Today’s blog is about what advent calendars you should NOT buy (AND) unfortunately, there are many of these.
The first category is advent calendars, which go on sale on January 1st or around that time. I would include the expensive calendars such as Creme de la Mars Calendar, 111 Skin and Doctor Barbara Strum, as well as the Net a Porter calendar.
- Dr Barbara Strum was £450 reduced to £260
- Creme de la Mar was £450 reduced to £315
- Net a porter calendar was £260, reduced by 40% to £156.
A lot of these calendars are quite helpfully still on the net a Porter website.
It is difficult to tell which calendars are overstocked, BUT my hypothesis is that if the calendar repeats the same content 2-3 years in a row, OR if its the FIRST year a brand introduces a calendar, then its bound to be overstocked. Its cheaper for brands to buy in bulk and they will overstock.
Second category, relates to own brand calendars. E.g. Molton Brown, Elemis and Bobbi Brown.
With these calendars, the contents change every year.
Ask yourself, how many of the 15-20 products that they sell are you really going to use. Elemis include multiple skincare products – but they are taragetted at different age groups and skincare concerns.
So, if you are only going to use (say) 5 of these at an average cost of (e.g.) £50, then the cost of the calendar to you is really just about £150.
The third category is literally those types of calendars that are completely UNrecyclable – a good example is the Fortnum & Mason calendar.
What are you seriously going to do with this calendar once its emptied of its contents?