Christmas is all about giving, sharing and the joy of being able to make someone you care about smile. While it's priceless, costs, expenses and taxes must be taken into account.
Have Christmas hampers suffered from 'shrinkflation', or are the 2022 catalogue offerings even recognisable from so long ago?
The findings are intriguing and since 'shrinkflation' was a new term, perhaps 'augflation' is the best way of describing this phenomenon. The process of improving value and quality through production efficiencies at a rate which exceeds the destruction in the value of the purchasing currency.
Basketsgalore is a family-run business that is well versed on family values. Each Christmas hamper it dispatches aims to bring happiness to both sender and recipient. Value and quality are not just words, they are symbiotic to the company's ethos.
With this in mind, let’s go back to see how a Christmas hamper designed in 2002 has evolved in two decades.
Low-cost Christmas hamper
The very first Christmas hamper created was the Christmas traditional celebration gift hamper. It’s refreshed each year to make certain it contains only the best there is to offer. Due to its look, quality and competitive price it’s a perennial hit with everyone during the festive season.
It's not yet twice the price, but it has got bigger with more teabags, more shortbread, more chocolates and more contents. Traditional Christmas hampers are a forte of the company, and because they only pack for customers, the focus is on incremental improvement annually.
Mid-range Christmas hamper
The Christmas traditional feast gift hamper is the benchmark bell-weather in the range. The traditional Basketsgalore Christmas hamper follows a core bakery theme of shortbread, mince-pies, Christmas pudding and Christmas cake.
First designed in 2002, back then at a price of just £69.99, it stormed into the top sellers lists. Incredibly the price has not doubled in spite of numerical retention of the quantity and spiritual retention of the quality. Price has been kept down by purchasing power - a definite case for the 'augflation' theory applying to the Christmas hampers.
Signature Christmas hamper
There’s no better example of the industry’s signature hamper than the Christmas traditional banquet gift hamper. A high-quality wicker lidded hamper filled with traditional quality foods at the next level up from the Christmas traditional feast. Remaining in its classic wicker basket, it has been advanced by its palatable food contents. It is astonishing to see that in spite of it not doubling in price, the wicker has been retained and the quality enhanced. This is in spite of wicker prices doubling in 2020 and the quintupling of container prices in 2021.
Corporate Christmas hamper
The Christmas festive celebration gift hamper is the quintessential corporate Christmas hamper with a twist of flair. Following the mantra of containing what must be included, but iced with excitement in terms of the best flavours rather than the most outrageous concepts. Again there is less than a doubling in spite of the addition of more items and the retention of the most expensive components.
To summarise; in spite of the sizes, quality and quantity of the Christmas hamper by Basketsgalore having increased, the prices have not kept up. They are lower in relative terms, when measured over the 20-year timeframe when an economist may argue that the loss in purchasing power of ones currency is policy.
If you’d like to check out other inflation-busting gift options available for Christmas or any other occasion, then Basketsgalore is your gateway to an extra happy Christmas. It's a great value Christmas hamper company.
Win a gift basket
To be in with a chance of winning one of these fantastic gift baskets, all you need to do is head over to the Facebook page or Instagram feed and take part in the daily competition. A lucky winner is then selected at the end of each month. You can also enter on Twitter for another chance to win.
