h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

s**t; I've not been moderated for ages Oh, you never know, perhaps another day ...
"share and enjoy"

Did you just get moderated for slating Nestlé? That seems a bit unfair! Maybe the BBC and Nestlé are in it together!

Hmm, can't see why that* would lead ot moderation.: All the pages on here have the little thing at hte bottom about the views experessed not being those of the BBC.
So, I could say "Nescafe is the most disgusting coffee I've ever tasted in my life, bearing so little reseemblence to the coffee bean, as to make me wonder if It actually contains any coffee at all"
Its just an opinion, and isn't the view of the BBC; hence why would anything like that, or simular need to be moderated?
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I'm reminded of what my namesake said in The Third Man. "In Switzerland they had five hundred years of brotherly love and what did they produce...The Cuckoo Clock!" What else would you expect from a Swiss corporation. I believe KitKat id the biggest selling confectionary ib the Uk with sales of hundreds of millions of pounds a year. If those sales were significantly reduced I'm sure the gmomes of Zurich would see things a little differently.

This post has been removed.

Moderated post rewritten. Apologies if I offended anyone first time round.

I find it difficult to reconcile in my head that someone would clamber to add an extra .1 percent on their bottom line even though that could potentially mean the death of hundreds, perhaps even thousands of people. Last time I mentioned this I got called 'self-rightious' but it's true: if you buy certain products from a number of unnamed transnational organisations, you're intimately involved in the exploitation and, according to some protesters, the deaths of other people. The people who have picked coffee for so many years, earning less that $100 per year, and are now starving thanks to the failure of their crops, may be far removed from our kitchens but we are conspirators in their misfortune - their labour subsidises our consumption. And until enough people tell companies that put profit before lives to put their brands where the sun don't shine, it will go on.

"I believe KitKat id the biggest selling confectionary ib the Uk"

Ib fact, it id'nt any more. Until recently, you'd have been right. It's recently been overtaken by a competitor...

H.

I can't stand the suspense...out with it!!!!!

They could probably do with the extra profits, as sales of their leading chocolate brand, Kit-Kat, have crashed in the UK. There is talk of a 30% dip in sales.

The reason for this is they went and monkeyed around with the packaging. No longer is it a two part thing with the silver foil and the loop of a paper wrapper around it. It is now a one piece aluminised plastic wrapper just like so many other chocolate bars on the market.

What Nestle didn't realise when they made this decision was that the old style wrapping was one of the attractions for the customer. People would play with it before eating the wafer and it was part of the whole Kit-Kat experience for them. Now the product is just a chocolate wafer no more, no less and much less attractive to the customer. Nestle have successfully killed what was their biggest selling item and the leading brand in the UK confectionary market

* waves to Hoovooloo *

Oo, I've been, sort of, ed I used ot love the old wrapping on the kit kats....

Fascinating though the deliberation on the repacjaginf of KitKat is, all I can add before returning to the main Topic (geddit?) is: Yup. I used to love running a fingernail along the foil between the fingers - very satisfying.
But I haven't bought any Nestles stuff for years because of the formula milk policy and the exploitation thing generally (and you do have to look closely on some things to see the logo at all - very suspicious).

Interestingly Oxfam are now counselling against a boycott because of the effect it would have on the economy of Ethiopia and whatever other impoverished countries Nestle may ply its trade in. Oxfam had 8,500 e-mails in one day protesting about this, and Nestles have (sort of) backed down - who says protesting doesn't work?!
I'm not sure demanding the money but promising to reinvest it in the country is my idea of backing down, though.

One thing I don't understand:
How come Nestles can claim compensation for a company that had already been nationalised when they bought the parent company? They must have known and taken it into account in the price paid, and if not they should be claiming compensation from their own accountants, surely?!

Damn, and I was about to criticise 2 legs command of the keyboard too!!!

what did I do? "share and enjoy"

Oops, moderated. That post, by the way, was totally tongue in cheek.

I thought Oxfam were still pushing at Nestle?
http://www.maketradefair.com/default.asp

I began boycotting Nestle in real earnest (if you know what I mean) when I began breastfeeding. I went looking at some of the stuff that they put out in other countries promoting formula milk - stuff that they could be prosecuted for in this country - why should I do anything to support it?

Me not buying a jar of Branston pickle may not make much difference, but I have the right to give my money to companies who do not offend me *quite* so much. I *don't* want to put Nestle out of business and make their workers redundant, I want them to reform their policies...

...here, Hoo, lend us ten quid, I want to buy a book

If anyone is about to do their Christmas food shopping, Baby Milk Action (http://www.babymilkaction.org/pages/products.html) provide this list of Nestle-related brands:

Nestlé UK Product List (main brands)

Coffee - Nescafé including:

Alta Rica
Black Gold
Blend 37
Cap Colombie
Cappuccino
Decaff
Expresso
Fine Blend
Gold Blend
Kenjara
Nes
Organic

Dairy products

Carnation
Chambourcy
Coffee-Mate
Extreme Viennois
Fussells
Ideal
LC1
Simply Double
Tip-Top

Confectionery & snacks

Aero
After Eights
Animal Bar
Baci Chocolate
Black Magic
Blue Riband
Breakaway
Caramac
Chocolate Cuisine
Dairy Box
Dairy Crunch
Drifter
Fab
Fox's Glacier Mints
Fruit Pastilles
Henri Nestlé Collection
Jellytots
Kit Kat
Kit Kat Chunky
Lion Bar
Lyons Maid Ice Cream
Matchmakers
Maxibon
Milky Bar
Munchies
Polo
Quality Street
Rolo
Rowntrees Fruit Gums
Smarties
Toffee Crisp
Toffo
Tooty Frooties
Walnut Whip
Willy Wonka
Yorkie

Contact lens care

Alcon
Seasonings

Dufrais
Maggi
Sarsons

Mineral water

Ashbourne
Buxton
Contrexéville
Perrier
Vittel

Other drinks

Build-up
Libby's juices
Milo
Nesquik
Nestea
Um Bongo

Processed meals

Bonne Cuisine
Buitoni pasta & canned foods
Crosse & Blackwell
Lean Cuisine
Rowntrees Jellies
Waistline Spreads & Pickles
Branston Pickle
Gales honey
Sun-Pat
Tartex vegetable patés in tubes

Cereals

Cinnamon Grahams
Cheerios
Coco
Shreddies
Fibre 1
Force
Frosted Shreddies
Golden Grahams
Golden Nuggets
Honey Nut Cheerios
Shredded Wheat including: Bitesize, Fruitful, Honey Nut
Shreddies

Cosmetics

Biotherm
Cosmence
Lancome
L'Oreal
Maybelline
Metamorphosis
Plénitude

Pet Foods

Arthur's
Felix
Friskies
Go-Cat
Go-dog
Spiller's
Winalot

What you choose to do with this list is entirely your own decision and on your own conscience

Well, I haven't seen dairy crunch in the shops (round here) or years; I'd be forced to buy some if i did and brandstone pickle.... I might have tohave some whilst at my fathers, but I can guarentee it will be a bottle at least five years old as to the rest of it don't really come across much, cept perhaps the kit kat, and there are an awful lot of choc in the world

...I figure a great many of us will have either Quality Street or After Eights waved under our noses in the next 12 days....

I think that a few years back World in Action did a programme exposing the conditions of tea workers in the sub-continent. As a result the big tea companies improved conditions and put the price of tea up. But nobody minded because they knew where the cash was going maybe we need a bit more of seventies liberalism and less of eighties cynicism.