Garden And Gossip Forums

Has anyone noticed a trend (mainly on FB) of offering regular subscription boxes for all sorts of stuff. Sign up for a half price first box and you find yourself trapped into receiving all manner of overpriced items.
I first spotted them during last year's lockdown, when people couldn't shop easily so companies jumped in to supply the need; a need that they think is still relevant today.

There are several versions of growing veg boxes - some with a few packets of seed, some pots and a block of coir compost - and a similar one with plug plants, pots and compost. The seeds are very basic - radish, cress and lettuce level. Very expensive compared to buying the items yourself.

Today, I saw The Pond Box! Every 2 months they send you some fish food!

There's the Book Subscription - receive 4 random books (that didn't sell well initially) every couple of months.

Then there's the soap/toothpaste/deodorant/beauty stuff. I just want to try one - not sign my life away. How do they know how much deodorant I use when I've no idea how long a stick lasts.
Think I saw a Treats box - some chocolate, biscuits and probably a "Cheer up" card.

Anyway, I'm not envious that I didn't spot a hole in the market, because I've signed up to my own Subscription Box - and its FREE.
Every month, I'll choose a random book from the bookshelf and read it and every week I'll pick a random packet of seeds and sow them. I'm going to save a fortune. 

If you spot any other subscription boxes that I can save money on (by not buying) please let me know.

It smacks of the old Readers Digest mags, once signed up you could never get out of it.
I found one subscription offer I didn't choose to take up when ordering packets of incontinence pants for next door. I could arrange for a regular delivery every few weeks! Thankfully I'm not there yet, but I'm sure that day will come.

A lot of the eco products are also only available with subscription. Very annoying. Like you already said how do they know how much of something I’m going to use?!

I signed up for a coffee one.
It was very expensive and not very nice at all. Took quite a few emails and faffing to get out of it.

My daughter finds it very amusing that her “couple friends” sign up to the cooking boxes.
You know- the ones where they send you 50 grams of this and two teaspoons of that, a bit of cream, a bag of pasta and a small bit of meat. Oh - but it comes with a recipe card!!
She says it costs four or five times more than what it would cost to buy it in the supermarket - AND you still have to cook it yourself.
She can afford to be a little smug though - her new husband loves cooking!

(05-08-2021, 04:53 PM)Small chilli Wrote: [ -> ]A lot of the eco products are also only available with subscription. Very annoying. Like you already said how do they know how much of something I’m going to use?!

...........like Toilet rolls? I can't imagine a box of toilet rolls arriving that is their estimate of how many I'll use in a year!!
How would you feel if you'd used it all in 10 months???

...........like Toilet rolls? I can't imagine a box of toilet rolls arriving that is their estimate of how many I'll use in a year!!
How would you feel if you'd used it all in 10 months???
[/quote]

I have a one word answer of old English origin but as this is a family forum and before the water shed I may get censored.

We'll just use our imagination.

My Book and Seed Subscriptions have started - although they weren't entirely free!!
I've bought Real Seeds "Bountiful Plot Collection" (16 packets of seeds) https://www.realseeds.co.uk/giftcollections.html £36.50. That's about the same as 3 or 4 month's subscriptions to a deal that sends you basic seeds in small quantities. I'll aim to sow some of the seeds every week.
My Book was selected from the top shelf of paperbacks in the spare bedroom, using a Pointy Stick. Its "Sphinx" by TJ Learner, a novel about the discovery of an Ancient Egyptian artefact.

There's a gardening one that makes me scream....not so much a subscription but a gardening pack.

£59 for 5 dahlia tubers and a few packets of seeds - to fill a dahlia bed! It comes with online content to show you how to plant them!
Seriously?? You stick a tuber in a pot or in the ground?
Not only that - some of the seeds were biennial, so wouldn't flower the same year....the cost is huge! For £60 you can by about 30 tubers!!!

# I just checked the seeds out. They aren't biennial. Sorry. But some of them need an early sowing. Receiving Ammi seeds in spring could well mean they are too late!

5 tubers/3 packs of seed could be easily purchased for £15-£20. The mind boggles