Happy Easter

Happy Easter! It’s still early here in Canada but the Easter bunny has arrived bringing some of my favourite Easter chocolates (basically anything that has marshmallow and chocolate together) which I had for breakfast (I’m an adult, I can do that sort of thing).

My nieces however (hopefully they can’t read this) are getting something called a Webkinz bunny.  For those of you not up on the latest stuffed animal technology,  they are like the modern day version of  beanie babies but  come with a special code printed on a sealed tag that you register online.  Once online, your animal gets a little house and some points you can use to spend on furnishing their house (presumably you can spend real money to buy more fake points to furnish your fake online house for your fake online bunny).  You log in to feed and entertain your animal then can connect with other webkinz and invite them over to play.

I was fairly intrigued when I first heard that there was something web based associated with this stuffed animal but I was expecting a bit more.  Something like a GPS chip that located the bunny on google maps or a sensor that could report back to the computer as to how much time you actually spent playing with the thing -  no such luck,  you are really just paying $15 for a 9 digit code attached to a fairly boring stuffed animal (as you can imagine, I was hard to entertain as a kid).

Anyhoo I am sure they will love them as their technological expectations aren’t as high as their nerdy auntie….I will just try not to get chocolately marshmallow goo all over them.

Anyone for some happy pills?

How do you sell candy to adults at twice the normal price and make them feel happy when doing it?…..

 

Clever branding and equally clever name!!  How can you resist a clean bright store full of bright coloured sweets from your childhood (okay maybe you can but I certainly can’t).  On top of the clean minimalist layout, they also sell mini first aid kids, medicine bottles and pillboxes to fill with your favourite sweets.  You can also decorate your medical supplies with themed stickers which say things like ’Cure for Mondays’ or ‘First aid Kit’.  

I have always been a sucker for great marketing and for sweets so as you can imagine I loved this place and dove right in attempting to fit one of everything in my little bag.  Unfortuatley it didn’t work, but I did leave with some fabulously nostalgic sweets and enjoyed the rest of my day in Barcelona on a sugar high. 

P.S. On the subject of candy, why are there never enough of your favourite flavours in a pack?  I always prefer the red and purple flavours of just almost any sweets so was so excited when I saw this selection of ONLY red and purple (in this case strawberry and blackcurrant but they taste like grape) fruit pastilles. 

 

The issue I have is that I like the red better…can you see why I am disappointed?? Um there were about twice as many sweets in there when I started but I had only eaten 3 reds before this photo was taken (and probably 10 purples)

 

What? No cinnamon hearts?

I just realised as Valentines Day edges ever closer that they don’t seem to have Cinnamon Hearts.  I remember going to Bulk Barn (for those Brits reading this, Bulk Barn is an entire store of pick and mix but not just for serve your own sweets it includes flour, sugar, cereals, nuts etc etc) and buying pounds of cinnamon hearts and eating them until my teeth and tongue turned red. The best ones I think were by Ganong and were a perfect mix between sweet and cinnamon spicy – they came in a little plastic container which wasn’t re-sealable so you HAD to eat them all in one sitting….well, at least I did!

I wish I had though about this earlier as Mom was kind enough to send me a care package of Ziploc bags and twist ties after my last rant…thanks Mom!

PS Now that I think back, Bulk Barn is kind of an odd sounding place to buy food – it seems like a place for you to buy hay and grain….in bulk of course.