Diddled On The Canal

[minesapint]

I like canal holidays and I've just returned from a fortnight doing the famous Four Counties route. There are two well known so-called "honesty boxes" on route in which a farmer or canal side householder place food goodies for sale on the basis that you drop the cash into a cash box or tin on the display unit. Needless to say, the cash box is usually screwed down! I stopped off at one of these honesty boxes a few days ago and they had glass jars of raspberry jam for sale at £3.50 a jar. The jars just had a white, Avery type label across the centre with the words "Raspberry Jam £3.50". The top and rim of the lid was covered in more plain white Avery labels with no writing on them. Foolishly, I bought one of the jars not thinking where they could get raspberries to make home made jam this time of the year.
I was curious later about the white labels on the jar lid and carefully peeled them off. The name Maribel was there along with pictures of raspberries. A quick web search revealed that the jam was a raspberry conserve from Lidl worth £1.09 per jar!

[shoota]

Ok, ok, I won't do it anymore.....


Mabel, bring the jam in.


;-)

[sanmac]

I think that there are two essential aspects to this situation:
1. Is the "farmer' buying goods and then reselling them to make a profit?
2. Is the "farmer" implying either overtly or covertly that the items are "home-made".
As for the first point, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. As for the second point, well, that's a little shady and sort of mis-informing; some people might even say immoral.
As for the boating holiday: all holidays are flavoured with memories good and not so good.

[Tilly2]

Anyway, anyone who is prepared to fork out £3.50 for a jar of jam must expect to be ripped off.
£3.50 for jam...?

[-Talbot-]

Jam lasts forever, should have taken some with you.

However, I do hope that you will eventually come to terms with this horrific event, minesapint.

[-Talbot-]

The Jam Man 50/1 3rd

Thanks minesapint... made a nice little profit on that.

[Spicerack]

Spread bet, Talbot?

[twix123]

Nothing wrong with an enterprising farmer. Just don't assume that the raspberries are free range and therefore overpriced.

If you go to Fortnum & Mason you can buy their own brand raspberry jam at £4.95 for a 340g jar;
A jar of Highgrove Estate (Royal Duchy) at £5.95 for a 340g jar, or
a whopping £9.95 for a 200g jar of Fortnum & Mason Purple Raspberry jam.

Therefore the farmer selling either 'home made' or' Lidl' jam at £3.50 for a 450g jar has done you a favour and saved you a trek to the nearest shop. There was no pressure on you to buy the product, it is just the world of commerce.