"Mum charged £47 for two bags of pick and mix from Cardiff Winter Wonderland"

[sunnydaytoday0]

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/mum-charged-47-two-bags-25576870

When I saw the headline I was shocked someone would pay that much for a couple of bags of sweets even at a place like winter wonderland, which like tourist traps and a lot of attractions are going to be very expensive.

However on reading the story the company isn't wrong in saying that the price per 100g was displayed, as well as a weighing scale being available, plus the mum let her child start eating the sweets before they had fully paid so couldn't put them back?

I don't think the stall has really done anything wrong? Apart from it being very expensive, but then that's why I don't buy stuff from these sorts of places.

@oakleaffy at the same festival as the novelty pick n mix bus there was an amazing artisan fudge maker (and probably more) and we bought lots from them and it was delicious even though it was probably more expensive than the novelty bus. From them we really felt we were supporting a local business as well so double win.

Last time I checked, you could buy loose fruit and veg in supermarkets and you had to work out what that cost by weighing it on a scale and printing off the label.

So it's not like price per unit weight is a new concept?

😂Utter carnage 🍬🍭🍭🍬🍬🍭🍭🍭💥🤯💥🤯

This company were at a big sporting event that I attended in the summer. I saw the prices and allowed DS around four bits of fudge (it was still definitely more than a fiver). A friend was less controlled and spent nearly £40. Fudge is so dense and weighs more than it looks. Coupled with the high price and the fact that this company seems to operate in busy, high octane environments I can 100% understand how people get carried away. It’s basically their whole business model - heavy sweets + chaotic, busy environment + excited kids = parents spending too much and feeling obliged to pay.

I totally agree that the parents could and should have walked away, but realistically I can very easily see how it happened. I’d hate to work on their till and have to see the shocked looks / tears from kids / arguments all the time.

The mum in the story probably isn't the type to buy vegetables.

You don't need to be experienced or educated to know that 1.6KG of sweets is a lot of sweets. That's ten big bags of Haribo.

If you were in Tesco and your child had asked you to get her some sweets would you get them five bags of Haribo?

I wonder if it was the same outfit?
It was gorgeous fudge - almost malleable, really lovely texture and flavour.
Fudge can vary a lot- Theirs was the best by far I’ve had to date, really fresh.

Some that one sees is very hard and not as fresh.

😂

😂I know - plus all the seasonal coughs and sniffles at this time of year. I have a really high threshold of acceptance for what I will accept when it comes to buying food/ drink from markets etc whatever the time of year but that bus set up was way too exposed!

It’s basically their whole business model - heavy sweets + chaotic, busy environment + excited kids = parents spending too much and feeling obliged to pay

Sometimes I wish I was a bit less 'moral' - as it seems there are plenty of ways to take advantage of people who don't understand basic maths and are in a rush, with demanding children.

Lol. I I didn’t actually, I was just commenting on my observations of the stall. Maybe you need that stick up your bum removing.

You can “make memories” aka “living life” with children, by painting the spare room with cheap emulsion in your pants, going to a fabulous free museum with a Tesco meal deal on a bench afterwards, cinema and cheap popcorn, picnic on the living room floor, Carol or other religious service, baking for some charity thing.

Honestly I hate all this capitalistic Insta-fuelled pressure that “memories” are only made by going somewhere really commercial and letting yourself be robbed blind.

I’ve been poor, well off and middling as a parent. When I splash out, I splash out on things I want to spend money on that I arrange ahead of time. I hate the idea that families have to turn up to some rip-off venue and just open your wallet. I’ve always explained to the kids that £20 for a burger is ridiculous so no, or it’s ridiculous but just this one time let’s try them, and see how they compare to what we can make at home. It doesn’t ruin the fun ti take your own sweets into the cinema and just buy drinks for example. It’s something that teaches the children something. Let them work out how many extra cinema tickets the difference in sweet prices would buy in a year. You’ll end up with savvy adult kids.

Oh dear this has got me quite exercised. Much though the mother in the original story is an idiot many others are just being guilted and pressured.

It really concerns me that people who can’t afford it are feeling pressurised to do this shit. Because it’s when you’re skint and counting pennies for Christmas presents that the parental guilt can get to you. When you have a healthy bank balance you can do the budget versions of things and it feels a deliberate choice.

I hope nobody is putting big incidentals on credit cards. It’s such a tough year this year.

It was a really local company to the event - did your event involve cars by an chance?

No, I wouldn't have thought that at all! When still teaching Maths I used to give examples of common things eg a door is about 2m, a bag of sugar is a kg, a can of Coke is 330ml, a cubic metre is about 3 washing machines, the traffic on the road outside school is about 30mph so they could see if their answers are reasonable. We still got Jane is 15m tall, a jumbo jet flies at 25mph and so on, so no, I don't have gret expectations!

Has anyone bought pick n mix from a cinema recently and can tell us the price per 100g as a general comparison?

How big were the bags they were handing out must of been massive not to be really full with 800g sweets in. I really dislike this sort of thing, my kids probably think I’m awful for always saying no.

Adults should know that 1.6 kg is a lot of fudge.

I wonder what the Dad thought - as he knew that it seemed expensive

She bought 1.6kg of fudge. For it to be £20 like she wanted, it’d need to cost 80p per 100g. People need to make a living doing this sort of thing, I doubt they’re making millions selling fudge to idiots like this woman.

I really dislike the narrative that if you’re “disadvantaged”, everything is someone else’s fault. It’s very infantilising.

Ahh remember penny sweets? I used to love picking out a 100 sweets for a pound and watching the cashier count them (and making you put some back if over !)

The bags are really large as you can see on this man’s TikTok video https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFxS43oW/

I once paid £15 for two bags of Lindt pick and mix. I was very shocked!

We have a fudge shop here. It's priced per 100g. I think it's very expensive just to buy 1 piece as it's very dense

I’ve found a couple of pictures from their twitter feed.
You can see that the bags are huge. Also, the prices are clearly displayed.

OMG that bag is massive 😮

I suppose if you’ve got a massive bag then even if it’s a quarter full it costs a fortune. They should give out little bags that hold 2-300g of sweets to kids. I’m sure clever statisticians can tell you handing out massive bags increases average spend. I’m pretty sure hardly anyone is a return customer.