Who says big biz has no sense of humour?
Guess who’s buying the baby formula giant! The owner of Durex. That’s all about preparing for the worst, I suppose. Buy me and stop one or if not……….
Yer gorra laff
Who says big biz has no sense of humour?
Guess who’s buying the baby formula giant! The owner of Durex. That’s all about preparing for the worst, I suppose. Buy me and stop one or if not……….
Boadicea's Chariot 
talk about mikling the market for all it’s worth 🙂
Or even “milking” the market 😦
I’m glad you put a caption on the picture, otherwise I would not have known what the product was. The boy was born in Memphis and I always travelled with his supplies not wanting to change his sustenance enroute, so to speak! Needless to say I have no knowledge of any British products for ‘monsters of iniquity’.
(And hearing the horror stories of UK maternity hospitals, I am greatly thankful of no knowledge of them either)
I have to admit to paying excess baggage on a whole large suitcase of disposable nappies as they were not available in the UK at that time. We always went for at least two months during the heat of the Southern summer here, never less than five suitcases, the excess wasn’t too bad in those days, think of the prices now!!! Seems now that the average matchbox over weight costs you $100! The dog went as accompanying baggage for 75.00 sterling. Now it has to have its own weighbill and it costs about 2000! Because you have to have a handling company. I know, we bought two back here in 2009 and the bill was stratospheric
Cheap air flights my left foot!
Do you remember the chinks putting melamine in brats milk? Killed off a few of their own, they put it in American dog food and killed off them too! We always check to buy nothing from that benighted rat hole. I wouldn’t trust a paint company not to put any old rubbish in that stuff either..
These two firms are multinationals and not Chinese! 🙂
Trouble is, multinationals source their products from all over the place, assemble them in one place of higher repute and then label them as ‘produced for’ xxx and attribute the product to that country.
Aldi/Trader Joes does it a lot. A lot of their food is Turkish!! (How poor do you have to be to eat raghead food?)
I spend a lot of time reading labels, apart from dogfood I make everything from scratch because very few food products are traceable these days, Dodge ‘produced for’ like the plague!
If I am to be poisoned, I much prefer to do it myself with fags and booze rather than their choice!
Oh yes, and ready meals, assembled in the UK from Thai chicken, bird flu specials doused in bleach!
CO: Hong Kong faces perpetual infant formula shortages. Mainlanders obtain day-visas to cross into HK in order to buy formula. Hong Kong has Western food safety standards which they vigorously enforce. As with most that is best about Hong Kong, it’s part of the British legacy. Chinese also routinely bring large quantities of formula with them from abroad. It’s no different with the milk they drink. Chinese happily pay 20-30 RMB, £2.35-£3.50 for a litre of UHT milk. In Hunland the same bottle would cost 40p. There are Chinese brands that are far cheaper but Chinese won’t touch them.
If I remember correctly when there was the melamine scandal over the infant formula in China.The government executed the head of the company out of hand No wonder the people won’t buy the stuff even now!
British standards are not what they were. Food inspectors have been cut to the bone and far too much is slipping under the wire. eg the horsemeat scandal being sold as beef.
CO: Nothing new there. Usually the things that are cut are the ones that cause the most damage. The Chinese are aware of the shonkiness of their “safety standards”, etc. That’s why they prefer buying European, Antipodean or even Japanese products. Don’t think that your blessed Sub-Canadian earthly paradise is free of its scandals, however.
First:
Please upgrade me to “author” so that I can occasionally say something original.
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Second:
I am otherwise known as, “spousal unit” (to christinaosborne) but that name was already taken in WordPress. I have finally decided to bite the bullet and sign up with the Charioteers. Some among you may be sorry for extending me an invitation.
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Third: Am Herrn Professor Doktor C. Trier:
Why do you hate the USA as you seem to? Further, why can you not resist expressing your apparent hatred, especially in the way you do? I myself have visited various countries and, inevitably, like some less than others BUT would never dream of insulting those nations or, by extension, any of their residents.
For the record, I am a native-born citizen of the USA married to a British lady. When we married, the primary reason we decided to make our home in the USA was financial (i.e., lower taxes).
I’ve enjoyed reading some of your other postings and had even thought of contriving to meet you during one of your future trips to the USA. If, however, you dislike this country so much, then why bother coming here at all? Shall we see about adding you to the infamous “travel ban” list?
I’m afraid that I do take exception to having the USA referred to as our “blessed Sub-Canadian earthly paradise.” If your intent is to invite comparison with our neighbor to the North, then I should say that, while there are many things I quite like about Canada, it’s not entirely my favorite place on this planet. Nor do I regard the USA as an “earthly paradise.” I recognize that this country has its own shortcomings, of which I’m all too well aware and which, on occasion, I find embarrassing. It’s just that I haven’t yet encountered any with which I’m unwilling to live.
Live long and prosper!
Done, Sir. Please check your e-mail for details. 🙂
Welcome! Cogitationator! Look forward to seeing more of you!
As to the baby formula. Sometime last year, supermarkets here had to ration the sales of the stuff. I think some supermarkets even wanted to see the child! Chinese “entrepreneurs” were buying it in huge quantities and shipping it back to China and making a very nice profit!
cogitationator: Don’t take everything I say at face value. When discussing the US, I frequently blend hyperbole and passive-aggression. I also fail to see how my comments vis-a-vis the United States are any more hostile than CO’s comments vis-a-vis England, Canada or Sweden.
That said, I lived in the US for some time — in California, Hawai’i, Minnesota and, shudder, Idaho for three months. Don’t judge me, it wasn’t voluntary. I have some very fond memories of Hawai’i and Minnesota. California has, unfortunately, become a basket case. It’s a shame because in years past it was actually rather a nice place to live. What can be said about Idaho other than that the only things blander than the potatoes are the people. Some parts of the US are better than others, the US has some good sides and some bad sides. I’ve had some nasty experiences, however, that have coloured my perception of the place and the growing aggro over the past decade has done little to make my more sympathetic. I’ve had more than my share of toxic experiences in the US which have led me to view the country through not very favourable lenses. It’s personal experience, not universal truth.
As for why I travel to the US at all… I do so only because the female-type parent lives in California. The male-type parent was born and raised in the Golden State, although he now lives in some rubbish suburb of Spokane. (There goes your hope of putting me on a travel ban-list) The female-type parent carved a comfortable niche for herself in the Motherlode (eastern-central California) and intends to stay permanently. Not that she has much choice, she took a US passport a few years ago. She’s happy with her life in the USA, I am content enough in a muddled sort of way with life back home in Europe.
I agree with you about Canada. It’s a pleasant enough country with much to commend it, but it can be decidedly strange at times. By all accounts it’s become nauseatingly PC under Trudeau the Lesser.
Presutagus: Done. Thank you!
But, “Sir?” Aww… (blush, shuffle).
Cog (dontchya just love short-forms?), welcome from me too. Your Churchillian use of prepositions in their rightful places warms the cockles. But get off my post about baby food and contraceptives with your irrelevancies, please, sir. 🙂
Only today, the new chief of the Met Police was named: Cressida Dick. Yes, Dick as in investigator! Marvellous.