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Friday 13 February 2004

Greeting cards - a licence to print money [brit]

Popped into the card shop at Paddington this morning to pick up a belated birthday card for my brother; figured I'd nip in, grab something fairly non descript and get it out to him in the late morning post.
Picked one up, a bog standard 12cm by 12cm (approx) no-greeting (left blank to write your own!) job with some minimalist design on the front, as he's into that minimalism crap; and walked up to the till. Plonked it down and got asked for £3.75
Nearly four fucking quid for a piece of paper and an envelope! How the hell do they get away with this sort of shit? Oh, that's how - rather than remonstrate over the overpriced nature of their goods, I bought it. For the price of that card I could have bought him 1.3 pints of Stella in the station pub; I know which he'd rather get.
Course, it's Valentines tomorrow, so every commericalised card touting nobber on the face of the planet is going to be pumping out tat and making a bloody fortune.
Must go buy one :)

2 comments:

  1. while I am actualy something of a romantic at heart (no, stop laughing at the back) I have never quite 'got' the idea of Valentine's day. For two reasons
    a) If you have to be reminded by Carlton Cards to tell your loved one what you think of them, you probably should be looking at a new relationship anyway
    b) St Valentine wasn't in fact a very livey saint. As far as i am aware he was crucified by the romans. In fact I believe the derivation of putting 'X' as a kiss is in fact a symbol of the fact that he was nailed up on an X shaped cross. Very sweet isn't it?
    Neither of these things stop people buying the hype of course, nor do they make the physical and emotional scars I have from the last time I didn't get my ex a valentines card heal any quicker :).
    In any case, the whole cards thing has got to be a complete rip off in recent years. They seem to have risen in price significantly above inflation, while actually finding a card that's in any way tasteful is almost a quixotic task.
    Bah Humbug to cards and valentines :).

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  2. You wanna try book a table at a London restaurant on V day...

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