Manchester Christmas Markets prices rise again with £9.50 sausages, as stallholders point to rent hikes

20 comments

1. Same here in Nottingham too, pretty much, £7.50-£9.00 for small portions of average food, no one forces you to buy it ofc and I don’t, but the market just becomes a bit of inconvenience more than anything.

   Also, there’s a “fudge and toffee” stall, it’s basically large chunks of differently coloured icing, it’s not fudge or toffee at all. I went to a sweetshop in Matlock Bath a few months ago thinking it would be better, also shit.

   Why isn’t Starmer doing anything about the decline in this country’s homemade fudge and toffee industry…

2. And so it came to pass that the Lord descended into the heart of Manchester, and He set His gaze upon the market’s offerings. His eyes fell upon a stall bedecked in false splendor, whereupon lay a sausage, thick and greasy, shoved between two pieces of bread that were as pale and lifeless as ash. He examined this creation with disdain, and His heart grew heavy with wrath.

   “Behold this wretched thing!” He thundered, His voice like rolling thunder across the heavens. “This sausage, foul and slick with gristle, is as a worm bred in darkness. It is over-salted, shriveled as the dry husk, bearing neither flavor nor honor, a disgrace to those who labor for their daily bread. And this bread, dry and stale as the desert’s dust, without life or warmth—it breaketh apart like crumbling clay, offering no solace to the hungry nor joy to the weary.”

   With fury burning like a blazing furnace, He proclaimed, “What madness is this, that such a paltry thing, this sausage of unclean fat and sinew, this bread unfit even for the fowl of the air, should be charged at £9.50? I gave manna freely unto My people in the wilderness, yet here you would take the food of paupers and charge for it as though it were My finest lamb.”

   The Lord’s anger surged, fierce as the lightning that cleaves the sky. “Ye would peddle refuse as treasure and mock the hunger of My people! This sausage is but a mockery, a deceit; it is not fit even for the stray beasts of the field. And this bread, lifeless and cold, is as the dust of bones, fit only for the worms of the earth. Such is the arrogance and greed of this generation, who dare to defile My bounty by wringing profit from what is an insult to the very earth that bore it.”

   And so He declared, “Woe unto thee, merchants of avarice, for your greed hath risen like a stench before Me. Let your stalls be as barren as the desert; let your profits wither as a leaf in the flame, for I, the Lord, shall not abide this offense against both body and soul.”

   And the heavens grew dark with His anger, and all who heard trembled, for they knew that the Lord’s justice would not sleep, and that even the humblest meal was sacred unto Him.

   Amen.

3. Not been to one since going to winter wonderland in Hyde park and spending £10 on an inedible hot dog. Such a con.

   The cost of business is just too high. It will kill commerce.

   What a mess.

   I guess there is no reason why the business model has to work. There is no reason the economy as a whole has to work.

   Maybe it doesn’t..

   Maybe it can’t

   Depressing

4. The markets will end up pricing themselves out of business, because Manchester Council are being too fucking greedy. They’ve long since lost the novelty they once had – a nice evening of hot chocolate, gluhwein and stodgy sandwiches in the cold – and just feel very franchise-based.

   You see the same stalls at different markets in different towns, selling the same things. Which is fine, if it’s priced accordingly, but they still try to sell you on a unique aspect that doesn’t exist. For the life of me, I can’t understand how some of the stalls even make enough to cover the rent of their pitch. How many people are buying a (supposedly) handmade, wicker handbag or a Boba Fett made out of scrap metal?

5. Christmas markets suck now, at least the ones in big cities. This is the same in parts of Europe too — I’ve been to one in Belgium that is just the same. They are just selling mass produced overpriced tat.

6. They used to be an exciting, festive novelty, now it’s a profit-focussed inconvenience

7. Was thinking of going in a week or so but yeh… might go and just find a decent restaurant instead

8. I feel like many people just go to them cause its “the in thing” to do and a good excuse for an Instagram photo op…

   Its like the christmas version of paying to drag a toddler round a muddy field to pick a pumpkin you then have to pay through the nose for, on top of all the overpriced extras.

9. Even CMOT, (Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler) would struggle with slinging his pig adjacent products at £10 a pop

10. Everything keeps rising in price, except petrol. Artifically kept down to 2009 levels at a cost of tens of billions to the treasury and councils every year by The Conservatives and now continued by Labour.

11. What a suprise, UK redditors don’t like christmas markets.

12. Clearly the demand for this over priced food is there or they wouldn’t bother. At least with luxury goods like this you have a choice as to whether you pay or not. I’d rather just buy a good pack of Bratwurst and some buns and cook my own.

13. 9.50 ! Maybe they’ll get enough suckers to buy their £10 sausages this is not viable pricing to me. This isn’t fine food where you can say youre paying extra for quality, its cheap generic sausage in an equally cheap roll..

    The bubble has to burst on this rent cost at some point if not one can afford to operate under it surely, its not very realistic

14. It’s the same everywhere.

    The same drab sheds dragged out of storage, erected as quickly and cheaply as possible with a metal frame commercial gazebo over the top to insure against the shite weather. Luke warm spiced wine for £11, ‘German’ sausages for £11, insert more crap here £11.

    But, I will enjoy a sausage and a beer at the Exeter market in December. So they’re doing something right.

15. Stop buying, it’s not hard, most that food just gives you the squirts anyway lol

16. Having been to Christmas Markets in Europe and the UK, the ones in Europe are light years ahead

17. My GF is a self employed realism pencil artist. Her stuff is truly amazing (yes I’m biased, but it still is). The pitch fee for the Christmas market she’s been to for almost the past decade has gone up from £700 to £2200 in the past 3 years.

    At those prices it just invites larger businesses like pet food subscription companies and tat resellers. Last year there were 4 cheese sellers and 2 Turkish delight stands selling the exact same products. She’s even thinking of reducing her prices to try and get more sales just to cover costs.

    It’s the council running the show that’s leeching the life out of it and pushing out real artisans, makers, and traders.

    Edit: words

18. I guess they have to pay for the armed police somehow. Remember back in the 90’s when we could enjoy Christmas markets without the need for barriers & armed police.

    Those were the days eh!

19. Manchester Christmas markets, make the city centre like a zombie style walking zone, people walking really slow, all over the city as the stalls take up most of the paths and the city is even busier with cities from other towns and cities.

    The Christmas used to just be near the town hall and then the council got greedy.

20. Prices are always going to up – after all, we don’t want deflation.

    The issue as ever will be whether all our wages are rising. Which just hasn’t happened since 2009.

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