41 replies to this topic

[David]

Someone else needs to walk in there and argue with this guy. The more people who do it, the more he'll "Get it" that people are seeing right through him.

Agreed- or e mail them. He does have to be careful , he could be breaking the law- if he is offering "Discount", " Sale" or "Reduced" items there are strict laws that need to be followed.

I went into a garden centre today that sells fireworks (full price) and asked of they would consider doing me a discount. She said no, because they sell £100s worth to some people, and they usually sell out. Which is fair enough. A straight, honest, business based answer.

[BrightStar]

Well, I had to laugh at this one...

I found some tiny cones in a Standard selection box from Tesco...



How interesting... Small, but I could fill that with 25g of a dazzlingly bright strobe comp, or maybe a really loud crackle fountain, but...




Oh dear. The rest of the box wasn't much better - 1/2" fountains in 3" square boxes etc, but at £5 cost my little sister enjoyed playing with it (supervised) in plant pots in the garden, and I guess that's what they're for.

Edited by BrightStar, 06 November 2007 - 02:05 PM.

[David]

Standard- do they even do proper fireworks any more, or just some Supermarket selection boxes?

That said, if people have fun with selection boxes, then fair enough.

[MDH]

That's not the ultimate window dress.

Here in Canada we have an item called "Palm Tree". That's right. Just "Palm Tree". This "Palm Tree" manufactured by a French-Canadian (american owned) company called B.E.M. costs $14. Upon igniting the item which was really just OK, I looked inside of the tube and discovered a tube about one quarter of the actual mortar's size. This was the actual item...

[David]

It almost seems like a loophole that they are allowed to do that kind of thing. But I guess not.

I'd say about most of the firework buying public base their purchase on the physical size of the firework.

They usually say the number of shots, but even this is changing. Fireworks International do one now which is called " Howling Wolves" , and is labelled as " 36 whistles." Fireworks shops then describe it as " 36 shots.... " . Its not. Its a 12 shot firework, each shot has three different tones.

Edited by David, 24 December 2007 - 01:54 PM.

[Mortartube]

I spoke to a trading standars officer about these "Con Tricks", a few weeks ago. It would appear that there are two sides to the argument, (Mind you he seemed to have the can't be ar*ed attitude). Apparently, there has to be the legal argument put across that it is "An attempt to deceive". So, I could say to the TSO, look at this item, it has a huge cone case and a tiny fountain inside, and the importer could argue that it's for stability of a narrow fountain and not an attempt to decieve the public.

So basically, the customer gets conned and the law doesn't give a damn. I think it's wrong.

Some years ago, cosmetic manufacturers were putting items such as expensive face creams into large containers designed to look as though there was a lot of product inside when the container had a false bottom for instance. The law was changed to stop this and I think it would probably apply with fireworks too.

This really infuriates me as it is a con, there is no need for it. Items from China are ridiculously cheap. I could understand it if the stuff was made in Britain with higher labour costs etc, but not with Oriental stuff.

[David]

This really infuriates me as it is a con, there is no need for it. Items from China are ridiculously cheap. I could understand it if the stuff was made in Britain with higher labour costs etc, but not with Oriental stuff.

I agree. The problem too is that if an item is bulkier/bigger than it needs to be, its going to take up more space and therefore be more expensive/awkward to transport, leading to a higher price for the consumer.

Great Northern Fireworks , to their credit, have a policy of showing a dummy/fired units INCLUDING TUBES alongside the fireworks on display, but this is rare ( I think even unique.)

A simple solution is to look at the NEC ( Net Explosive Content ) of the firework. Epic print this on their receipts, and TNT ( of all people ) include this in their catalogue. As such something like Crazy Horses, which has an NEC of about 1.3KG, is an amazing firework. TNT's " bish Bash bosh" (same price) at an NEC of about 0.4 KG is much worse. For sure, its not an absolute benchmark, but a good guide.



But that said, if Trading Standards don't care, then it looks like its going to get worse before it gets better.

[Mortartube]

I agree with your point about , if an item takes more space, it's dearer to ship. But many items take up a lot of space but the packing is half empty, so it costs the same to ship, space wise but performs poorly.

[MDH]

you wouldn't believe the quality of consumer fireworks in india in comparison, especially for the price. There are fountains which last around 15 seconds and burn at least twelve feet high for about roughly 2 cents (1.1 pence).

[Mortartube]

I have seen some videos of the Indian stuff made by Standard fireworks of India. No relation to our Standard Fireworks AFAIK. They far outshine the consumer stuff in this country in many cases.

[David]

I agree with your point about , if an item takes more space, it's dearer to ship. But many items take up a lot of space but the packing is half empty, so it costs the same to ship, space wise but performs poorly.

Yeah, thats what I'm saying. A window dressed item is bigger, costs more to transport, so that extra cost will be passed on to the consumer.

[David]

Well, I never knew this, but in the USA there is a legal requirment that 500 Gramme cakes ( their biggest ) must have at least half an inch of spacing between tubes- Bob Weavers info page .

This probably explains why some fireworks, including many from the Brothers range, have this space- they are made to a standard design which is designed for the US market.