As ever launch

[AtIusvue]

Launches tomorrow.

So we will find out the prices and how the products will be sold

Bonne maman jars are excellent receptacles for tadpoles, sweets and little hair ties etc for the school Christmas fair, storing copper coins until it’s time to take them to the machine to be changed into real money. Meg’s modestly sized jar is too small for any of these and I suspect if you used it for pens as she recommends, it’ll tip over unbalanced if you store anything longer than a well -sharpened pencil or heavier a bic biro - not very elevated.
mostly however I am concerned by the pivot from strawberry jam (for her 50 initial jars, which looked normal-sized) to the raspberry spread for the masses. Raspberry jam is very much the poor cousin of strawberry.

Hilarious that there is zero mention of provenance which is the number one thing anyone selling luxury foodstuffs would be concerned with. Elevated straight from Taiwan.

that's a very good point.

Was that my Great Granny? 😂

According to The Mail the staff involved had to sign an NDA forbidding them from saying where it is manufactured.

Provenance like this?

Tell me that's a joke?

Nope. Actual quote:

They have even been asked to sign NDAs to keep secret where the products, including her 'fruit spread', are being made, MailOnline's source said.

'There is so much drama surrounding them once again that internally the team are over it before it's even launched', MailOnline's source has claimed. 'It's been a logistical nightmare and the buying team are having an issue as they can't work out what the demand will be, if any'.

My 320g jar of Waitrose No.1 Spanish Apricot and Ginger Preserve was £2.40 on special offer. I shall have to quietly pass it on to Daisy and Onslow.

I wonder how many of the sold out products have been bought by journalists and bloggers?

Surely you have to say where your product is manufactured? What about where the ingredients are produced? We know one of the problems with (deep breath) American Riviera Orchard is that the geographical element was 'too limiting.'

Apparently these products went from "coming soon" to "sold out" and back again within minutes of being on site. I haven't seen anyone say they were actually able to buy anything. How many were actually available for purchase I wonder?

Excellent @BasiliskStare, I’m now fully informed and aware of the size!!
unfortunately for Meghan it means I’m fully aware of the rip-off!!!

I’m very fancy !!! Only Gordon’s Mediterranean orange gin and Sicilian lemon gin for me!!! 😉🤣

Elevated, @jeffgoldblum , elevated. 😂

Has anyone added edible flowers to gin? I got this spray thing with a bottle of Silent Pool I was given for Christmas that is meant to improve the taste (why, it's gin, it tastes fine) but can't tell any difference at all.

Possible idea for the Whatevs range of Utterly Pointless Things Noone Really Needs, though.

I have frozen garnishes in ice cubes for drinks, not flowers.

Rosemary, basil or mint work very well in gin (much better than just dropping in the garnish, I guess the freezing breaks them down a bit?).

Mint cubes also great in a mojito.

Lemon does not, the cube goes all slushy.

That's an amazing shop! I could go in every week....

For food products sold in the UK, country of origin / manufacturer name / importer name should be present on packaging. Not sure about the requirements for food products in USA. I feel it is quite shady to deliberately omit this information on the label for edible items. For example, I look for origin of honey I buy these days, and avoid labels stating Mixed honeys of non-EU origin.

If I'm honest, I don't think this venture will work, for all the reasons that have been mentioned. But I hope it does. I think it would be best for their family, the BRF and the UK (because Harry is still seen as connected to us, hence Nigeria and Colombia rolling out the red carpet for them).

Is the spray meant to be spritzed into the tumbler or all around the person drinking it, thereby creating a fragrant herbal cloud that elevates the drinking experience?

@BasiliskStare

I never wanted to gin shame anyone, but I do love me pretty gin bottles.

For scale also included posh preserve I got at the Edinburgh Christmas market. 7oz Passionfruit curd.

ps. I still think Meghan should have gone down the perfume/jewellery route. Much more luxe.

Fortnum & Mason strawberry preserve is £5.95 and that’s proper posh…

I've just seen that for $15 you get 5g of flower sprinkles in a 2.5"x 1.5" tin!!!!! You won't be doing much sprinkling with that amount. You'd be lucky if you got a brief dribble.

You get 12 sachets of tea for $12.

This can't be a real business. I like nice food. I do things like go to artisanal bakeries that only open two mornings a week and where you have to get up at the crack of dawn and queue like you are in the Soviet Union to stand a chance of getting the bread you want. But I'm paying more because the products are nicer and healthier than mass-produced stuff and the flavours on offer are more unusual. As Ever seems to be targeted at people who are so obsessed with Meghan that they will spend money they can't afford on something mass-produced, tiny and ordinary. It actually seems a bit exploitative of the unhinged; the grocery equivalent of charging needy fans for a signed photograph (and where the signature has been done by machine). It's not aimed at discerning, cash-rich food-shoppers; it's a way of monetising the Squad.

And the whole language around the marketing strategy hasn't been 'buy this food'; it's been 'be there with me on the start of this new chapter,' 'support me on my exciting new journey,' 'have a keepsake to remind you of this moment you shared with me.'

It's horribly emotionally manipulative of a certain kind of suggestible fan.

No more different to celebrities in perfume ads selling a luxury, romanric, opulent lifestyle. You don't see those ads literally saying buy this perfume. The same can be said for many things marketed, cars...again it's not buy this car, it's selling a lifestyle the car brings.

Anyone produce a product, market it and sell it for what they like. If people want buy into it and spend their money to get it thays their decision. People spend money on lots of items that lots of other people wouldnt dare to pay like expensive handbags etc.

Selling a product for a lifestyle is one thing but asking people to support her and keepsakes is a load of 💩 . She's obsessed with herself.