Thornton's Chocolate Shops Closing

[DianaT1969]

Not surprised.
Sorry for anyone losing their job.
Will anyone on here miss them?

I used to like their little bags of caramels and Brazil nuts and marzipan. The local one went some years ago.

Sad for their staff but their chocolate is vile so it’s not a surprise.

Growing up I used to love the slab of toffee and the chocolate covered toffee. Last time I tried some it just tasted horrible - not sure if it was my taste buds or if they had changed their recipes.

Either way - I’m not surprised but sad for the people losing their jobs.

They are a lesson in downgrading your product and expecting sales to stay the same.

We had some last Christmas as a gift, and they were horrid. Really oily and tasteless, left a film on the roof of your mouth.

I'll miss them. I popped into the local one every time I was in the shopping centre and since lockdown I've ordered online from them lots of times. I love their indulgent, old-fashioned chocolate shop style

Thornton's just don't make nice chocolate any more. It used to be luxury but now it's all quite tasteless. It's obviously hard on those that will lose their jobs but it's no surprise.

Hotel chocolate is lovely but very expensive. I like that you can get the selectors so you don't end up with a load of chocolates that you're not really fussed about. But I think they need to trim their prices down a bit or do some good offers or they won't last much longer.

Their ice creams was lovely. We bought a present for somebody in Thornton’s last Christmas Eve but there were 4 members of staff and no sign of any customers apart from us. As the rest of the shops were busy enough I was worried that they wouldn’t be long for this world.

Sorry for the staff and sorry to see the shops go but not surprised. Apparently they only had 61 shops left at the end.

@Bimini

I still miss strawberry pigs 🐷

Me too! My favourite thing to buy from there :(

Used to love the Viennese truffles, they would melt in the mouth and the filling was smooth. Had some last Christmas and they just tasted like mass produced chocolate. Was so disappointing! The boxes are overpriced and nothing special anymore. The other PPs are right, they have lost their market to Hotel Chocolat.

I'll miss them too, haven't been able to find orange toffee chocs for years now. Also going to have to find another cafe for my obligatory hot chocolate when I visit Bakewell :(

It was the height of luxury when I was a girl. My best friend’s sister was given a box of Thornton’s chocolates that was entirely edible - the box itself was made of nougat!

I coveted it.

As a teen I’d treat myself to six Viennese truffles in a little bag...I got my babies’ Easter eggs and Advent calendars from there...they provided my first taste of pistachio ice cream, and the strawberry and cream ice cream was to die for.

It’s a real shame they devalued the brand. Happy memories.

Aw, and I used to use my didlum money to buy my BILs the toffee with a special little hammer for Christmas.

Very nostalgic now!

I used to like vanilla truffles but not sure they even make them now.
Perhaps it was just me buying them!

Their biggest mistake was selling to places like Asda, tesco, Sainsbury's. If you can pick it up there, then there's no incentive to go directly to the Thornton's shop. I think they changed their recipe anyway in more recent years, so it became sickly and oily. Shame as it was a nice treat in the early days.

It is a shame, apprently Hotel Chocolat just overtook them.

I read a terribly depressing article about just how many shops are due to close in the year ahead what with bastard brexit and covid it is going to be really grim in our town centres

Not surprised - another casualty of the lockdowns. I used to go in regularly as their shops sold lots of things that weren't available in supermarkets. I hope they keep the full range on their website.

Shame that so much public money was spent on furloughing their staff and other grants etc in the expectation they'd re-open and recover after covid. The length and frequency of the lockdowns has really knackered so much of the economy.

What happened to the quality of their chocolate? Did they do a Cadbury's and fill it with shit?

No, their chocolate is greasy and horrible

@TheMostHappy

Their biggest mistake was selling to places like Asda, tesco, Sainsbury's. If you can pick it up there, then there's no incentive to go directly to the Thornton's shop. I think they changed their recipe anyway in more recent years, so it became sickly and oily. Shame as it was a nice treat in the early days.

But there was so many of their products which weren't available in the supermarkets. I think they tried to keep a reason for their shops (i.e. the range that supermarkets don't sell), but in the end, probably did themselves more harm than good because the supermarket ranges were pretty poor, so probably put off customers rather than drive potential customers to their shops.

I'm not surprised. This last year a fair amount of their stock has been donated to the local foodbank as it was going out of date and they weren't allowed to open.

The one at the Trafford centre was lovely. I bought my favourites in the little bags. They had lovely ice cream too .

I was comparing it to hotel chocolat earlier. HC is pricey but worth it, whereas Thornton's isn't any more. I had been thinking about getting DD an Easter egg with her name iced on, funnily enough.

It's another empty unit in our local shopping centre though, on top of DP, Topshop, Burtons, Debenhams. Very sad.

I've lost two fillings over the years to Thornton's chocolate covered toffee but I still loved it [wistful].

The quality really nosedived, so dramatically. Back in the 80s, their broken chocolate bags were our treat after Easter, and my mum loved the Viennese truffles, so every Christmas we'd buy her a luxurious whole kilo of them. I bought myself a nostalgic bag a couple of years ago and they tasted of absolutely nothing.

They used to be a big treat, as other posters have said, loved their viennese truffles and apricot truffles, even used to send them over to our friends in America. Sadly they changed the recipe, tasted cheap and nasty and sold through the supermarkets or at the till in WH Smiths, completely devalued the brand, whoever made that decision made a huge mistake, their cafes were good, lovely cakes and you got a chocolate on the saucer...such a shame for their staff

Their chocolate was horrible, no doubt due to cost cutting measures. It’s a business that hasn’t kept pace with the times. However, I am sad to see yet another business disappear from our high street and do worry about the decimated state of the high streets, so many names gone now. Those huge vacant department stores are really going to be an eyesore and they were anchors for so many towns and shopping centres. And of course sorry for the loss of so many jobs, where are those people going to go? Not everyone wants to be an Amazon / deliveroo driver