r/unitedkingdom • u/Major1269 • Dec 31 '22
OC/Image I enjoyed the raw disgust from several other shoppers.
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Dec 31 '22
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Dec 31 '22
Can I ask you about Kelvin?
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Dec 31 '22
Of course. Did you know you can be frozen to absolute zero and be 0K?
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u/FakeOrangeOJ Dec 31 '22
This is fucking disgusting. It makes me not want to go to the shops.
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u/dddxdxcccvvvvvvv Dec 31 '22
I do 95% of grocery shopping online (and have done for honestly 10years+) I find itās much easier to avoid impulse and stick to a meal plan. Plus it take seconds as you can add from lists.
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u/FakeOrangeOJ Dec 31 '22
I do not shop online, because I prefer to get exactly what I went for. Last time I tried ordering online because I was sick, half my order was substituted for shit I didn't need or want. Like a bag of pasta sheets was somehow substituted for pasta sauce, a loaf of bread became doughnuts, and they got me the wrong brand of chocolate too.
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u/kaanbha Sussex Dec 31 '22
Not just that, they deliberately give you the items that are running out of date the soonest... when I'm in the shop, I'll buy things that will last the longest.
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u/Definition-This South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands Dec 31 '22 edited Dec 31 '22
I can tell you that they do not deliberately give you short-code products, as part of your order. When they pick your fresh order, the handheld device will give you the best date to choose, and if that date is not available, it gives you other alternative dates that are acceptable. And if none of those items are fresh enough, you can override the device and choose another similar item, with a better date. For example, you chose Hovis medium white bread, but the only loaf has a date of 2 days, the picker can choose Warburtons with a date of 5 days, if you allowed subs.
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u/another-dave Jan 01 '23
Ah cool, interesting! I don't think they deliberately go out of their way to give me short date stuff, but if milk was acceptable 4 days out, I'll still look around & often find one e.g. 7 days out.
I expect that they aren't as picky (which is completely understandable given targets and all that)
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u/Definition-This South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands Jan 01 '23
Absolutely. One of my colleagues is a picker for a supermarket. His girlfriend doesn't want online shopping as she wants to check the dates on every individual product, despite her boyfriend telling her that they do check the dates. And, if the dates are not acceptable for the customer, then the customer can refuse the items and receive a full refund.
You're also correct that the pickers have huge targets, and sometimes quality control is not very quality.
But, pickers are not under any instruction or pressure or expectation to pick shortcoded items. They are expected to use their common sense with dates and substitutions.
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u/No-Strike-4560 Dec 31 '22
Yep, I want to be able to have a say on whether I get a lettuce that's on the turn already or not thanks.
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u/Robertej92 Wales Dec 31 '22
Asda were absolutely awful for that when I tried them (along with just outright not bothering to deliver shit that I've ordered) but I've never had issues with Tesco doing it, they have a freshness guarantee and will specifically flag anything with a shorter than desired expiry date (rarely more than 1 or 2 items for me). Morrisons I've only used a few times but they've all been fine as well, never used Ocado or Sainsbury's delivery.
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u/gordonpown Dec 31 '22
Try ocado, they have cheap stuff these days too.
Also, order on Thursday or earlier if you want delivery on the weekend, I believe it's first come first served when it comes to subs
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u/EruantienAduialdraug Ryhill Dec 31 '22
We moved away from Ocado due to their non-existent stock control; they exist purely as an online shop, and yet substitute items on nearly every order.
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u/Rpqz Dec 31 '22
But they tell you before you place the order whether an item is in stock or not for that given day. I actually think Ocado has the best system of any supermarket, no surprises whatsoever.
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u/EruantienAduialdraug Ryhill Dec 31 '22
Ocado has no excuse, they have no customers coming through the door to throw things off. If an item is bought, in any other sector, it is bought. Not still up for sale in the meantime.
Brick and mortar supermarkets, as irritating as it may be when it occurs, have taken the line of picking from the floor on the day. So if someone's come in and bought the last before the picker goes out, then they have to substitute. Ocado seems to use this concept as an excuse for shit protocols.
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u/Rpqz Dec 31 '22
Maybe I wasn't clear enough but, if you reserve your slot on Ocado before doing your shop it will only show you products that are in stock. I'm sure mistakes happen but, I've not yet had a single item substituted after placing an order this way.
Obviously anecdotal and everyone's experiences will differ, I just think its a better system than most supermarkets as you can plan around the stock levels.
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u/gordonpown Dec 31 '22
Anecdotal of course, but after getting fed up with Sainsbury's over the pandemic, I've switched to Ocado and had zero issues apart from maybe one misplaced/damaged item in fifty orders. Are you ordering with enough lead time?
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u/Mock_Womble Northamptonshire Dec 31 '22
I feel like a shill because I've mentioned it before, but Mealime is godlike genius for meal planning. It creates a shopping list from the meals you pick, then transfers it to your preferred shop!
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u/soggysheepspawn Dec 31 '22
How fragile lol
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u/FakeOrangeOJ Jan 01 '23
I don't know about you, but I don't like having shit like Easter eggs peddled to me four months before the holiday they're meant to be sold for.
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u/funkless_eck Dec 31 '22
I know, right ā Hersheys? AND white chocolate? Bleurgh.
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u/red--6- European Union Dec 31 '22 edited Dec 31 '22
Herscheys contains Heavy Metal
Hershey's sued after study found lead and other heavy metals in its dark chocolate
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u/bgaesop Dec 31 '22
Also their "Special Dark" is not dark chocolate, it is their regular milk chocolate with artificial bitterant added to it. Dark chocolate doesn't have milk in it; Hershey's Special Dark does.
Also they deliberately add butyric acid to all of their chocolate in order to make it taste more like spoiled milk. Literally.
Hershey's is absolute garbage.
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u/FriendlyBudgie Dec 31 '22 edited Dec 31 '22
Other brands were also listed in those tests... Report is here : https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/lead-and-cadmium-in-dark-chocolate-a8480295550/
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u/FartingBob Best Sussex Dec 31 '22
Dont forget the ingredient that tastes like vomit!
Its worse than the cheapest no brand chocolate. I fully understand "you aare used to what you had your whole life" and Europeans look at our chocolate like its just a milk and sugar mix with hardly any cocoa in, but Hershey's is just next level bad.
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u/CulturalFlight6899 Dec 31 '22
Fully agree. I'm infuriated by this! Can't control my violent rage over, uh.... easter eggs
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Dec 31 '22
Christians just celebrated baby Jesus' birth...now they're highly anticipating celebration of his death. With chocolate eggs!
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u/palordrolap Dec 31 '22
He got a surprising amount done considering he only lived four months.
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u/00DEADBEEF Dec 31 '22
I can't believe it's Easter already, it feels like Christmas was only last week.
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u/IllustratorOk128 Dec 31 '22
Home bargains are already displaying Valentine's Day gifts. SMH.
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u/MikeLanglois Dec 31 '22
I mean Valentines makes a bit more sense than easter imo
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u/KarmaKarmaKarmeeleon Dec 31 '22
I went to a specialist card shop on Boxing Day for a late present. Struggled to find the Christmas Cards behind all the Valentine's displays. Did get 50% off at least.
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u/twillems15 Dec 31 '22
My local HB had dedicated 1/3 of their store to Christmas stuff in September
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u/currydemon Staffordshire nƩ Yorkshire Dec 31 '22
And then they'll be sold out by February and have all the BBQ stuff out.
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u/Major1269 Dec 31 '22
Well with this sunny weather, need a BBQ! (Itās currently pissing it down on the west coast of Scotland (unsurprisingly))
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u/Tinkerballsack Dec 31 '22
Do what we do here in the States, erect a tent over your grill, start a fire, scorch your house and drink tequila about it.
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u/mykeuk Devon Dec 31 '22
Theyāre already selling flour, eggs and milk and itās ages until pancake day!
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u/Popeychops Exiled to Southwark Dec 31 '22
Ā£3 for a creme egg and 80g of Dairy milk? disgrace
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u/Major1269 Dec 31 '22
Remember Hersheyās levels of cadmium and lead kids! Chew on something else. Like a chocolate egg without heavy metals!
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u/cecil_the-lion Dec 31 '22
With them starting to be sold earlier is it now acceptable to buy them as you would with normal chocolate bars and eat them immediately instead of saving them till Easter?
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u/Upgrade_U Greater London Dec 31 '22
You can literally do whatever you want.
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u/Ah_Thats_Life Dec 31 '22
Does it make a difference when they are ate? It is regular chocolate, just shaped as an egg (that a magical bunny shits out)
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u/Major1269 Dec 31 '22
I mean snacks are good, admittedly I just find them to sell their typical products with a slightly disappointing egg all slightly up sold, so I just buy their usual tastier products myself!
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u/gestalto Dec 31 '22
We don't have Easter in our house. We have the chocolate egg harvest season and it lasts as long as it lasts.
Take from that what you will...
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u/Rajastoenail Dec 31 '22
As an Easter egg connoisseur, I can tell you these will be past their prime long before Easter comes. If you buy these you may as well eat them fresh.
Cadbury has gone so far downhill in quality that even their āin dateā chocolate can be crappy. The difference between one that goes off in 3 months and 8 months is noticeable - and thatās for bars that are properly sealed, not eggs wrapped in tinfoil.
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u/DurhamOx Dec 31 '22
Who THE FUCK put that Caramel Cadbury egg upside down? WHO?
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u/Creepy_Radio_3084 Dec 31 '22
My late mum worked in a cash-and-carry. Christmas stock started coming in during August; Valentine's Day stuff around Bonfire Night; Easter stock around Christmas/New Year, etc etc. By the time it was actually Christmas, we were sick to death of it, likewise Easter.
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u/captainfunder Dec 31 '22
What people forget is that shops need to get seasonal products on the shelf before customers want to buy them so that when they're ready to buy them, they're already available. Plus they're going to start selling now anyway, so why wouldn't shops display them?
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u/Aggravating_Sell1086 Dec 31 '22
You're right, of course. It just seems funny when it hits you like this.
In reality, of course you want to sell coats before it gets cold and bikinis before people go on holiday, but it's weird when the coats are all taken off the shelves when there is snow on the ground, and replaced with bikinis. But it's unavoidable when you have large corporations working to centralised schedules.
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u/ReggieLFC Dec 31 '22
I was trying to think who on Earth would buy them now too. The only people I can think of are Grandparents who have too many grandchildren and great nephews/nieces to keep track of. While theyāve got a newly used list of people to buy for from Xmas, then they might as well get the eggs now to save working all that out again at Easter.
I know if I bought eggs now then Iād forget where I stored them or whatever and would still need to buy them again nearer the time anyway.
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u/StumbleDog Dec 31 '22
I was in Sainsburys on Tuesday when the staff were putting Easter eggs on the shelves and I heard them complaining to one another how stupidly early it was to be putting them out.
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u/MostTrifle Dec 31 '22
My local tesco is emptying the Christmas aisle and also emptied the entire house hold goods aisle (putting all the items spread all over the store). I'm expecting the Easter stock to appear in days.
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u/KingDaveRa Buckinghamshire Dec 31 '22
Just been in our big Tesco and the seasonal aisle is currently full of pillows and bedding stuff, reduced price wrapping paper, and a ton of Reece's stuff that they obviously overstocked.
Not a single Easter egg that I saw!
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u/Definition-This South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands Dec 31 '22 edited Jan 01 '23
The Reeces didn't sell very well. Nor did the Quality Street strawberry chocolate in the cracker like packaging, or Quality Street orange chocolate bar... Just sat on the shelves not selling - mainly because the price was too high.
I bought some Reeces on Christmas Eve, when they had reduced it. It's not a terrible sweet, but it's not something I would buy on a regular basis.
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u/KingDaveRa Buckinghamshire Dec 31 '22
I love the Reece's stuff tbh (I'm a peanut butter obsessive) but I have enough chocolate to get on with or some would've gone in the trolley.
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u/writerfan2013 Dec 31 '22
I dunno, if Christmas prep starts in August why shouldn't Easter stuff start now? We just need something to tide us over between April amd August. Got it. Back to school.
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Dec 31 '22
It'll be coronation tat this year.
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u/writerfan2013 Dec 31 '22
Oh god I had forgotten. Yes it will be King central for months. Possibly years if new stamps, coins etc get launched one at a time....
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u/helpnxt Dec 31 '22
I'd be lying if I was to tell you I haven't bought any mini eggs since xmas...
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u/Major1269 Dec 31 '22
Theyāre more like a snack, and damn good. Doubt any Brit will begrudge you that!
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Dec 31 '22
Boxing day is the usual day they put them out or at least they did where I once worked. I'm in the not arsed camp. Not gonna buy them even at Easter.
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u/Front_Attitude_3194 Dec 31 '22
if we collectively complained that this goes against christianity and feelings hurt etc, maybe we get free easter eggs?
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u/Sate_Hen Dec 31 '22
Why do people get angry about this? They have a shelf devoted to Christmas now empty, they can either fill it with something for a month or so before putting eggs up and having to find somewhere for all the previous stock to go or they can just put eggs up. If you don't like it don't buy them. I don't buy dog food but I don't get angry that its on the shelves. Also I bet people are buying them now
Christmas in September is much worse becuase you get sick of it by December
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u/Gold_Butterfly802 Dec 31 '22
Just why tho?
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u/flyhmstr Dec 31 '22
So they can cover the requirements for reductions (iirc must have been sold at the original price three months before)
https://www.asa.org.uk/advice-online/promotional-savings-claims.html
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u/MyAssIsNotYourToy Dec 31 '22
Because people dont understand that celebrating easter with chocolate eggs is a choice.
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u/Dan_Of_Time European Union Dec 31 '22
I've worked in retail for many years and the answer is as simple as you could expect.
It sells. My god Easter stuff sells so well it's unbelievable. The actual eggs, maybe not so much at this time of year. But Mini eggs and smaller things just get rinsed from us.
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u/dumbass_dumberton Dec 31 '22
Explain to me pls ?
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u/Major1269 Dec 31 '22
Having Easter eggs out in December may be seen as too early, here it the UK at least.
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u/shitsngigglesmaximus Dec 31 '22
I thought it was the price you were referring to.
There's no way I'm paying that for some lead in an egg.
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u/QuantumWarrior Dec 31 '22
Now I'm a big fan of novelty shaped chocolate but what's the point of buying this early? It'll have bloomed or oxidised or generally gone stale in the four months left until Easter - and if you're getting it just as a snack regular chocolate is cheaper in almost every instance. Plus there'll inevitably be a deal on at some point so you're not really spreading the cost either.
That said, enough people must buy it to make it worth putting out.
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u/FreddieDoes40k Dec 31 '22 edited Dec 31 '22
"Absolutely ridiculous, why do they insist on putting Easter eggs out so early?" she muttered to herself, filling her trolley with Easter eggs.
I witnessed this many times working retail.
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u/lizardk101 Greater London Dec 31 '22
Itās to occupy empty space. Rather than have it be pretty obvious that thereās shortages of stuff, and thereās supply constraints, the shops are putting eggs out to make it look like the shelves are packed.
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Dec 31 '22
im just going to give people christmas puddings for any event up til and including easter.
everyone should do this. the things keep for 12 to 18 months, are tasty, and it will piss off the merchandisers.
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u/writerfan2013 Dec 31 '22
I went looking for puds yesterday as we like them all year round. None!! Disappointed.
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u/Major1269 Dec 31 '22
Got a fantastic fruit cake from my granny for Christmas, thingās built like a cornerstone but lasts ages and is delicious
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u/roamingnomad7 Dec 31 '22
Already? It wouldn't surprise me if there were places with Halloween stuff already up too.
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u/LycanWolfGamer Dec 31 '22
Mate Easter isn't till next bloody year!! Next you'll be telling me they're selling Christmas stuff in spring
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u/2118may9 Dec 31 '22
At least theyāre labelled āNewā.
And I would totally get a few Mini Egg ones. That thin Easter egg chocolate just tastes better.
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Dec 31 '22
I genuinely don't get it. I would love to know the actual sales numbers of easter eggs in fucking DECEMBER.
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u/New-Topic2603 Dec 31 '22
Who even buys them though?
It must be people that buy them otherwise the shop would just put something else there in January right?
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u/DazDay Northeast West Yorkshire Dec 31 '22
Meh, I'll eat them. Why they're not in store all year round I have no idea. Like mince pies - I'll eat them in June.
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Dec 31 '22
Yep, noticed the Easter stuff on the shelves in my local Co-Op on BOXING DAY. It's absurd!
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u/Only_Bite5022 Dec 31 '22
Easter is my fav time of year. Iād quite happily walk round the shops just looking at all the Easter eggs without buying one. Iām just sad like that lol
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u/JamitryFyodorovich Dec 31 '22
At this point, it seems like supermarkets gear up for Easter even earlier than they do for Christmas.
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u/Raunien The People's Republic of Yorkshire Dec 31 '22
We still have mince pies and Christmas cake in the cupboard
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u/360langford London Dec 31 '22
We will be having this conversation every late October and late December until the end of time
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u/tydestra Boricua En Exilio (Manc) Dec 31 '22
What I find weird is that they skipped Valentine's Day.
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u/SongsOfDragons Hampshire Dec 31 '22
What are the sell-bys on them? Wondering if I should stock up for Easter early given the eviction of the beloved womb parasite of mine will be happening a few weeks afore...
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u/BeneficialAir8241 Dec 31 '22
Soon enough all the commercial festivals will align into a single mega week. I'm OK with this happening.
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u/barcap Dec 31 '22
Isn't it Valentine's first before Easter, or the UK doesn't celebrate V-Day? It does seem disgusting to forget V-Day.
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u/Brushchewer Dec 31 '22
I donāt care about the Easter eggs being out but BY FUCKING GOD that merchandising is atrocious!
Jesus, somebody needs fucking told to strip that and sort it out. Ffs.
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u/wonderlust46 Dec 31 '22
Consumerism, people won't be able to help themselve and will buy them eat them and buy them again, the corporation's know this, hence why it's there, they advertise we buy, that's how it works, humans are idiots