Ship of Fools: Screaming heebie jeebies

Thread: Screaming heebie jeebies Board: Hell / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by bib (# 13074) on :

Here we go again. I went to the supermarket to stock up on bread and milk on Boxing Day to be met with a vast array of hot cross buns and Easter egg displays. The store claims that 'people' demand this but I think it is just a commercial cash cow that they are pushing - nothing to do with public demand. I've decided to shop elsewhere and boycott this supermarket. After all, I'm a member of the public and they won't take their display down. What's happening where you live? [Mad]

Posted by anoesis (# 14189) on :

I haven't actually been in to a shop of any kind for [counts on fingers] 6 whole days, which is pretty much my definition of being on holiday - so I couldn't say what is going on in my neck of the woods.

However, if I were to go to the supermarket tomorrow and discover Easter paraphernalia, I can tell you that I would be A.) annoyed, obviously, and B.) surprised. Really quite surprised. Maybe Easter is unusually early in 2017 though?

I hate how there's always got to be something on that we are supposed to be getting all rarked up about. It's finally getting hot, the last couple of days. Could they not just put beer and sausages on special?

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

Par for the course in Sydney, unfortunately. Boxing Day sees Easter merchandise on sale. Just check the shelf lif of those buns. Weeks away. They must be stuffed full of preservatives.

Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :

Haha - I bought the twins Kinder eggs for Christmas [Devil]

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

It's the second front of the war on Xmas [Smile]

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

Nothing Eastery in my supermarket, but a plethora of half price unsold Christmas biccies and choccies. Now in my house. It will last me to Candlemas (the day before my birthday).

They always have HXBs, all year, though. That battle is lost. Unless we took on the trade description of their not actually being hot.

[ 28. December 2016, 08:34: Message edited by: Penny S ]

Posted by Marvin the Martian (# 4360) on :

quote:
Originally posted by bib:
The store claims that 'people' demand this but I think it is just a commercial cash cow that they are pushing - nothing to do with public demand.

That's rather incoherent. If there was no public demand then nobody would buy the stuff and there wouldn't be a commercial cash cow to exploit.

Posted by Chesterbelloc (# 3128) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:

quote:
Originally posted by bib:
The store claims that 'people' demand this but I think it is just a commercial cash cow that they are pushing - nothing to do with public demand.
That's rather incoherent. If there was no public demand then nobody would buy the stuff and there wouldn't be a commercial cash cow to exploit.

Up to a point, maybe.

But I guess the question is if there is a pre-existing demand from the public that such goodies be on sale so early. The fact that some people will buy these items when they see them on sale does not mean that it would even remotely have occurred to them to request them if they were not on the shelves. Any "demand" for them may well have been entirely manufactured by the retailers' planting the idea in the customers' minds.

[ 28. December 2016, 09:44: Message edited by: Chesterbelloc ]

Posted by rolyn (# 16840) on :

Anyone ever heard of Consumer Resistance?

What came first, consumer shit or the desire to immerse ourselves in it?

Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Chesterbelloc:

quote:
Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:

quote:
Originally posted by bib:
The store claims that 'people' demand this but I think it is just a commercial cash cow that they are pushing - nothing to do with public demand.
That's rather incoherent. If there was no public demand then nobody would buy the stuff and there wouldn't be a commercial cash cow to exploit.
Up to a point, maybe.

But I guess the question is if there is a pre-existing demand from the public that such goodies be on sale so early. The fact that some people will buy these items when they see them on sale does not mean that it would even remotely have occurred to them to request them if they were not on the shelves. Any "demand" for them may well have been entirely manufactured by the retailers' planting the idea in the customers' minds.

I guess I depart somewhat from my fellow leftists in assuming that, if you decide to buy something, the responsibility for that decision rests on your shoulders, even if it would not have occured to you to buy it in the absence of an advertising blitz.

As a thought-experiment, apply, at an individual level, the usual logic used to absolve buyers in the aggregate...

JILL: Jack, you bought hot-crossed buns in December?! What the hell were you thinking?

JACK: Sorry, Jill, but try to understand. There was all this fancy advertising and a beautiful display case. The supermarket basically created the need in me to buy those buns.

I don't think most of us would find this a convincing defense, coming from a spouse. So why is it supposed to make sense when applied to consumers as a group?

[ 28. December 2016, 11:02: Message edited by: Stetson ]

Posted by american piskie (# 593) on :

Hot Cross Buns are an all-the-year-round staple here. Very nice for breakfast, too.

Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :

quote:
Originally posted by bib:
Here we go again. I went to the supermarket to stock up on bread and milk on Boxing Day to be met with a vast array of hot cross buns and Easter egg displays. The store claims that 'people' demand this but I think it is just a commercial cash cow that they are pushing - nothing to do with public demand. I've decided to shop elsewhere and boycott this supermarket. After all, I'm a member of the public and they won't take their display down. What's happening where you live?

What? They skipped Valentine's Day, Mardi Gras, and St. Patrick's? Your stores under-serve the public's "demand" for consumer holidays. Tch tch. [Disappointed]

[ 28. December 2016, 12:08: Message edited by: Lyda*Rose ]

Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :

The stores can't let those shelves designated "seasonal," lie fallow! If Christmas stuff comes down something has to go up. I actually like seeing the Valentine things go up so I can get in another chance for a box of assorted soft centers before Lent. There have been a few cruel years when Valentine's Day and Ash Wednesday landed on the same day and a knock came in the evening with a Girl Scout and her cookies standing in the door.

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

Well, I haven't been shopping since yesterday (!), but I can't say I noticed anything untoward in my local Co-Op.

Hot Cross Buns and Cadbury's Cream Eggs are all-year-round staple food items (quite rightly so), but from past experience, I would expect to see Valentine's Day junk on offer any time now... [Projectile]

Just as long as they get the liturgical colours right (shades of cerise/pink, of course), I don't give a f**k.

IJ

Posted by Pyx_e (# 57) on :

And now a word from our sponsor:

Try "the blood of the Lamb." Allows you to wade in shit and smell like heaven.

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

Waitrose reductions now down to teeny tiny under a pound prices, so past Candlemas. Also, allowed me to buy replacements for the lights in a wreath which died last night - may have been a bulb, but I found the wire was stripped by the transformer, so that had to be scrapped. I have been winding 96 LEDs (£3.75) round and round a foot diameter wreath. Battery operated, so no stripped wire problems in future.
They used to stock saffron buns, and richly fruited buns, which satisfied the hunger for that sort of thing.

Posted by Chesterbelloc (# 3128) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Stetson:
I guess I depart somewhat from my fellow leftists in assuming that, if you decide to buy something, the responsibility for that decision rests on your shoulders, even if it would not have occured to you to buy it in the absence of an advertising blitz.

Absolutely, Stetson. The consumers can only blame themselves for the decision to buy. I was only questioning whether the "demand" was a pre-existing one which the retailers were obliged to meet in response.

Posted by Ricardus (# 8757) on :

Presumably, at least with foodstuffs, the retailers are more interested in levelling demand than creating it? By which I mean that an individual's overall demand for food is fairly constant, so if I am lured into buying the hot cross buns it will be at the expense of the jam doughnuts. But from the retailer's perspective, it's probably not efficient to have a demand for hot cross buns that spikes between Passiontide and Easter but is otherwise non-existent.

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ricardus:
Presumably, at least with foodstuffs, the retailers are more interested in levelling demand than creating it?

Not at all. Retailers are far more interested in creating a demand for extra luxury foodstuffs, for extra expensive "convenience" foods, and generally trying to get you to spend more of your budget on fancy food.

Posted by Ricardus (# 8757) on :

Yeah, but there's still an upper bound to the amount of food I can physically eat. And I wouldn't class hot cross buns as particularly luxurious.

Posted by John Holding (# 158) on :

FWIW, hot cross buns were on sale two weeks ago in my usual supermarket.

JOhn

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :

quote:
Originally posted by anoesis:
Maybe Easter is unusually early in 2017 though?

April 16 this year. Last year maybe this could have been the excuse- there were eight days between Candlemass and Ash Wednesday, which seemed like very little breathing room.

quote:
Originally posted by anoesis:
I hate how there's always got to be something on that we are supposed to be getting all rarked up about. It's finally getting hot, the last couple of days. Could they not just put beer and sausages on special?

That's essentially the seasonal aisle here from the end of Graduation season in May through the first of September. It helps that, other than the 4th of July, our holiday season and nice weather season fall on the opposite ends of the year.

I suppose they could do a New Year's aisle, but it would seem a lot of work for one week, and they have to keep the nicotine replacement gums and patches behind the desk anyway. (We do get a week or two of TV advertisements this time of year for gyms, stop smoking aids, dating services, and any other resolution-related businesses you could imagine.)

[ 29. December 2016, 20:09: Message edited by: Og, King of Bashan ]

Posted by Evangeline (# 7002) on :

I do wonder if anyone has ever gone into a store between Christmas and Ash Wednesday and asked for hot crossed buns or easter eggs. I can't really imagine that happening.

That said, most people are so ignorant of Christianity and its traditions these days, it wouldn't surprise me at all if people had no idea that hot crossed buns had anything to do with Christianity let alone being specifically a thing tied to Easter. I imagine that is they're in the shops the day after Christmas people probably think they've got something to do with Christmas. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by cliffdweller (# 13338) on :

If it bothers you, plan a visit to the States. I never see hot-cross buns here, whether in Lent or in Advent or any other time of year. Most Americans have no idea what they're about. I think I had them once when I was a child-- but they had raisins in them, so well, there would be no more of that nonsense.

Our "seasonal aisle" here is being quickly turned over to the Valentine's schlock. Candy hearts and enormous greeting cards mostly.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

Our family gets them every year. For many years. From Safeway. (American Tesco).

And many local bakeries carry them, but they only sell them within the product freshness date of Easter. Because frozen hot cross buns? [Projectile]

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

When I lived in the northeastern U.S. they were in all the bakeries; here in the Southwest a few stores carry what they call Hot Cross Buns, but the dough is flavorless, and in some cases -- the icing is bright yellow.
[Eek!]

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

Yeah, my family thinks hot cross buns are bright yellow. They also think potatoes au gratin involves Velveeta. I wish I were kidding. But the high number of European expat conclaves around here means that, pretty much since statehood, on the Peninsula, somewhere around a week before Easter ancient family owned bakeries will begin promising buns. One year I beat the family to the punch and found the good ones at a Portuguese bakery on the Coastside.

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
When I lived in the northeastern U.S. they were in all the bakeries; here in the Southwest a few stores carry what they call Hot Cross Buns, but the dough is flavorless, and in some cases -- the icing is bright yellow.

Icing! (Speak on rising tone showing finding this incredible.) Not yellow or any colour. Egg glaze. Piped flour and water cross. Thassorl.

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

I enjoyed my Cadbury Mini Eggs today. Brought in by a colleague and bought at the Co-op.

More like Heaven than Hell.

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

Indeed - available all year round, and not just for the Feast of the Birth of the Easter Bunny. They can be used to celebrate the Vomit of Saint Valentine, the Advent of the Great Pumpkin, the WinterFest of SunReturn, and other religious holidays!

Well done, Mr. Co-Op! [Big Grin]

Posted by Spike (# 36) on :

It must be the week after Christmas as people are moaning about Easter eggs and hot cross buns in the shops

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :

We're so fortunate here. We get 6 weeks of St. Valentine's Day cards and candies and chocolates and mylar balloons. Then it's St. Patrick's Day shamrocks and hats and knee socks and knickers and "Kiss Me I'm Irish" buttons. Only then do we get the eggs and Easter lilies and such folderal.

Posted by Siegfried (# 29) on :

I've never seen Easter stuff before Valentine's Day, except in craft stores, where they're always 2 holidays ahead!

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

Went to the supermarket this morning -- they're still featuring pumpkin cookies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin crumb cake, etc. etc. I picked up a pumpkin-cheese coffee cake and am looking forward to enjoying it.

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

Don't they know that one of Santa's many tasks is to return the Great Pumpkin back to the favoured Pumpkin Patch of His (the G.P., that is) Advent?

[Eek!]

Posted by David Goode (# 9224) on :

There appears to be some pedigree for hot cross buns at Christmas, I'm afraid to say. I haven't checked the reference, but, according to the Oracle, Wikipedia, Elizabeth David's book "Yeast Buns and Small Tea Cakes" says that:

"In the time of Elizabeth I of England (1592), the London Clerk of Markets issued a decree forbidding the sale of hot cross buns and other spiced breads, except at burials, on Good Friday, or at Christmas. The punishment for transgressing the decree was forfeiture of all the forbidden product to the poor."

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Siegfried:
I've never seen Easter stuff before Valentine's Day, except in craft stores, where they're always 2 holidays ahead!

Sainsbury's had Easter biscuits this afternoon.

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