A Christmas market with the Winter Wonderland fair set-up can be a magical experience. For a woman in Cardiff, there was nothing magical about paying more for an item than the average price. A cheerful atmosphere is not enough to justify the high costs.
Rhiannon Brown, a mom of two young children, visited Cardiff’s Winter Wonderland with her family and the Great British Fudge Company stall piqued her interest. These markets are notorious for the overpriced treats but it’s a fun time to indulge in the sweets. She let her kids pick up a mix of candies each, and to her surprise, they were much more than she was comfortable paying as they were £47 or $56.
Rhiannon explains: “We know full well that you’re going to spend money when you go to these places. We try to go to Cardiff’s Winter Wonderland every year. This time around, we just went for a little look around and the kids wanted to go on some rides. We bought 40 tokens for £40 for them to have 20 each and then we had crepes which were £7 each — pricey but again we expected it.”
“Then, as we were walking out to leave the Great British Fudge Company was there all lit up and it looked amazing. The kids run to it asking for sweets so I said okay. I helped my youngest to do hers and my husband said don’t go mad on the sweets — it’s £2.79 for 100 grams.”
She added: “We both made sure the kids never went overboard. The bags were nowhere near half full, but nobody knows what 100 grams of sweets looks like. As my husband was paying, my little girl started eating the sweets so I couldn’t have put some back if I wanted to.”
“I didn’t hear the woman say the price to my husband but I could tell by his reaction it was high so I asked him how much. He said £47.26, and I said: ‘What, you can’t be serious?’ I think we were just shocked we knew it was going to be expensive but I was thinking maybe £20-£23. He just paid and we left.”
A post on social media urged the company to take action. Great British Fudge Company has contacted Brown after the expensive purchase to issue a refund.
She added: “It really put a downer on the day we had had. Nobody nowadays can afford to spend £47 on a pick ‘n’ mix.” That sounds understandable since they aren’t packing blocks of gold in those plastic bags.