I was in DaffyDownDilly the other day looking at the fabulous selection of sweets.
Along with the American candy and other confectionery gifts we offer our customers when I noticed a very nice lady with a little girl who was choosing sweets to buy with her pocket money. After about 10 minutes this little girl finally made her choice. She walked over to the jar of Jelly Babies that was sitting on the shelf, reached up and grabbed the jar. (It was nearly as big as she was). Then took it over to the counter and passed it to Lucy, our talented retail apprentice, who duly weighed out the 100g she requested.
The little episode recounted above made me reflect on how little some things in sweet shops have changed over the years. Apart from the fact that the little girl asked for ‘100g’ instead of ‘a quarter’. And paid in decimal coinage rather than pounds, shillings or old pence, has anything else changed that much? She chose Jelly Babies that have been around in one form or another for over 100 years. And looking around our shop, many products have become traditional standards too, or classed as ‘retro’.
However, although some confectionery products haven’t changed, other things have changed big-time!
DaffyDownDilly has made a remarkable change to the traditional image of a shop selling sweets. One tends to think of such a shop as being dark and dreary with a couple of dozen dusty bottles on the shelves. Not any more though! A visit to DaffyDownDilly in Sidmouth is an enlightening experience. With bright lights, cheerful colours, lively music and a fantastic selection of literally hundreds of exciting products to choose from. Each of our staff is trained to provide excellent, good old fashioned service where the customer is always right. And treated to a memorable shopping experience. This modern sweet shop appearance has proved to be incredibly popular with customers from all age groups. Who regularly express their compliments about the shop’s image; and the Chamber of Commerce even awarded the shop ‘Best New Enterprise 2015’.
Returning to the subject of Jelly Babies. I learned that having been invented in 1864 and called “unclaimed babies” they were produced by Bassett’s in Sheffield in 1918. And marketed in the UK as Peace Babies to commemorate the end of the First World War, before being re-launched with their new name in the 1950s.
Jelly Babies have quite a varied and interesting history too.
They were a favorite sweet of the Beetle, George Harrison, and consequently the group’s fans used to pelt the band with them at group concerts!
They also made regular appearances in the Doctor Who television series when in various incarnations the Doctor offered them as sort of peace offerings to diffuse various tense situations.
It is without a doubt that Jelly Babies are very firmly established as one of Britain’s favourite sweets. If you haven’t tasted them recently you’re missing out! So get yourself down to DaffyDownDilly immediately and treat yourself to 100g! Failing that, visit www.daffydowndilly.co.uk and have them delivered directly to your door. Along with any of your other sweets treats or gifts from our online sweet shop.
Happy tasting,
DaffyDownDilly
