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The Hamper Debate

The Story of the Traditional Christmas Hamper

A man walks into the office and exclaims how unusual it is to see a “hamper company” busy when it isn’t Christmas time.

“Yes, that’s because we’re not really a hamper company,” is our reply.

“Don’t be silly,” he says, “you make hampers and so you must be a hamper company. If you’re not a hamper company, then what are you?”

“We’re a Euro Style Gift Basket Company.”

He laughs and says that there is no difference. A hamper here is referred to as a gift basket in America. It’s still the same thing.

"Is it?", we say: “A hamper in Ireland was traditionally a charitable gift given at Christmas time and tended to be a variety of groceries, which were packed in a box and filled with foods, of quite distinctly average taste. A Gift Basket accentuates Gourmet food products and places significant emphasis on the presentation, packaging and service.”

“I did hampers a couple of years ago he tells me. We were asked by one of the local banks to make up a hamper for display at each of their branches.”

I tell him that he must have made a lot of money doing them and he said yes that he did!

I suggest a figure and he looks surprised at how close I am to his profit. “How did you know?”

“Because they were rubbish!”

“How do you know that? “

“I saw them. If they are the ones that I remember seeing at the branch of the bank in question. I remember thinking how naff they looked.”

He looks a little disappointed, which surprises me!
“Of course they were poor, you made a ton of money and had no accountability for what you put in them. You simply put in as many things of indeterminate quality as you could safe in the knowledge that nobody could argue that it wasn’t a hamper. For you a Christmas Hamper was a collection of various food items thrown into a wicker container. How could you possibly have produced anything worthwhile, when you didn't know what you were doing? ”

When I was there, the hamper looked tired, disorganised and had nothing in it, that I’d have been excited about opening. So I wonder to myself what was the point?

He asks what we’d have done differently.

We’d have given them a Gift Basket. It would have been themed, contained the best products in the land, been properly packaged and carefully designed. Whoever received the prize would have used the products and would have understood that after consuming just 1 or 2 items that they had something genuinely worth winning.
Most importantly we’d have put our name to it. After all if you are going to offer better value and quality, then you want your brand to be associated with it.

Our customers are individuals. They want to send a gift to friends and family in Ireland, Britain and in Europe. Many have Irish ancestry. They want their gift to be of impeccable taste and great value for money. They want their gift basket to be commented upon and enjoyed. When customers have the hamper delivered to themselves, it never ceases to surprise us how often the basket is referred to as surprisingly good.

Clearly the reputation of the hamper industry in the UK has suffered from years of short term exploitation by people who spotted an opportunity to make a quick buck on a local basis. The Online Gift companies set up in Ireland in the early part of this decade have helped to change that.

The competition online is immense, but each of us is striving to create a better service and a better quality of hamper for all to enjoy. Basketsgalore does indeed create food hampers, but only when they are made with Gift Basket Style & Panache. We simply won’t put our name to anything less!

Basketsgalore Ireland

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