Ameer Kotecha

Save our sweet shops

Who wants to click for their pick ’n’ mix?

  • From Spectator Life
[Alamy]

There are only so many times I can watch Lord Sugar swivelling in his chair and reusing put-downs from three seasons ago before enough’s enough, so I’ve dropped in and out of the latest series of The Apprentice. But one contestant that has caught my eye is Victoria Goulbourne, the flight attendant turned online sweet shop owner (note: not sweat shop, despite what one unfortunate online review might say) from Merseyside. And while I pass no judgment on her business acumen, it did get me thinking: what a miserable thing an online sweet shop must be.

Victoria’s company markets itself as the ‘UK’s most Instagrammable pick ’n’ mix’. Quite apart from why sweets that belong in your gob needs to be camera-friendly, it was the selection that left me wondering. Plenty of chicken feet and vegan meerkats, but not a rhubarb and custard in sight. It also probably goes without saying that gone are the days of £1 a quarter.

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