To not understand the trend for 'hampers' as presents

[Lockdownlumpy]

Am I the only one who doesn't get, or go in for this trend?
My Facebook is full of people selling or making 'hampers' but I'm not talking about a wicker basket and luxury food, these are a plastic basket with a few things from the pound shop wrapped in cellophane.
I just don't get it. Most contain pound shop shampoo and soap. For me those are essential items and therefore not a great gift, unless they are lovely luxury or special versions that I would never justify buying for myself.
If you and your family like these I am not knocking you at all, taste is individual after all.
I'm just wondering, am I the odd one out here? Or anyone else like me and just doesn't get it?

@Kissthepastrychef

Could I ask you all...

I make cakes (as in pastry chef, registered etc, bona fide chef) as a home based business. One of the companies I sell through has been encouraging us to list postal hampers for Christmas gifts.

If you were buying or receiving a postal cakey hamper what sort of thing would you like to see in it ? I was considering one being a selection of festive themed iced cookies. And a proper hamper including stuff like a bag of meringue kisses, fudge, a small Christmas cake, a jar of a lovely festive jam or curd, suitably flavoured marshmallows, two small festively decorated chocolate slabs, mince pies etc.
What sort of things would you like to give or receive ?

@Kissthepastrychef that sounds delicious, I’d live to receive that.

As for content, I’d be very appreciative of stollen, as you only tend to see it at Christmas and it’s one of my all-time favourites. How ablut some Scottish oatcakes to go with jam too? Perhaps proper home made Turkish Delight or Nougart as well.

Good luck with your business.

A have an acquaintance who has a very successful business selling "crafted" stuff, a small amount is stuff she's actually made, Xmas secs and the like. A huge amount of it is very ordinary stuff in cellophane with a ribbon. Eg shower gel and a flannel or a box of celebrations. She always makes a mint at Xmas fairs etc. I assume it's because people have no imagination to go, hey I could easily do that myself or something nicer.
On the other hand a very talented artist friend struggles to sell enough of her hand-printed prints and cards to make a Xmas fair stall worthwhile.

The problem is that people making these want to make money - so yes, unless the items fell off the back of a lorry, they have bought them for less than selling.

The people selling these hampers are making a profit. No – people aren’t doing the best they can, they are stuck in vicious cycle, where limit to spend impairs your decision making.
What is sad is that people on a ‘dead-end’ budget (where there is no more money to spend beyond a certain amount) will think differently than those who could spend more. (but set a budget to spend)
This is the same for any decision and that’s also why poverty is so brutal. It limits your choices but it doesn’t make the options better: often the spend is less in absolute terms (i.e. 15 instead of 20 or 25) but it is not less in relative terms. You could buy these items separately for less, of course.

Never go food shopping hungry or full: because you will want everything and be blinded by choice or you will want nothing, not feeling the need. But the same applies to other options.
Marketers know this too.
When I had little money, everything in the shop seemed attractive. When I did have money, suddenly I wasn’t so keen to part with it, and instead of ‘only xx amount’ I viewed most as ‘Is this worth xx amount”. The difference was the ability to spend and the power of choice.
And this is always magnified at Christmas time. We’ve done Secret Santa (with a set budget) for almost 15 years now. We started when my siblings were gown enough to understand that there is not enough money for gifts. It has made Christmas so much lovelier and we do it still now, even though the are grown up with jobs and we could all buy gifts for each other.
But I do understand how the precarious position throughout the year makes people want to give something / anything, even if it means putting yourself in debt.
And that’s what is sad about it. Plus all the cellophane. In the bin, in the landfill.

We really have to work on making excess seen as bad and getting those at the top to pay their taxes.

I can imagine them perhaps being good for anyone very hard up, otherwise TBH I wouldn’t think of giving one.

We were once given one by guests coming for dinner, on Christmas Day. The house was stuffed with food anyway, and it contained things like Christmas pudding and cake - both of which we had plenty of - and marmalade laced with whisky - why TF anyone thinks marmalade is improved by whisky I will never understand.
I suspect that the relatives who gave it had themselves been given it and just couldn’t be bothered to think of anything else.

I once won one in a raffle, a few days before Christmas. Very nice hamper, but we just didn’t need it. I phoned the local Salvation Army to ask whether they’d like it - someone turned up within about 20 minutes!

DasPepe
I hadn't thought about it like that.

I just found it initially baffling that being on a budget would mean spending 3 times the Harper's contents for the privilege of someone wrapping it in cellophane when the logical thing would be to get a nice gift to the same value, or if the contents were right for the recipient to buy them separately.

It does seem like some of their appeal is how good they look under the tree rather than the gift.

Then again I also wonder how many wicker picnic baskets people must need as they tend to be the display box of choice for more pricey ones.

YANBU - However; there's a particularly nice brand of jam that's popular in our home county (we moved away when buying our first property) and my MIL makes up up a hamper with all our faves from the range every year for Xmas. Including a few special ones only available that time of year. I absolutely LOVE it!

As for all the others i see on FB - soaps, home made stuff ect; that's a no from me. I wouldn't use any of it 🤷‍♀️