As if to say, as if to say he doesn't like chocolate

[venta]

Shall we play a game?

It's called Be Surprised By The Price of Confectionery.

While queueing to buy milk the other day, I idly perused the racks of chocolate bars near the counter. And lo, I was surprised by their prices. Not only that they now cost considerably more than my mental price list suggests, but also by differing amounts by which the costs have risen.

Accordingly, please let me know what you think the prices are (don't check, if you don't buy such things, then guess...). This game is going to be a bit odd if you live somewhere that isn't the UK, but feel free to put in local prices if there are equivalents[*] available, I'd be interested to know!

[Poll #1929056]

A follow-up post will, er, follow up once people have placed their guesses/displayed their knowledge. For these purposes, the prices in my local garage (which is a BP with an M&S Food in it, in Reading) are held to be correct.

[*] If there are any people reading who aren't familiar with my confectionery choices: Mars bars are universal, surely? But (just in case) they're a chocolate bar filled with caramel and nougat-y sort of stuff. Cadbury's fudge is a slim bar of fudge with a chocolate coating. Polos are hard, round mints with a hole in the middle.
[**] Normal size, ie 58g, not those whopping Mars Duos that have appeared.
[***] As ChrisC pointed out to me, the correct answer to this question is, of course, "just enough".

Comments

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

I remember when polos went up to 8p!

(And I'm a year younger than you, and you're OBVIOUSLY not old. so therefore I can't be old either ;-).)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Do you know when that was? I'm not sure I remember it, but that may well be more to do with my not buying sweets much when a kid.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

Sadly, no. I was very young at the time, though. I can't place it exactly, but since it didn't go up by 1/2p (which I also vaguely remember), I guess it must have been after they got rid of the 1/2p.

I didn't buy sweets as a child either. Wasn't allowed them. But fantasising about buying them *was* something I'd do ;-).

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

I do remember that there was GREAT controversy at secondary school when diet coke went up from 30 to 35p. That would have been early 90s.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Iirc Polos went up from 6 to 7p about 1983, if that's any help. (Which must have been about the same sort of time the ha'penny disappeared.)

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Interesting - I wonder whether the fact that I'm consistently at the low end of the spectrum of guesses reflects the fact that I live in the North and work on a University campus, or just the fact that I don't buy these things very often and don't look very carefully at the price when I do? Will look forward to further responses and The Answers (you are going to give us The Answers, aren't you?) to find out.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I shall certainly be including The Answers in a post (probably tomorrow), yes! I don't think I'd expect prices to vary hugely on things like Mars bars across the country, but I might well be wrong about that.

I might walk to the campus shop to check tomorrow - in general, the campus shop here always seems quite expensive for the things I've bought there. Then again that might be the Tesco Express effect, where things seem expensive because they only sell Named Brands.

[tigerfort.livejournal.com]

I think there's probably limited variation (though definitely some) geographically, but the type of retail establishment makes a bigger difference. If we consider a largish supermarket to be base, then I'd expect a petrol station[1] to be around base+20% and motorway services to be a minimum of base+50%.

[1] one not attached to a largish supermarket, since it's plausible that those match prices with the main shop

[damerell.livejournal.com]

In the US a Mars bar is a different and vile concoction. The US Milky Way is more like a Mars bar.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, I think I have known that in the past. Or at least known that they were different; maybe a passing USian will speak up for their Mars bars.

Years ago, a New Zealand friend kept telling me that Moro bars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moro_bar) sold in NZ were like UK Mars bars "only much nicer". When I finally got to try a Moro bar I was incredibly disappointed. I'd describe them as very inferior Mars bar knock-offs, so I guess it's what you're used to :)

[damerell.livejournal.com]

I think I agree, however, the Aussies are right about Tim Tams v. Penguins.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

Tim Tams are great! I was so happy when my local large supermarket started selling them.

Shame they are dairy-ey :-(.

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

I promise I had not read your footnotes when I gave my answers!

[stegzy.livejournal.com]

Petrol stations are notoriously expensive for snacks. Well...in these here midlands anyway.

Of particular note is the price of fags in service stations where prices range from £3.80 for a pack of 10 to nearly £6 for a pack of 10. And I'm talking middle of the range budget fags like Mayfair here. Glad I gave up. I'd be stone broke.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I think of the garage as being reasonably priced - until recently, it was the cheapest place to buy a 4 pint bottle of milk - despite it being an M&S. Admittedly, the local competition was Budgens and other corner-shop-esque establishments, so doubtless it could still be acquired more cheaply in big supermarkets. I'm not sure if the chocolate bars are priced by M&S or BP, though - I assume BP, so the price of milk may be completely irrelevant.

(Tesco's price for semi-skimmed is currently £1.39. Until very recently, the garage was £1.29, but has just jumped to £1.49. Most expensive was the Best Buy near the pub, where I declined £1.9something).

No longer living with a smoker, I was somewhat surprised recently to find that the going rate for 20 in a non-service station environment is nearly eight quid. Youch.

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

You, venta, are a mere child.
I remember Polo at 2p and the advertising campaign when they went down to 1 1/2p
"Down a hole 1/2 p"

[exspelunca.livejournal.com]

Yes, she's my child, so I remember when Polos were 6d (and the only things not on points were kali and Spanish.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Those two memories are a suprising combination - I'd have thought that a 6d tube of sweets would have morphed into a 2 1/2p (or, more likely, 3p) tube of sweets with decimalisation, and thus 2p would never have been a likely price (unless they did the price-drop stunt more than once).

[exspelunca.livejournal.com]

I thought that afterwards. In my pre-rationing memory, most sweets (per 4oz weighed out of a jar, Tiffin bars, filled bars etc) were 6d and the weekly family points went on those, never on Polos, though I did get sent Lifeboys (a sort of fruit Polo) in food parcels from Canada.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I hardly ever buy a single chocolate bar because they're so expensive; I get supermarket multipacks. (When I do indulge it's usually a Lion or a Crunchier, for the record.)

[venta.livejournal.com]

I rarely buy chocolate bars, but when I do it's on a whim so it does tend to be buying in eaches. Double Decker for me, for preference :) (Though you choices are also a long way up my list.)

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

The chocolate bar market has fragmented since we were kids. A finger of Fudge is still aimed at school kids; Mars bars and equivalents are aimed at adults, or at least, much older kids.

Also, my guess for price of a single Mars bar is really a range plus or minus 20p from what I put - it's hugely variable SFAIK.

And more importantly: the Correct price for a Fudge is not 8p, it's 5 new pence, and you can pay with an old shilling.

[venta.livejournal.com]

you can pay with an old shilling

Now you're just trying to sound old ;) I'm pretty sure shillings stayed in circulation as legal five pences until those modern-fangled tiny coins came in.

[ailbhe]

I have no idea about Polos because they're a Nestle product. And the prices in my head are from my childhood and in Irish pence, which currency is no longer extant.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

We tend not to buy any of these things unless it is in a 4 pack or 2 for £1, and like ailbhe, don't buy Nestle (inc. Rowntrees). But I am vaguely aware of the prices of most of them, and also aware that you can buy the same chocolate bar for four quite different prices if you are prepared to walk to four different shops in the local shopping centre. Hence the range in my answer. I don't know if there is even such a thing as an RRP for these any more!


Also: a Mars Bar really costs "1/4 of my lunch money". Which today means I guess they could charge me anything up to £8 if they served it on a fancy plate with a linen napkin and a wine list.

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

Oh. I thought you might have been referring to chocolate.
:-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

The disappointing thing is, however high your cocoa-solid wossnames go, and so on, it's still just chocolate. I just don't get it :(

[shermarama]

Well, in this case, two of your items have got a thin layer of low-ish grade milk chocolate wrapped around the main actual contents of the bar, which are not chocolate, and one contains no chocolate whatsoever. I'd be inclined to call all of those confectionery, not chocolate. (Aha, and so did you.... yeah, never mind me.)

[shermarama]

(I guessed English prices: a Mars bar over here can be anything from about 60 cents to €1.20, I've never seen a Fudge and I'm not sure there are Polos. Fisherman's Friends are surprisingly popular, though.)

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Polos are something you eat? I always bought them for giving to horses as treats.

[al-fruitbat.livejournal.com]

Presumably you have to take the buttons off first?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Don't be silly. If you take the buttons off the horse, the Polos will fall out of its tummy.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Everyone knows you don't buy Polos, they come in a slightly grubby packet out of the pocket of Mr Grey, the caretaker at school. If he likes you, anyway.

That sounds so dodgy now. It was a more innocent time.