and then put them back.

[Hulababy]

Never bought from one. I always think they seemed over priced when compared to an ordinary pack of sweets. Dd always looks when we go to the cinema but I don't buy. Also never convinced how clean the sweets would be!

[PitysSake]

no because that would stopyou.
i now smiggle in water to ODeon and take Haribos so they have got their pricign all wrong

[PlumpRumpSoggyBaps]

There's pick'n'mix in Smith's and M & S?? And etc too?

Excellent. Now dh and I the dcs won't have to sit through a film with a packet of chocolate covered raisins any more.

Woolies was the only place you could cherry-pick all the Brazil nut caramels out of the Roses section.

Not that I'd ever do such a reprehensible thing, obviously.

[TrillianAstra]

Brazil nut caramels? I thought it ws hazelnut...

[PitysSake]

see new franchise thing - all an utter rip off

[hobbgoblin]

My Dp has just introduced pick n mix in his teeny village store and the local kids LOVE it, as do I. The only offputting thing for me is swine flu. I am normally germ averse and NEVER sample food in supermarkets, etc. (unless Waitrose where the lady where's a proper clinical frikkin uniform!) so eating pick and mix kinda tears me in two!

[ruddynorah]

no i never saw the fascination with it. much prefer the old style sweet shop where the shop lady weighs out what you'd like. far better choice too. i remember woolies being more like quality street type sweets or mini mars bar type things rather than the old fashioned sweets.

[hobbgoblin]

My DP is available for interviews after 3pm and has nice armpits, btw.

[hobbgoblin]

Fried eggs an dmilk bottles and those fizzy cola bottles, and PINK MICE! What's not to love?

[PlumpRumpSoggyBaps]

Odeon pick'n'mix is desperately overpriced.

And I was violently sick after the only time I bought unwrapped pick'n'mix from there.

[PlumpRumpSoggyBaps]

No no- not the soft caramel ones with a hazelnut in the middle- the rock hard chewy ones covered in dark chocolate.

I have to eat them with front teeth only now, due to fillings situation, which is why I only eat them in private or in the anonymous dark of the cinema. No-one wants to see a grown woman doing a rabbit impression.....

[charis]

pick'n'mix is wildly overpriced. I just came back from camping where the village shop did a 10p and a 20p mix as I remember from my own childhood. much more hygenic.

[ThePhantomPlopper]

Ohh I love pick n mix, don't like getting to the checkout and being told I've just spend £35 on fizzy laces and imitation Smarties though.

My two are too young for pick n mix fortunately.

[OliviaMumsnet]

BadgersArse - LOL At the Mr Simm franchise address something " Badgers Croft" how Olde Worlde
We have one of those shoppes in my towne

[PitysSake]

they are very darke and olde and toursity

[morningpaper]

TBH, I'm not sure that the height of a swine-flu pandemic is the best time to re-launch pic 'n' mix

[OliviaMumsnet]

No tourists in my town though.
Except people who got lost looking for the stanstead express.

[artichokes]

Pick & Mix sweets are very useful for cake decorating (e.g. see caterpillar legs and antennae on my profile photo). No doubt I will hate them when my kids are older but for now I have told DD that they are cake decorations and can therefore only be eaten on cakes. She is dumb sweet enough to beleive me...

[JonAndHateTheDailyMail]

Have a love hate relationship with pick n mix.

It's not good to waste time repeatedly going into a shop to see if they enforce the 'no hands' rule, convince yourself they do, bite the bullet and buy some, only to see someone stick their dirty hands in the next day

[JonAndHateTheDailyMail]

Actually sugar gives you wrinkles so meh